A life choice dilemma

Finally I've arrived home after having spent about 4 and a half hours sitting on the locally manufactured bricks at Maningrida airport terminal. Although I am impressed that they make their own... I am not so satisfied with them as a day bed!

(Maningrida Bricks, Glad I didn't have to sleep on them!)

I've just spent a day at Elcho Island, where I had to go as part of my work. It kills me to think that I'm flying all that way just for one day! I'm trying to live simply and in the process reduce my carbon emissions, I ride my bicycle everywhere around town yet here I am jumping on a damned plane and flying across the country like some kind of jet-setting wanker executive! Or actually a lot more like the hundreds, possibly thousands of contract laborers, (and qualified tradesmen of course) who fly in and fly out of remote communities every week! It sucks and it kind of makes me sick to think about how ridiculous the situation is! Don't get me wrong, I do like flying and I really like visiting the people and staying in Arnhem land Communities but it's just not sustainable and besides my job simply isn't so important that it should require me to travel like this... yet here I go again! Anyway, I was on my way home this morning when the plane had technical difficulties and we had to wait for someone to come from Darwin to fix it. four hours later and we're wondering if we'll ever leave.
If the aroma of burning av gass and the sound of screaming engines turned me on then today would have been a real treat! Unfortunately I was kind of keen to get back to Darwin to see my wife and kids and to throw myself into sweat labor down at the Mulch Pit! It was possibly some kind of a blessing that I shouldn't complain about but I did have other plans and wasn't feeling terribly philosophical about the delay... at first.


Having recently read 'Radical Simplicity: small footprints on a finite Earth', by Jim Merkel (who happens to be an ex military weapons developer and trader) I am well aware that this trip alone has completely engulfed any fuel I would have used driving to work throughout the year...
The book is interesting but Jim lost me with all the calculations! Even if I was into maths I don't think I'd ever enjoy scrutinizing my consumption to the extent that he advocates. It just isn't fun! Anyway since I've read the book and now have a hundred formulas for finding out exactly how many planets it would take to sustain my consumption of resources. I am seriously reconsidering what I do for a living and how I can find a more acceptable way to put bread on the table.

There are several positive aspects to my work, which I shouldn't take for granted. I come in contact with some amazing and inspiring people.I have learned so much from them that I always balk at the decision to leave. It's a very peculiar problem... to leave would feel like deserting my family... actually because of the Yolngu system of adoption and Malk it would be exactly like deserting my family... and that is the biggest dilemma! So I guess I'll stick with it for a while.


(A very healthy cashew, hidden in a jungle)

The thing that has really been firing me up lately is my interest in learning more about growing food. How shared gardens can actually build resilient and caring communities! It might sound a bit mooshy but this is something that energizes me! Nightcliff Uniting Church has recently taken the extraordinary step of  employing a Permaculturist to coordinate activities at The Mulch Pit! I think that's an amazing and thing to do! A community that runs on the smell of an oily rag has deemed it's appropriate to employ someone to develop their permaculture garden! That's awesome!
I recently spent some time with Dan, and was instantly infected with his love for plants, soil and everything that lives in a permaculture system! I've always been interested and my minor involvement down at the The Patch gave me a sense of why I think it's such a special thing to do but now that I've been talking to Dan at the Mulch Pit, and having just spent 4 hours reading our mate Robbie Lloyd's book 'Going Walkabout through the Suburbs' (about creating inclusive societies) I'm thinking that now is the time for me to start studying permaculture.


(Timothy with his banana and sugar cane plantation)


Meanwhile back on Elcho this morning I was fortunate to spend time with the Community Minister, Timothy Buthimang, my Mari. Timothy is a devoted gardener and a Uniting Church 'Community Minister', although he can illustrate many things through the metaphor of gardening, he is a man of action and wisdom... a Worrier of the Spirit who is a living demonstration of the power of wuburr (sweat) to overcome adversity! His lessons provide real fruit! Timothy has maintained a garden of some description for many years. Recently Buthimang's farm/plantation was burned by a wildfire, but he showed me this morning that he has reclaimed the garden from the ashes and now has some very healthy banana and sugar cane growing in the ground. He has pots full of Pawpaw seedlings and various melon varieties as well. Having spent time with Timothy, I know what I need to be doing.

So here's to gardening tomorrow!

That Broken Jaw Street

This week I learned something new...
While attending a public forum held by the Uniting Church Northern Synod I discovered that Darwin is the Broken Jaw capital of the world!

The public forum was about the effects of alcohol on our society. At this forum I discovered that I'm not the only one who has questioned the meaning of the phrase "Antisocial behavior", which is constantly touted by politicians and media... When I first heard this phrase used I naively assumed it would apply all kinds of behaviors that are considered to be 'anti-social' or diminish the safety and freedom of others.... I thought it would definitely apply to the drunken aggressive louts who sprawl out of clubs and swilling joints, or maybe the marauding groups of teenagers who threaten folks who are unlucky enough to be outdoors when they pass. However here in the NT the Phrase is actually code for a particular group of people.

Here in the NT if you hear the phrase Antisocial behavior don't assume that it is referring to any particular behaviour at all. Although there is a local assumption that it is code for Public Aboriginal Drunkenness, I believe it is actually interpreted to mean the presence of Aboriginal people gathered in Public places! Paradoxically if you are an Aboriginal person and happen to be sitting under a tree with your friends and think that you are engaged in a 'social' activity you could find yourself receiving government sanctioned harassment from the police!

I saw a great example of Antisocial Behavior laws being enacted down at the Nightcliff foreshore a few months ago! It was a busy Sunday afternoon at the Beachfront Hotel. I was playing with my wife and kids at a playground near the rapid creek footbridge just opposite the Hotel and there were several small groups of Aboriginal people sitting quietly in the shade of various trees around the park. The hotel was hosting a 'Bikini Bucking Bull' competition and the place was overflowing with drunken men and women all gathered to watch young women bounce around on one of those electronic Bulls in their bikinis! It was a rowdy and drunken scene. semi naked people were spilling out onto the footpath there was a lot of bad language and it was getting a bit rough. we decided to take the kids to a quieter park when three police cars and an ambulance turned up. The ambulance went straight to the Hotel where intoxicated people were being treated... I'm not sure if their injuries were caused by fighting or the electronic bull... The police cars however did something strange... Instead of attending to the messy scene at the hotel, they drove into the park. About 6 officers approached the groups of Aboriginal people sitting in the park. They turned out their bags, searched their belongings for alcohol and told them to move on!
If you have any question about what Antisocial behaviour means check out the Alcohol restricted areas along Nightcliff foreshore on Australia day! There is an obvious assumption that restrictions apply only to Indigenous people. If a bunch of white folk choose to take their Eskie down to the foreshore to celebrate their Australianess by getting drunk and eating sausages with sauce, nothing could be considered more acceptable or social... police will just cruise on by. However if the cops come across a group of Indigenous people doing the very same thing on the very same day... How is that interpreted?

It's alright if you're white but "If you're Black you'd might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat" (Bob Dylan - Hurricane)


While at the forum I also learned that I live in the Broken Jaw Capital of The World! Apparently predominantly caused by alcohol fueled violence! (predominantly caused by non indigenous drunken behavior)

It is a busy time for me at work at the moment and a big part of my job involves running errands and escorting visitors around. Sometimes I have to help people find relatives who have come to Darwin and are possibly in the Long Grass or living on the streets. After the forum one of the ladies who was attending from Derby W.A asked if I could take her to "that Broken Jaw Street?"
I wasn't sure at first what she was referring to but then I figured it out... There is one street in Darwin that is renowned for the antics of intoxicated people with bad attitudes, it is a place of drunkenness which often leads to the violence responsible for the over abundance of Broken Jaws our town appears to be famous for.

My friend's reference to the street was quite prophetic so from now on I think it's time to re-name Darwin's Mitchel Street! Let's call it like we see it! The "Broken Jaw Street" sounds right to me. Actually maybe we should rename the whole tourist precinct? Just as a certain neighborhood in San Francisco known as the "Tenderloin" is considered a somewhat dangerous place, maybe we should now refer to the Darwin Tourist precinct as "The Broken Jaw"!