August 6 – Indigenous culture, aquaculture and banana production

Mt. Uncle Distillery – Phil Barlow’s home 

Today we are visited Beta Barra in the morning,  Mt. Uncle Distillery in the afternoon,  and in the evening we will be visited Phil Barlow’s home. At Phil Barlow’s home we will got an introduction  into his life and family, attended a didgeridoo workshop and had a boomerang lesson. We also had the special opportunity to purchase a didgeridoo and a boomerang.

Beta Barra

Beta Barra is a local fish farm whose name is a pun of the Barramundi fish. Beta Barra is not an organic fish farm. However, they said that they only use salt and avoid using chemicals  and the like. The owner of the fish farm told us that in Australia farmers generally try to be sustainable when they are farming. I found this statement very interesting that although a farm is not organic they are still practicing in a way that considers the environment and is sustainable.

Where they kept the fish.

Mt. Uncle Distillery

The Mt. Uncle Distillery is located in the Cairns Highlands on Mt. Uncle ( which is where it got its name from). It was quite a contrast to  Beta Bara because it is a corporate farm that produces 1.8 bunches of bananas a year. Aside from bananas they also produce avocados.  The climate there is so  tropical and sunny that there is no surprise that it is considered the best climate in the world by the National Geographic. The company, like Beta Bara, is not organic. The owner told us that going organic is not realistic for the business due to the number of pests the crops receive. I think that it is very interesting how the business is thinking about the environmental aspect and the economic aspect of sustainability.

Credits: http://www.mtuncle.com/BRIDGES-CAFE.4.0.html,http://www.mtuncle.com/MT-UNCLE-DISTILLERY.3.0.html

Mt. Uncle Distillery

Kelly in front of Bridges Cafe where we ate lunch at the Mt. Uncle Distillery

Phil ‘s Home

I thought that the meeting with Phil , an aboriginal man, and his family was very interesting. First of all, we practiced throwing boomerangs and then we headed inside to have a discussion with Phil about his life and other issues affecting the aboriginal community. After that we ate a traditional meal that was cooked in the ground! After that we tried our best to play the didgeridoo. Finally, Phil gave all of us spirit animals ( mine was a crocodile) and we said our goodbyes. I will never forget the experience I had.

Me and Phil !

Where the food was cooked !

Boomerang

“A boomerang is a bent or curved piece of tough wood used by the Australian Aborigines as a throwing club, one which can be thrown  so as to return to  the thrower”. ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/boomerang+) . The word translates to mean ” a throwing stick that returns “.  Although boomerangs were used as a hunting weapon long ago  today it is used mainly for sports and recreation . ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang) . I remember throwing a  fake toy boomerang as a child with my sisters ! Regardless of whether you are hunting or playing sports it is important to have the right throwing technique. The most efficient  throw consists of  vertical and straight movements instead of horizontal and flat ones. Always use your right hand to throw a boomerang properly.  Grab it tightly near  its edges. (http://www.ehow.com/info_8725013_australian-boomerangs.html) .   We learned how to make a boomerang today.  Click on the following link for easy step by step instructions on how to make one! ( http://www.ehow.com/how_8616521_make-australian-boomerang.html)

 ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Boomerang.jpg/300px-Boomerang.jpg)

Didgeridoo

“A didgeridoo is a deep toned native Australian wind instrument made from a long hollowed-out piece of wood” ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/didgeridoo). Though  the Aboriginal people’s oral tradition says  that the musical instrument has been used for over 40,000 years , the earliest recorded use of the instrument ( which was  in the form of a Northern Australian rock art that depicted the didgeridoo) appears to only 1,500 years ago. The didgeridoo plays a major part in the Aboriginal culture as well as in Aboriginal music. A notable example of this is that the instrument is used in the corroboree, a traditional song and dance ceremony in which the Aborigines communicate with the mythical world of Dreamtime). The love for the didgeridoo soon leaped its way into the Western world thanks to twentieth century interest in the instrument and in 1953 it was featured in its first commercial recording titled , ” Tribal Music of Australia”, by Australian anthropologist, A.P. Elkin. Soon after that Trevor Jones became the first non-Aboriginal musician to record with a didgeridoo.  By the 1990’s mass produced didgeridoo’s were available worldwide.  Today you can find the instrument fused into many other genres even Celtic music! (http://www.ehow.com/about_5143601_didgeridoos-history.html)    We learned how to make a didgeridoo today. Click on the link below to learn how to make one for yourself! ( http://www.ehow.com/how_2029400_make-didgeridoo.html) 

Learning to play the didgeridoo

We really enjoyed our time spent at the farm and the distillery and we will never forget the memorable visit to Phil’s house! 

– Kelechi

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