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  ZAZAS (06/04/09)

  At the risk of sounding like a nag..................you need to be careful mixing alcohol with your meds. Trip sounds great,, glad you had a nice time.When are you posting the pictures.
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  ZAZAS (05/30/09)

  Please be careful out there. Don't go hot dogging on the dirt roads. (ol)
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  ZAZAS (05/30/09)

  Good, have fun and bring back lots of pictures. I will be looking forward to seeing them.
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  ZAZAS (05/29/09)

  Glad to see you posting pictures again. Love the ones you just posted.
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  ZAZAS (05/29/09)

  Hey there. Hope you have a great weekend.. I commented on your last journal.
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  StephElixson (05/24/09)

  HEY MY OLD FRIEND. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU!. I MISS YOU SO MUCH! MUAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  earthwalker (05/13/09)

  I absolutely loved what you sent me yesterday. I didn't skip a bit. I really enjoyed your description of your "French Odyssey", bit of a wild one aren't you! I was also really interested in the pinion/pinon trees you have on your allotment, I found a great article on Mother Earth News so I learnt a bit more about them, not just a beautiful tree, but a source of heat, building material and food, great stuff. The work you have done within your community is just so valuable. I can understand how your Clan feels about the casino industry. Doesn't do much good to anyone really, just helps to promote more misery. We have one casino here in Burswood, just near the city of Perth, I think their busiest day is when people get their social security payment....very sad, such a false environment, all flashing lights, no clocks, no windows. I have been a couple of times, when it first opened, and when we have had houseguests, I don't go anymore (Cosimo has to take them and he's not really into it either). I just find it a very uncomfortable place to be, the fact my maternal grandfather was a gambling man, probably has a lot to do with it. Our Aboriginal people are amazing....they are as you said elusive to a degree and very damaged by our influence. Just recently another remote community has pressured for all alcohol consumed off licensed premises to be "reduced alcohol" (I think it cannot be more than 2.5%). This win for our native people has been brought about by pressure from elders, particularly the women. The alcohol problems in remote and urban communities are devastating, many Aboriginal children are being born with foetal alcohol syndrome and massive health and social problems arise due to substance abuse. The main "poison" alcohol, followed by petrol and solvent abuse (glue and paint). When I worked in social security when my kids were little, my heart would break when I went to get in my car at the end of my shift....The carpark was in a quiet spot and I used to put my vehicle under a clump of trees to keep the sun off....the Aboriginal kids never vandalised my car, but all around were takeaway boxes with holes punched in the top, straws sticking out and filled with glue and chrome paint...Some of them were as young as nine, and instead of a "milk mustache" like little kids get, these kids had silver paint smeared around their top lip. I think the hundreds of years of isolation from the rest of the world, did not equip their bodies for what we brought with us ....viruses, infections, STD's and our alcohol and foods. Our Aboriginal people just can't physically cope with all that stuff, diabetes, heart disease and our lifestyle are wiping out their populations...one elder said this week on radio "it is a form of genocide". These issues also lead to crime and death in custody is another problem they have. Something in their makeup, just cannot deal with being shut away, they also seem to have a more than usual problems with depression (and suicide), particularly young males. It angers me that we send millions of dollars in aid money overseas and the dedicated months of work of our charity workers and our youth provide, when our own people are in such dire need of support. I guess people find it less rewarding/glamorous to drive hundreds of kilometers out to a remote desert community and try and deal with the problems out there, than jetting off to some exotic location and getting accolades from the world. I was trying to formulate a brief explanation of the Aboriginal belief system, so had to do some reading to get it into something intelligible. They were/are primarily nomadic, so their survival depended on the earth and what it could provide. They believe in the Dreaming or Dreamtime, it tells the story of the Rainbow Serpent and other spirits (like BrolgaWoman) who shaped and created the landscape and the rivers leading to the seas. It is a "circular" rather than "lineal" concept, and they have a completely oral history, passed from the elders to the younger ones in story and song. They also have their artforms, which are usually found on rock formations and caves, using of course natural ochres. They too have rites of passage for males and females, carried out in secret and separate from the other. Many of their beliefs and rites are lost due to our invasion of their world. There are still some left who try and keep it alive...we can only hope they will prevail. Another interesting thing is, they do not look at an image, speak the name or refer to their people again when death occurs. Most programmes which have content concerning Aboriginal people who have died have a warning prior to viewing, so their people will not be offended. I know also they do not look you in the eye directly, to them it is not done, and they consider it rude to have direct eye contact with an adult. So often our people mistake this drop in eye contact as insulting or indicative of being elusive, or telling untruths, which is not the case. As they do not use the written word or read, all their education and knowledge is oral, so that causes difficulties as well, particularly when they go to school. I have during my time here met and befriended Aboriginal people, indeed when my youngest headed of to the bush at 14, he was befriended by an Aboriginal guy and his partner who was a Maori woman, they watched out for him, and took him yabbying ....he learned a lot, and as my son tends to be a bit of a wild child, it did him good as this Aboriginal man had done some "time" and was frank and honest with my boy, he explained how taking the wrong path can take away your most important thing...your freedom...I don't think I could have asked for a better person to tell him of this. Well now I have probably bored you to tears...I shall be off. My boy is coming home early today, he needs me to take him to buy (yet another) mobile phone. He also has to phone the "psych" to organise his first appointment, part of a treatment plan for his depression. Somehow I think a country bred, indigenous elder might be of more benefit, but my son is apprenticed here in Perth and I am trying my best to keep him on track with that and support him through what is turning out to be a hellish adolescence. Thanks for letting me ramble on....you are a good friend Jim....love, light and peace from Aus.
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  earthwalker (05/11/09)

  Thanks for the links I will check it out later (I have a million things to do today and can't get motivated!). You are one of the most interesting people I have encountered. I hope you are writing all this down somewhere, most people think there is a book in them...I know there is one inside you, just waiting to come out (trust me I was in the book trade for years...your story is way more interesting than a lot that have come across my desk!). Yes, I feel the same way you do about the disruption of sacred places, or burial grounds....like the mass grave they recently found in the farmer's fields in France. I feel they should be left in peace, next to their comrades, rather than exhumed and returned to their homelands, most of their close relatives have already died, so it's not like their parents/spouses or children are still about. As for the desecration of other sites, well many of our museums are filled with things that should have been left where they once were. Kind of like the orchid hunters in the 1800's they dug up 1000's of plants from rainforests and mountains, goodness knows how many species were lost to the world in that process. Ah well....best be off duty calls....again I wish you well in your travels...love, light and peace. It is sooooo cold and windy today....still no rain...It's autumn and no sign of a "spit"!
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  kazual (05/11/09)

  Oh my God!!! Don't, just don't. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  kazual (05/11/09)

  Have fun.

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