Even though we knew our agenda today was painting a boomerang, beach walk, and spear fishing, we had no idea just how much fun it was going to be! We kicked off our day heading to Mossman, Queensland, the next town over, to go to the Janbal Gallery yo lear about Aboriginal dot painting. When we arrived we stepped into the gallery and the artist, Binna, had his work displayed everywhere. He is such a talented artist! His animals were beautiful and the colors were gorgeous. He took us out back where they had two tables set up with a black painted boomerang at each chair.
After a brief cultural explanation of the origins of Aborigine art we learned about Binna and his origins. He is of the Guguyulangee people who live from Port Douglas to Cooktown. South of then are the Tjapukai people. The Yulangees and Tjapukais met in Port Douglas to do battle, otherwise they remained in their respective areas. Now the Yulangees (Guguyulangee means speaker of Yulangee language) live in the sugar cane area and near e beaches. They are a fishing tribe and most of their food is fish. They also occupy the rainforest so they used to eat cassowaries, too. Their paintings are mostly of reef fish, crocodiles, cassowaries, and kangaroos.
Binna, his name means hearing impaired (which he is), still paints in a traditional method of dots. He makes his paints the same way they were made thousands of years ago, mixing ground rocks with water. He explained the significance of the colors and then gave us 1.5 hrs to work. We worked so diligently to dot paint not only attractive art, but in the way of the Aborigine people, our art had to have a story. They use art to tell stories and pass them to future generations. I have to say....our group did awesome on this task they were so creative and eir boomerangs are spectacular!
After we said goodbye to Binna and after a lunch in Mossman, we headed to meet Link at the beach for spear fishing. The general consensus was we would watch Link spear fish and teach us about technique, what they eat, where they hunt, and other Aborigine information. What we really did was so much cooler!
Link had 15 spears waiting for us! We learned throwing technique, what to look for, proper/safe care of a spear, and then set us to work. We meandered about the beach and found some scallops. The tide was out so we were in small pools no more than 3 inches deep. Wouldn't you know it...I caught the first crab! You look for divots in the sand about the size of a basket ball then you just sort of stab into the hole. If something comes out to fight, you stab it and put it in the bucket. If nothing comes out...go to the next divot. Our group got 9 crabs, 2 scallops, 2 razor shells, 20 or so mussels and some sea snails. Best part? WE ATE IT! Link's family cooked what we caught and we all got to eat it! So tasty!
Although we were exhausted, Sarah, Kyle, and I went shopping after fishing. I saw the perfect gift for Shatan while out and about but the store closed at 5pm (like most everything in Port Douglas!) so I had to get there quick! We made it...awesome gift purchased (there were only 3 left!) and them we got ice cream. Back at the hotel I ran around for an hour and a half...literally...organizing who is going snorkeling and which reef and making sure I hd all their deposit money....OY. It was worth it as tomorrow we are spending the majority of our day at the Great Barrier Reef!!! I am so excited!!!! To kill time between now and then we played some euchre. I am finally catching on to this game!
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