Yesterday I got back to Cairns after our week-long Aboriginal-themed camping trip. We went north of Cairns to Laura, Lakefield National Park, and Cooktown with our academic leader, Tony, and 3 Aborigines - two elders, Rus and Ian, and Ian's 20-year-old grandson, Jon. We traveled in 3 four-wheel drive vans because we had to do a fair bit of off-roading to reach our camp sites.

The point of the trip was to learn about Aboriginal culture and lifestyle, so we were only allowed to bring one day pack for the 7 days, but it turned out I didn't even use everything I brought. Once you're living in the dusty bush for a couple days without showering, there's no point in wearing clean clothes! We were also not allowed to bring watches so we could experience living in "murry time," basically doing what you want to do when you want to do it. ("Murry" is the term Aboriginals use to call themselves.) At first murry time was slightly distressing, but within a day I grew to love it - eat when you're hungry, go to sleep when you're tired, etc. It's a very relaxing lifestyle, and yet you still get things done throughout the day because otherwise you'd be bored out of your mind.

Rus, Ian, and Jon are all fantastic people. They know so much about their people's history and love passing on their knowledge. Aboriginal culture is oral, so every evening Rus would tell us of his people's history, traditions, and stories. Several nights his voice was so soothing I fell asleep, but he said that was okay because it means you're comfortable and happy. Rus in particular is an amazing man. He grew up in his tribal community without modern technology. He paid his first electric bill when he was 20 and living on his own for the first time. He now lives in Townsville, the main city between Brisbane and Cairns, and is a major activist for Aborginal people. He's currently working on trying to patent medicinal uses of two types of trees so the Aborigines can get credit for their traditional uses of the environment as well as help sick non-Aborigines. This will be the Aborigine's first patent, which they have long desired. Currently, other people have patents for Aborginial ideas (like the Boomerang is patented by an American?!), so he's also working on trying to fight those patents so Aborigines can get credit. This is just one of many projects Rus is working on, but I know most about it because I interviewed him for a project I'm doing on intellectual copyrights.

One major aspect of Aboriginal life is their name and totem. Names are given at birth and are based on where the baby is born/what animals are around/what time of day. Names can be animals, locations, weather, etc. In addition, Aboriginals have totems, an animal to which they are connected. One cannot ever kill their totem because they are related. So, to get us in the Aboriginal spirit, Rus gave us all names/totems. He named be "Gugi Gugi," for butterfly, because I "flitter." I'm still not exactly sure what that means, but he giggled every time he said it. I think it must be about being a social butterfly, but I'm still not quite sure.

So, the trip itself. The first day we drove out to our first camping site near Laura. It was in an Aboriginal area, and all the surrounding mountains were covered in 30,000 year old paintings. The next morning, we hiked through some recently burned bush to see a few of the paintings. The Aborigines use ground orche (a type of rock) mixed with water as paints, so their colors are limited to white, black, red, and yellow. The pictures are used to tell traditional stories; they're not meant as art in itself. The images are all very simplistic and display people, animals, and spirits. To sign the work, the artist puts paint in his mouth and sprays it around his hand, leaving his handprint as a signature. The site we visited is a sacred place, so Rus had to greet the spirits of the site before we could see the paintings and had to say thanks and good-bye as we left. The Aborigines are a very natural and spiritual group of people. They respect and love nature and never take advantage of any resource. That's how they've been able to stay in balance with nature for 40,000 years.

The next three days we spent at Lakefield National Park. Our camp site was by a small creek, and due to potential crocodiles, we were not allowed to go swimming. However, we were able to splash around in the shallow areas where crocs would be visible, so those few days we were able to take "bucket baths," literally pouring buckets of water on your head. We didn't have soap, but it was very refreshing, especially in the heat of the Australian sun. Those three days we spent embracing murry time around camp making boomerangs, throwing spears, fishing, and playing music (we had 2 guitars, a drum, and a didgeridoo). There was so much to do, but I never felt stressed because I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. We did take several trips away from camp - one collecting grasstree sticks that are used to make fire. You hold a grasstree stick vertically in a small hole cut into a piece of milky pine, and push down and twist the stick quickly to make a coal, which falls onto a pile of dry grass and, with some blowing, will form a flame. I had a lot of trouble spinning the stick fast enough, but with some help from Rus, I got some flames! Our other trips included bird and croc watching at Low Lake (we saw our one and only croc there) and looking at torn-up clay from feral pigs.

The last two days we spent at the beach outside of Cooktown. Although we were right on the water, we were again not allowed to swim because of crocs, which was disappointing. The site was much windier than the others, and the first night I had trouble sleeping because I thought my rain fly and tent would blow away! Again, we spent most of our time around camp, painting our boomerangs, making jewelry from bark, walking along the beach collecting shells, and playing soccer and football. It sporadically rained the whole time we were there, but the sun came out as it was raining, so it wasn't too bad, and we saw several rainbows throughout the trip.

By the time we returned to Cairns, we were all covered in layers of dirt. I didn't wear shoes for much of the trip, and I don't think my feet have ever been so dirty, but it was very liberating, and I'm having trouble wearing shoes again. My first shower was really refreshing, but my feet didn't even become entirely clean! Overall, I had an amazing time on the camping trip and completely enjoyed not having modern technology. Being back in Cairns is a bit of a culture shock even though the trip was only a week, but it is nice to be back in civilization with flushing toilets and soap. I'll be in Cairns for almost a week going to lectures and working on some projects before leaving for the Rainforest excursion for 10 days on Friday.