Dorroughby, 10th of February

Friday we have a field trip to Dorroughby, which is a subtropical rainforest area. Lyn Lockery, who is our Australian Life & Culture class professor organized it for us. When we arrived we were first greeted by a goanna living in the area. It was sweet to be so close to this giant lizard. It was very calm for all the people being around and so close. Anyway, we were served lunch and it was amazing. We had a small salad (nothing special) but the protein they gave us. One for everyone and it was marlin, giant prawn and KANGAROO!!! Yes, I can say I have eaten kangaroo. It essentially tasted like beer. They gave us two dipping sauces which were very good as well. They had fresh bread that you put honey on, real Australian honey mind you. For dessert they gave us choc. chip and macadamia nut muffins. The lunch they put on was awesome and I was very thankful for it.

After lunch we were split in two groups. The group I was in went with the native Aborigine woman to tell us some history and a few dreamtime stories. It was fascinating. I could have listened to her for hours. They have nations of their own, rules, ceremonies, it was just so cool. She told us how the Europeans came and there were 7 massacres (in the area I was staying) from 1853-1863 or so. It really hurt to hear here saying that. Especially because it was so close to her family. Her family lied on the coast so they were affected by it. Her great grandmother traveled up the coast running from the massacres. She managed to escape 5 of them but was eventually killed. Before that though she wrapped her baby up and pushed her across the river to a man with the last name Cook. He was actually Captain Cooks cousin. It was all very interesting to learn the history. Her totem is the pelican because she is inquisitive and asked a lot of questions. She told us stories from when she was little (about the dolphins and fishing)...but I won't bore you with it. She told us the history of her tribe and how they first got there, and of the snake and the goanna and how the snake still waits for the goanna to return but never does and the freak waves at the point is the snakes bite (hopefully I remember the story since I won't write out everything). She told us that they believed there were giant animals thousands of years ago. Not dinosaurs, just animals. The strange thing was is that I think she truly believed it too. I remember her saying "You have your dinosaurs, well, we had giant animals" and it is so odd to me because I think she really does believe that. She said they had to live in caves to protect themselves from it. It was all fascinating. My roommate got to play the didgeridoo which was so freaking cool. And that was about it. That night we had a taco night with everyone in the camp and that was a ton of fun. I will have to figure out an effective way to post pictures on here...