FROM FITZROY VICTORIA, TO LILLIPILLI NSW, TO ULLADULLA AND ONTO BOURKE...
Our eldest daughter Cassia asked me to describe Bourke, well though we've been once before, Bourke is again revealed in a whole new light. it is a multi-faceted place. a place of deep culture, lotsa pain, and breathtaking beauty.
the sunset last night was like none i'd ever seen before - the sky here is HUGE, the horizon stretching on in an endless glowing line.
the red dirt roads are mind blowing - we have passed wild horses, a flock of wild goats, we stopped to click pics of a wild emu, we've picnicked beside the muddy Darling River and been joined by a wallaby. yeah, some of the aspects of bourke are filled with those 'little' moments. you know the stuff that takes your breath away and leaves you feeling like you've just been kissed by God. those moments!
the emu was amazing to watch. according to one of the guys we were travelling with, their defence mechanism is to first crouch low in the grass, almost hidden, and then suddenly they spring forward and run like the wind - very clever, very effective, very fast. it's a wonder anyone can catch them. it was great to see all this take place as we tried to click pics. Pastor George the indiginous pastor in Bourke, told us Buzz would attract emus. he said they are attracted to bright colours, so buzz would be the perfect vehicle to take emu hunting. i think it'd break my heart to see one shot! Ps George hunts emu and kangaroo. who knows, while we are here, we may get to try some of his famous kangaroo tail stew.
OF course, we chose Bourke as our next destination on our journey because of the Christian Conference being held from Mon to Thu this week. and, as to be expected, conference was amazing. it was nothing like any other conference - mainly because it is only fair, if you want to learn about a culture, you got to them - not expect them to come to you. so we did. which meant a lot of our learning was out in the cold or the heat or the rain with our bums perched on hard rock or dusty ground; not in a 'classroom' situation.
THE women were invited onto the alice edmund mission to sit at the feet of 'aunty june'. the mission was named after her mother. and she is a magnet for children - calling them all her grandchildren, or as she says "my grannies". Sarah Geradts asked her how many children she had and she said she couldn't count them. they seemed to just come and go, even as we were there. and she said she could never turn any away. she had written the most deeply moving poetry and songs about her people, the dreamtime, God, and childhood rape. she spared no topic and got straight to the chase. during our time there an older woman came over who had lost her home just days before, her grandson had burnt it down. Aunty June told of sadness and tragedy within her family and her people with such grace and dignity - and all the while with no bitterness. "that's my family" she would shrug. and nothing could change it, so she was gunna love it and make the most of it. wow - we learnt a lot sitting at her feet.
ANOTHER day we trecked out in a convoy of cars across the red dirt for an hour into indiginous national park and sat on the grass (when i say 'sit at their feet' i mean it literally. you sit your bum in the dirt or the grass or the mud and listen. and the 'yarns' begin. when aunty june was asked if she was being interviewed she said, "I'm just tellin a few yarns to these nice folk here" and that's exactly the way it is).
Unlce Phil Sullivan took us through the national park and told of the damage and brokeness and evils done by our ancestors and explained his culture, the land, the lifestyle, the drawings, the dreamtime. we sat and listened. then we would walk a little further and gather around him as he showed where and how they cooked emu. then a little further over a stream to where ancestoral cave drawings were and what they meant to him. it was an educational time. a moving time. a time where we were confronted with white-man's arrogance and ignorance and an enlightening time to hear just a little of the fascinating life of our indiginous culture.
WE learnt a lot sitting in the dirt in those two days.
BACK inside the church where we gathered for meals and other teaching sessions, we saw people set free, worship reach new levels, joy break out with dancing and singing and conga-lines and laughter. we and participated in fellowship, meals, worship and teaching with young, old, black, white. we shared lunch and dinner each day - and clean-up. we shared 'stories' during free time. i feel honoured to have begun a bonding with a coupla indiginous girls here - one of which came to see me this morning and we chatted together, prayed together and hugged together. a real honour! I can't express!
FURTHER honour for me was to be offered the pulpit to preach and impart our evangelistic anointing. it was an incredible night where the visible evidence of people 'stepping out and stepping up' was an even greater reward. indescribable.
CHRISTIAN conference can be like that, eh - indescribable. Pastor George was asked what he thought of it on the last night and he basically said, "ask me in a few days, i need to digest, meditate and ponder this". so many facets and levels to any conference that you cant put into words but you know something in the heavens shifted and your life was changed.
AFTER the days of rain, the sun came out. and with it came the flies. i am in a short skirt and singlet right now and hot as! that's bourke. this morning at 8am it was 4 degrees and the ice had to be washed off windscreens. that's the outback. extreme temperatures.
ONE of the 20 year old indiginous girls told me she loves bourke - "black and white, everyone's the same here, eh," she said. i like that. i feel connected. i would never presume to push myself in - but i gently, quietly, feel connected.
BOURKE is a school. a school of life. its rich and its poor. its hot and its cold. its black and its white. its filled with beauty and sorrow, the laughter of children and the pain of remembering elders. and for now, its our HOME.
LOVE, joy and happy vibes xx rediscovering ourselves as we discover the outback