Thursday, October 3, 2013

River Healing Ceremony

Along the (beautiful) Urierra Road which winds out of Canberra, we went to an indigenous ceremony to 'Heal the River'.

The traditional owners of the land in and around Canberra are called the Ngunnawal (quite what 'ownership' entitles them to is not entirely clear - probably not much) and they met up with another couple of tribes from South Australia called the Ngambri, Ngarrindjeri and Ngarigo people.

The night promised a night of singing and dancing. Unfortunately (due to bedtime requirements!) we left before the ceremony really got going and I had to resort to reading about how it was the next day in the paper. Nevertheless, despite our early exit the kids still had loads of fun playing with boomerangs and face painting (with ocre and mud). I got swooped by an aggressive magpie. After the attack Eli turned to me and said "Daddy why are you lying on the ground?"

Events like this always attract a strange crowd - from aboriginal people through to bohemian city dwellers filming the event on their ipdads.It was a beautiful calm evening though and we played down by the river and listened to some soulful music.

Here's some pictures of the kids having a good time.

Eli, whose hair Amy and I had cut earlier that day with some clippers!
 
hotdogs on the sand
The Molonglo River

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