Festival time! Today we took the kids to their school to buy some last minute pieces for their school uniform. We met a lovely lady there named Wendy who explained all the uniform parts and when they can be worn. I'll post pictures of the kids in their uniforms on the first day of school. We then went to the Australia Day Eve celebration at Kibble Park in Gosford. We all walked down to Kibble Park to get there right as it started.
Something I noticed at the Women's March and I also noticed here was at the beginning of both events, and the beginning of each new speaker's speech, they would make a comment acknowledging that we are on tribal land (and will identify the tribe) and will say "and we pay our respect to elders both past and present." At first I thought it was just a Women's March thing, but they did it here too. I think it is so respectful. Back in the day when I was getting my teaching license, we were taught to analyze the quality of textbooks. One characteristic we needed to watch for was whether or not minority peoples were included in the body (main narrative part) of the textbook or were only included in the pictures or side stories. 'Good' textbooks had them in the body. I feel like these acknowledgements of aboriginal presence and stewardship of the land every time there is a public gathering is a way of including them in the 'body' of Australian life. It makes them continually a part of the narrative. I like that. Ok - back to the festival. In the opening remarks they also sang the Australian National Anthem. It was really cool to hear an anthem that we are totally unfamiliar with. It is a beautiful anthem. So there was a puppet show right at the beginning which was good fun. The rest of the evening had phenomenal musicians entertaining us. The organizers of the event put out these really cool big mats for everyone to sit on because it had rained (absolutely poured) the night before (see the pic of the kids in the rainstorm) and the ground was still damp. Like all festivals there was good food as well. Tom took a picture of the paella stand so that my mom (who makes a killer paella) could see the huge pan they used. Also, I found a stand that sold Kaiserschmarrn, which is a German/Austrain pancake-like dessert. It was so nice to talk to the Berliners that were selling the Kaiserschmarrn and then to order in German without too much trouble. The time I spent in Alaska recently going through my Rosetta Stone German program has definitely helped getting my 'tounge' back! Something we noticed that was really interesting is that so much was free. At 4th of July festivals in the US, people sell everything - it is a time to make money. Here all the activites were free! The only money we spent was on the Kaiserschmarrn and some Vietnamese spring rolls. Tom and I plopped ourselves on a mat to listen to music and sent the kids off on their own to explore the festival. They bounced in the bouncy house, they played classic festival games like the potato sack race, and they even got their faces painted. Alta said, "I love my face!" and the first thing Olin said when he got back to us at the mat was "Mom, look. It's the aboriginal flag! I'm glad I got this so that Becki can see it because I bet she doesn't know what the flag looks like." I asked him which tribe it was, and he said it was just the "aboriginal flag" so we have some more research to do as to whether each tribe has their own flag or not. The evening ended with fireworks, which Tom and I realized just might be the first real fireworks our kids have ever seen (and remembered). We don't go to the ones in Seward on the 4th because it isn't super dark (and because Olin is usually passed out by then), and we haven't had a chance to see them in other places. Happy Australia Day Eve!
3 Comments
Becki
1/26/2017 21:48:54
Tell Olin he makes me swell with pride! That is so awesome he thought of me! I love it! My own tribal flags is one of my favorites because it is simple.
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Myla Liljemark
1/30/2017 01:31:41
I let him know Becki. He raised his eyebrows and smiled. :)
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Maggie
2/18/2017 00:13:51
Love the kids faces watching fireworks! So awesome!
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AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
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