Perspectives on Australia

One of my classes, Perspective on Australia, is held on Wednesdays. Basically, we talk about Australia…who is a typical Australian, what are the values & beliefs held by the people, what holidays are celebrated throughout the nation and among the different groups living here. It is difficult trying to define Australia as a whole, mainly because of the conflicting histories of the nation. When James Cook discovered the nation in 1770, he declared it “terra nullis” meaning “empty land.” From that point is when the 2 histories began…that of an Aboriginal and that of a white settler. A brief little insight to our class…sorry it began to turn into a lesson for the day.

Anyways, to get a better understanding of the region around Lismore, called the Rainbow Region we went on a field trip. Friday morning started off a little rough…definitely came too early! We had to be done in front of campus by 9:00 am with a packed lunch. I almost forgot the lunch part…actually I completely forgot about it…good thing Kelly was already on top of it. She packed us a PB & J with a muesli bar for the day.

Before we left campus, I remembered to pay for Outback Trip, the last day to sign up so I had to run to the bank on campus quickly. I should have taken a lot longer and accidentally “missed” the bus because the ride ended up being an hour long…on a Very Windy road with a Pothole every ½ mile. Not a very good experience…especially when I get bus sick from a 5 minute bus ride downtown to The Square. We finally arrived to meet Nan Nicholson at Protestor’s Falls, the site where many people had gathered in 1973 to protest the destruction of the rainforest. The people ended up saving a large chunk of the rainforest and Nan was one of the “hippies” who helped save it.

Though I was relieved once I got off the bus, my stomach wasn’t…it kept doing flip-flops. I thought I was good to go, but as I started walking with everyone to a picnic table saliva filled my mouth…I barely made it to the bathrooms before I hucked it. Not good…I felt like I was still on the bumpy bus. I hoped no one heard me, but definitely knew they all did when they watched me walk back up to meet them. Nuts! Oh yeah…the gum I spit out the night before ended up in my hair…I fell asleep holding it and somehow…not sure…but it ended up nestled in my roots…nice.

After a few saltines and water I started feeling better. We walked along a trail to the Falls, which were amazing. We sat on the rocks while Nan read a passage she had prepared about the Falls and what it meant to her & her family. It was interesting to be sitting in a place where so much mayhem had occurred. We could feel the mist coming down from the waterfall and off the rocks it hit below. I had never seen or been that close to a real waterfall…it was really cool.

The next stop on our trip was to Dharmananda, an intentional community established over 30 years ago on 260 acres of farming land at The Channon. The community consists of 16 adults and 6 children. While Ray Flanagan told us about the community we ate our picnic lunch. Rob, our instructor, had brought along a bunch of bananas, apples, Doritos, and vegetable “pull-apart” breads for us to share, which were really good. After we were finished, Ray gave us a short tour of the Community House, Meditation Room, and huge vegetable gardens before we boarded the bus.

The last stop of our trip was to the village of Nimbin, an iconic site of the 1970s counter-cultural movement in Australia. It is a very interesting little place…a lot of hippies and the center of the movement to end marijuana prohibition. We met with Nigel, a lifelong resident of Nimbin, to go over history and phases Nimbin has gone through. Currently, it is becoming a tourist stop. We broke away to do a self-conducted tour of the village for 45 minutes before meeting back up with Nigel to discuss our observations. The strange thing about Nimbin is how open and accepting people are with drugs. For example, we were all walking into Nimbin when a lady asked us if anyone needed cookies. Pretty sure she wasn’t talking about normal cookies either.

Our field trip ended at 4:00 pm when we were dropped off at Orion College. I was definitely relieved and excited to be done with that bus!! Mark decided to teach me how to cook fettuccini carbanara for dinner, Kelly joined us and we all watched Disaster Movie with Lloyd, Wakana, & Emma. After deciding Lloyd and Wakana were not allowed to pick any more movies out to rent, we were all off to bed.