One of the nicest things I did last year was take a trip out bush, visiting some remote community schools. This is taken from 4000ft, out of the window of a little single-engined Cessna on the way to Galiwin'ku. It's one of the rivers that flow into Arnhem Bay and it's pretty typical coastal country in this part of the world - mangroves, mudflats, muddy great rivers and coastlines dribbling away into the sea.
I've been quiet for six months because it's been a funny sort of year.
The Intervention knocked me and a lot of other people for six. What can you say about a juggernaut that refuses to stop even though both of its creators have been dumped by the voters? Labor will have to come up with a different way of dealing with Aboriginal people; if it doesn't, it's condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. 'Intervention' is a term that should pass out of the language. It's too butch, too condescending and decidedly not inclusive. I'd like to see people talking about 'support' instead. The premises on which it was based - allegations of widespread child abuse - have not been sustained and the net effect is that Aboriginal people have been damned as dysfunctional because the Australian media did not bother to question Howard's and Brough's assertions.
But back to the year which, like most years, was a curate's egg.
Highpoints:
1. The political demise of the mean-spirited and devious John Howard in a near-landslide election result. Not only did the little weasel lose power, he lost his seat. Good riddance to his negativity, his racism and his pathetic assertion that the Liberals were the only safe pair of hands for the future of Australia. At the same time the pathologically fixated Mal Brough - the White Knight of the Intervention - also lost his seat and faces a wonderful career selling hair products again. Instant Karma!
2. The unedifying spectacle of the Liberals publicly eviscerating each other as the putative leadership strutted their stuff in a grubby little pissing contest.
3. My resignation from working directly in the political sphere. While I was very happy with the change of government, I couldn't see myself continuing to work under the Labor Party's version of Mission Control. They're the sort of people who give anal retentives a bad name (an oldie but a goodie!). And political work is hardly family-friendly anyway, even when you do work from home.
4. Being present at the funeral celebrations for George Rrurambu Burrarrwanga, late of the Warumpi Band. It was moving, funny, humbling and edifying all at once. The very best of Yolngu showbiz in a melange of ceremony, rock and roll and Christian ritual. Ted Egan, our then Administrator, gave a short speech in Yolngu Matha and then sang one of George's songs, also in Yolngu Matha.
5. Pulling off Welcome to Country, a community identity building event at our school where Larrakia people welcomed all of us and the Arnhem Land clan we're named after - Wangurri people. We have a sister school relationship with Dhalinybuy School, the homeland school the Wangurri kids go to. Our kids talk to their kids via computer, using interactive distance learning technology. We broadcast the event - kids performing, speeches etc - into the Dhalinybuy using the same technology.
6. Becoming a freelance contractor again. My first gig is to work with remote community schools and build up skills among the parents in school governance and getting them working with teachers. I hope we can extend the Sister School concept as part of this project.
7. Going to two family weddings - one son, one daughter - in the one year and having a ball at both. Seeing all my kids together (five, count them, five!) and my two grandchildren, Otis and Inez, makes me feel really proud. They're a wonderful mob.
8. Getting to see Al - my oldest friend in Australia - twice in the one year, which is most unusual.
9. Discarding some negative stuff and speaking to my brother for the first time in nearly 10 years.
10. Continuing to negotiate a positive and loving relationship with my lovely Ellie.
11. Yoga.
12. Getting new CDs by Richard Thompson, Paul Kelly and Krishna Das.
13. Watching the little lads grow up and being fascinated with their articulateness, their literacy and the ingenuity of their explanations of the world around them.
14. The beginning of this year's Wet - 112mm of rain in one 24 hour stretch - and more on the way.
15. Reinventing my cooking thanks to Ellie, the new Weber and cookbooks from CSIRO and Jill Dupleix.
16. My continuing and growing friendship with a close schoolmate who I lost touch with for 40-odd years and with whomj I've now been yarning for seven years. Alan Vickers, here's to you!
And with a year like that, who wants to think about low points?
