"Welcome to Country" and Baby Kangaroos

The last few days have been extremely busy for our program.  Yesterday I woke up early to go kayaking in the Brunswick Estuary with half the group.  We were in several double kayaks and paddled a bit up the river.  We heard about littoral rainforests, mangroves, seagrass beds, trans-equatorial wading birds, oyster farming, management issues and estuary protection measures.  We talked about how the Cape Byron Marine Park is divided into sanctuary zones, habitat protection zones, general use and specific purpose zones.  It was really exciting to learn about these issues first hand.

Brunswick Estuary 

(c) Ben Fitzgibbon - Source here

My two lovely roommates kayaking.

Our director lecturing in the field 

(Photograph courtesy of one of my fabulous groupmates, Kelly)

After kayaking, we stopped at one of the local farmers markets.  Though it was wrapping up, we managed to catch the tail end of it as farmers were packing up.

My first dragon fruit! 

Delicious with a texture similar to kiwi but a flavor more like a mild melon.

After the farmers market, we had a brief break before we went off to our Aboriginal Welcome Ceremony.  This was one of the coolest experiences so far - we were welcomed by several members of one of the local tribes.  One woman was raising a baby kangaroo, which was just freely hopping around while we were in our group circle.  At one point, it was chewing grass so close to me, I felt its soft fur rub against my leg.  Cutest animal ever!

The baby kangaroo - her name is "Little Joe" and she's only six months old.

They gave us a brief description about the history and modern context of their people, shared traditional song and dance (they played the didgeridoo!), and the women taught us how to weave string out of grass.

Holding the Aboriginal Flag of Australia.  The yellow represents the sun, the black represents the night sky and the people themselves, and the red symbolizes the outback or the blood shed during the European conquest of Australia (Source)

Playing the Didgeridoo, a wind instrument made out of hollowed tree trunk.

Our boys dancing.

Girls got in on the action too!

An Aboriginal woman teaching me how to make string using grass.  They typically do this as a social activity and to make things like baskets.

I made this great ankle bracelet that will hopefully withstand the test of time (and natural forces) until I go home!

Our group.