Worlds Village

The Kangaroo is one of Australia’s most famous native animals and has become an iconic symbol representing aspects of Australian life and culture, including being featured on the Australian Coat of arms, currency and postage stamps.

The Kangaroo family is indigenous to Australia and New Guinea but surprisingly there are several feral populations from introduced species to New Zealand, Hawaii and Great Britain.

The word kangaroo is attributed to Captain James Cook, who on the August 1770 (at that time a Lieutenant) at Cooktown, Australia made note of the local aboriginal word ‘gangurru’ which was transcribed in the logs of the HM Endeavour as ‘Kangooroo’ or ‘Kanguru’.

There are in total 69 species of the Kangaroo family of which the four main species are the Red Kangaroo, the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, the Western Gray Kangaroo and the Antilopine Kangaroo. All have large, powerful hind feet and legs with powerful tails, which the bucks (males) will often balance on and rear up on when fighting. The doe kangaroos (females) have pouches (marsupium) in which to rear their joeys. The gestation period for a kangaroo is 33 days and a Joey will spend up to 11 months in its mother pouch and reach sexual maturity between 18 – 24 months.

Some of the smaller species include wallabies, wallaroos, quoka’s, tree kangaroos and pademelons. Members of the Kangaroo family are marsupials from the Macropodoidea family which scientists have split into two sub groups being the Macropodidae (larger footed) and the Potoroidae (smaller footed).

Members of the Kangaroo family will vary in size form 500grams to 90 kilograms and have hoping speeds of between 20km (13mph) and 70km (44mph) for shorted distances. Kangaroos are prevalent in many Australian regional areas and are often seen around such tourist locations the Central and Northern Victorian towns of Bendigo , Echuca and Beechworth , Central Australia, Southern NSW, the Northern Territory and most of Western Australia

The kangaroo is culturally significant and features in many aspects of our lives. They feature in such film and print productions as Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Tom and Jerry, The Merry Melody cartoons and Winnie the Pooh. They also feature in sporting teams such as the Australian Rugby team (Kangaroos), Australian Soccer team (Socceroos), Australian Women’s Hockey team (Hockeyroos) and the Australian Men’s Basketball team (Boomers) as well as a number of other domestic Australian and international sporting teams.

Somewhat more controversially, and while the kangaroo has traditionally been a source of food for indigenous Australians, in recent years it has become more popular especially on the European market. Kangaroo’s produce a red meat which is considered to be low in fat and high in protein and has a strong gamey flavor. Most meat sold for human consumption is taken from the animals hind legs. Some kangaroo meat is also processed into dog food.

That elusive word “consciousness” remains the sole proprietory right of the Creator of the universe. Only God, Allah, Yahweh, or whatever name you attach to the ONE GOD, has the patent on consciousness. We just get to swim around within it and like a fish called upon to describe water, we struggle because we have no comparisons with which to draw conclusions.

Consciousness research is a growing industry and the methods by which we’re trying to get a handle on its nature and character are manhy. Psychelic herbs are being used in many parts of the Southern hemisphere to get at the root. Medicine men and shamans induce powers of telepathy to forge journey’s unattainable from a physical perspective. Others use fasting, chanting, meditation, and drumming to name a few conjure up consciousness answers.

And yet we still can’t grasp the Australian dream state. How’s that work anyway?

How is it that Australian Aborigines can learn of the fate of friends and family members even when they are beyond the range of sensory communication with them? Examples are myriad. A man can annouce that he’s just heard of his fathers death in his “inner man” and head home on a three day journey to affirm that the exact moment he “heard” is when his father did indeed die.

Meanwhile, other tribal people are able to discover information and facts about the world and interactions among people just from the environment. Celestial secrets that we’ve just now begun to comprehend, like black holes and brown dwarfs, were known by the ancient Mayans thousands of years ago. How’d they “know” such stuff?

Did these ancients have a “celetial receiver”? Do we still have one but our Greek-thinking minds won’t allow it to go “on-line”? Whatever the case, we must all go to the patent office and retrieve the instructions- that would be a place of quiet solitude where we shut down our minds and just wait for instruction from the ONE who holds the patent.

Otherwise we’ll be approaching 2012 with our eyes wide shut and our ears unattunded to the very things that are available to assist us- if not save us!

The Marri Tree.
Kingdom: Plants
Family: Myrataceae
Corymbia calophylla Marri
The Forest Heritage Centre in Dwellingup is situated amongst the South West Australia Forest and the the Marri species is our one of our local Australian gum trees. This large Eucalyptus tree grows to a height of about 40 metres and this widespread species can grow readily in our poorer soils.
We offer guided tours at the Forest Heritage Centre, Dwellingup, and part of the tour is to recognise the difference between the Marri and Jarrah trees. The Marri has a condensed fish scale like looking bark and large gum nuts whereas the Jarrah has a long skinny bark and small ‘honkey nuts’.
Flowering Marri are a beautiful sight with their yellow cream coloured flowers,the golden honey produced by bees from these flowers has a wonderful mellow taste.
The wood of the Marri is used quite a lot in Furniture Making and has a golden glow, to this light coloured wood.
West Australia has Guitar makers that utilise this wood for their impressive instruments, West Australian Ellis Guitars make some of the best quality instruments in the world and some of these are used by renowned artists including Jeff Martin to Blues singer songwriter Ash Grunwald,(who plays a mean Ellis Stompbox, by the way!).
Artists are inspired by the Marri, its flowers nuts and fruits, and one architectural designed grates featured at Karrakatta Cementary, Perth Western Australia, uses interpretations of the Marri’s gum nuts and flowers.
The local aboriginal Noongyar tribe used the red gum of the Marri Tree for medicinal purposes including helping with tummy upsets and various aches and pains.
An old Bushmans Tale quotes that if the Marri (Redgum) flowers profusely then Western Australia is in for a good winter e.g. cold, rainy, windy, icy, stormy, winter.

One of the hardest parts of being an artist is getting exposure. The rules of the game often seem unfair, with your credibility being based on who you know and where you live. If you’re a Native, Aboriginal and Indigenous artist or craft person, you may feel entirely out of place and unable to sell your art anywhere but in your own village.

Whether from North America, Africa or Australia, every nation has its own form of art and its own story to tell. There can be many nations within a country, and it can be difficult to get the message across about what your nation produces. As an artist from the region, you are also a cultural ambassador. Not only do you tell your own story through your art, but introduce others to a new culture and possibly even form of expression.

Native Art World wants to help all artists get the word out about their art by giving them free tools to succeed. Any Native or Indigenous artist can list their information on the Native Art World/ Your art page, or the page of your region and in turn get a free webpage to introduce the world to their art.

Not only will this help the individual artist gain exposure to their art, but it will also introduce the rest of the Native Art community to each other and foster collaboration and understanding of what’s going on in other areas. This collaboration will lead to a strengthening of the community and greater tolerance of others. And a strong community will help their artists grow and achieve even greater success worldwide.

The process is simple, and artists simply fill out a short form on the Native Art World website. They have the option to upload a photo if they wish, and may fill out the form to add to their site. After approval the artist page is submitted to the all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Live Search MSN, Ask and Entire Web.

The page also includes a contact form if a working email address is submitted with all the other information. Any contact form submitted will be automatically forwarded to the artist’s personal email without giving out the email address. Total privacy is ensured, and information is not sold to any outside organizations or third party.

Within 60 days of approval, an article about the artist including information on the webpage and art will be submitted to article directories and the like, creating even more of a buzz about the artist and their community. This will be sent to up to 50,000 websites and areas of interest, creating more exposure than ever possible without using the internet.

This free resource is available to any who sign up on the website and are part of the Native Art World. By providing free exposure, many artists will be able to benefit from a personal dialogue with millions out there who may need to find just the right piece for their mantel by an artist like you.

Jarrah Forest Flora and Fauna of the Month!
The Jarrah    

Kingdom: Plantae

Family: Mytaceae
Species: Eaucalyptus marginata
Jarrah
The Forest Heritage Centre in Dwellingup is situated amongst the South West Australia Forest and the the Jarrah is our one of our local Australian Eaucalyptus species.
We offer guided tours at the Forest Heritage Centre, Dwellingup, and part of the tour is to educate people on the wide variety of Flora and Fauna.
The Eaucalyptus marginata is named after the distinct margin around the inside of the leaf edge and ‘Jarrah’ is the aboriginal name for this gum tree.
The Jarrah was once known as the Swan River Mahogany in the 1800′s and as the name suggest the wood can range in colour from light orange/pinkish browns to the rich red/burgundy browns.
Flowering Jarrah’s have a cream coloured corymb shaped flower potruding from a small conical shaped fruit, when the flower is spent and finished fruiting, the nut often falls to the forest floor and is a small round shaped gumnut that can be used in Art and Crafts.
The honey that bees produce from this flower is a rich deep red and has a wonderful rich flavour. The strong dense wood of the Jarrah is prized in furniture making and construction and utilized all over the world.
Jarrah can be found in the old streets of London and Berlin as cobblestone paving, and Jarrah is used around the world in wharves, jetties and sleepers for railways.
Jarrah is a strong dense wood that is termite resistant and also resistant to some species of marine pests e.g. species of marine boras or some species of marine worms.
The Jarrahs’ bark has insulating qualities that protect the tree from our frequent bushfires, (the Austalian bush needs fire to regenerate), but when a fire is fierce and destroys the tree, the Jarrah has adapted by having lignotubers attached to the underground root system and these are a source of energy that can resprout a new tree.

This tree along with other Australian Flora and Fauna can be spotted when you walk our Jarrah/Marri forest and our Canopy tree top walk at the
Forest Heritage Centre, Dwellingup.
Hope to see you soon!

References

• Trees of the South West Forest
  an ideal companion for bushwalkers
  © CALM 2002
  ISBN 0 7309 6961 4

• Dana Berry
  Tour guide information.