How proud we are of our contributor and dear friend Ali Cobby Eckermann, winner of two major 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.  We just had to feature her again with this take on Families.   The Weekly Wrap is found below her poem.

Kumana

There is no life
but family

When I am young
I live with my family

When I grow up
I leave my family

When I am lonely
I miss my family

When I am drunk
I reverse charge my family

When I pass away
I unite family

There is no life
but Family

Our week focused on Nuclear Families citing Kurt Vonnegut “A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005).  We finished with our illustrious illustrator Sir Bertram Postule’s take on extended families.

Ira Maine recounts a talk by Major Tom Sebring in which it is suggested that “Industrialisation destroyed the extended family.  Postule’s image of a Major can be seen below.   See our other posts on Nuclear Families through these links – here, here, and here!

This week’s Musical Dispatch from the Front took as its theme “Saraswathi, the goddess of wisdom, has forsaken Yuendumu.”  Great music, bizarre happenings – in our name!

Ira Maine brought us with his superb poem Stormy Weather on Poetry Sunday

This week’s theme is Mothers.  The omnipresent Ira Maine surprised us by suggesting Mothers were essential.  Glorious piece.

Sir Bertram Postule’s image of a Major

Postule’s image of a Major

STOP PRESS
Congratulations to our blogger Ali Cobby Eckermann on winning both the NSW Book of the Year and the Poetry Award for her work “Ruby Moonlight” 

Here is her poem for today

Mum Said!

Mum said she
wanted to give me a hug this morning
for all the smacks she gave me when I was a child
Mum said she
used to get so angry
Mum said she
struggled that I was different from other children
Mum said she
didn’t know what to do back then
Mum said she
hoped I could forgive her.

She held open her arms
This adopted mother of mine
This woman with white skin   and white hair   and white heart.

I climb inside the embrace
This adopted daughter of hers
This woman with brown skin   and brown hair   and brown heart.

I said Mum
I forgave you a long time ago.

Ali Cobby Eckermann “Little Bit Long Time”, 2009

IRA MAINE discourses on MOTHERS.

It may come as a surprise to some of us but Mothers are essential.  In the general scheme of things, and, taking everything else into consideration (and all things being equal) if God hadn’t invented Mothers we’d have had to do it ourselves.  Do you know just how much time, energy and resources we’d have had to devote to this essential research, just to get to where we are now?  And, if we had been required to commit ourselves to this end, do you realise where we’d be now?  At the very least, we’d be back, mark my words, somewhere in the Stone Age.

So, as you can gather from my preliminary remarks, and if you’ve followed me so far, God, by inventing Mothers, only just avoided (by the skin of His teeth) setting back humanity’s progress by some millions of years.  This level of blunder is, in my opinion, not good enough, not at all what we’ve come to expect.  If He has barely scraped in with this task, don’t you feel we have the right to know about His other blunders, the ones He has utterly failed at?

Take for instance, the ridiculous business of childbirth.  Now,as any farmer will tell you, in the animal kingdom, God got it absolutely right.  Moo-cows, horses, donkeys, rabbits, take your pick; every one produces offspring the which, within a few minutes, are up and about, gambolling, frisking, and behaving responsibly.  At absolutely no stage do they give even the slightest indication that they intend to be a  burden.  Au contraire, every tottering step they take demonstrates their commitment, and determination to seize independence first chance they get.

So, what the hell was God up to when it came to human beings?  A human child takes forever  to be independent of it’s mother.  Was he sick of the whole process and couldn’t be bothered? Or did He feel just a little bit blasé, a little bit cocky after His elephant and giraffe triumphs on the African savannah?  You could easily imagine Holy God, Mint Julep to hand, sitting back and basking in the glory as He accepted the adulation of the choirs and hosts of angels, not to mention presents of warm winter socks and boxes of chocolates.  All this glory and worship business might have easily distracted Him from His appointed course, or made Him think that compared to a ptereodactyl, making a human being would be a piece of cake.  Alternatively, and I am merely putting this idea forward speculatively, throwing it into the arena for general consideration but, what if Holy God, a bit frazzled with Africa and Mint Juleps, decided to have a bit of a creative second look at human beings?  He’d just roughed out a few sketches, had a few good ideas…

Their Mint Juleps freshened, laughing their heads off, God and Gabriel pored over the plans.

‘Hey’, said Gabriel, giggling and nudging God in the ribs, ‘lets make’em bald as a badger’s arse…’

‘What? No feathers?’.

‘And give the marsupial pouch the elbow!’

“Why? I thought that was a good idea….’

They’d have only used it as shopping bag!.’

‘Guilt! Lets give’em guilt! And ridiculously small ears!’.

“Yeah! And make’em walk everywhere…’

‘And premature ejaculation!’.

‘And doubt!, and no sense of smell!’.

“Hey, hey, hey! And premature ejaculation!’.

Steady on,what is it with you and PE?’

“Nothing…I just mentioned it…for fun…’.

“Wait! I’ve just had a great idea!. Why don’t we give the human girl something to compensate  for the absence of all the stuff we’ve just  taken away?.’

“Ok, ok, what do you reckon? Four stomachs? Horns? A big swishy tail?’

‘No, no, no. Let’s make her the start,the middle and the end of the Universe.  Lets make her the very life force itself, the source, the spring,the headwaters.  Lets make her the Mother of all things, the originator, the crucible from which all life emerges.  She is all that is profane and all that is sacred. She is, in the end, every living thing…’

‘I see. Without her we are nothing…’

“ Yes. She is God’.

“No room for a big swishy tail then, is there?

Stormy weather.

Honouring the dead season,
Lilies bow, unbroken,
Flashlit in the glass.
The wind in the windows
Of the harp-strung house
Violas of sound.

Awkward with ceremony,
Thunder, club-foot, stumbles,
Heart hammering the house.
A wild, abandoned God
Conducting old grievance
Down the trombone gutters.

Inchoate, atavistic,
Old blood keens the senses,
The buckshot panes jump.
We, in the heartstrung house,
The orchestral house,
Hold hands against Eternity.

IRA MAINE. May 2013

Today we continue the Musical Dispatch from the Front of 3rd October 2013

Saraswathi, the goddess of wisdom, has forsaken Yuendumu.
Five large trucks travelled all the way from Bendigo in Victoria to deliver Yuendumu’s new Centrelink building. Just what Yuendumu needed …Just when I needed you most….
http://youtu.be/XeeMDGq1FMI

The Centrelink building will house, inter alia, ITEC Employment, which recently issued a ‘Visitation Notification Flyer’ (their words not mine).

The flyer includes: “….you must attend this appointment and enter/review your Employment Pathway Plan as necessary…..”. ‘Employment Pathway Plans’ for non-existent jobs.

I now suspect the Yuendumu Housing Association’s (For more on the YHA see last weeks MDFF) demise may have been accelerated by their dearth of ‘Employment Pathway Plans’.

The Centrelink building is one of over twenty such buildings being erected on Aboriginal communities that have been canonised by being declared ‘Growth Towns’.

The Yuendumu building is nearing completion and Centrelink and other ‘Service Delivery Agencies’ that will occupy the premises, will soon be able to ‘service’ their Warlpiri ‘clients’ with renewed vigour.
http://youtu.be/2-4cXdLxRQ0 ….Deliverance with a vengeance…

Saraswathi, the goddess of music, was very much in evidence when Midnight Oil performed in Yuendumu, a quarter of a century ago.
We’re expecting a ‘Visitation’ from Peter Garrett, the former lead singer of Midnight Oil, and now the Minister of Education. We fear Saraswathi, the goddess of learning, music and wisdom, will not be travelling with Minister Garrett, she has forsaken him.
Peter is coming to Yuendumu to discuss (‘engage with the community’) one of several secondary school residential boarding facilities the Commonwealth intends to erect on Aboriginal communities.

These boarding facilities will undoubtedly be delivered on large trucks. Once installed this will enable the creation of ‘Employment Pathway Plans’ to ‘service’ Warlpiri ‘clients’ attending the non-existent high schools. Or can we look forward to trucks delivering a high school?

Also slated for erection at Yuendumu, a Family Centre (for cradle to grave ‘service delivery’ to Warlpiri ‘clients’). Further scope for ‘Employment Pathway Plans’.

So far SIHIP has not erected a single residence for a Warlpiri person. Yuendumu is yet to sign the long term leases sought by the Commonwealth.

We are last man standing….
http://youtu.be/bkwoo3nDA2Q

Saraswathi why have you forsaken us?

Why have you left us heartbroken, forsaken and alone…
http://youtu.be/GF82302s90U

You may recall the Dispatch that featured añoransa, that hard to translate Spanish word that describes a yearning for a past almost impossible to be regained.
http://youtu.be/q1VBjKFw3Ik

Another beautiful Spanish word is esperanza … hope.
Hope can set you free…. It can make you dance and sing and make music.
http://youtu.be/wY5-9-quGBw

Saraswathi, goddess of learning, music and wisdom pina-yarntarni Yurntumu-kura, bring back once flourishing bilingual education, bring back the once flourishing housing association, bring back the once flourishing outstation resource centre, bring back our own local council. Let Warlpiri people once again make decisions about, take part in and determine their own future

Bring back empowerment, hope and dignity, so we may once again have reason to dance and sing and make music.

Saraswathi, goddess of learning, music and wisdom make your presence very much evident again.
http://youtu.be/7_ZCLban32Q

Nuclear Families.
“A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005)

IRA MAINE on Nuclear Families

Up here on the Hill, the only use we have for a big Mac is to keep the rain off.  If the mac is big enough it’ll keep the rain off two people, which can be… convenient.  Of course there was the incident with the Major and Mrs Dumpleton, but it was a dark night and the Major’s eyesight is not what it was.  Anyway, soon after that, the Major began bumping into the cake-laden widow when he least expected it.  If nothing else this seemed to indicate that the widow’s eyesight was a lot better than the Major’s.  The object of her affection’s obvious discomfiture amused everybody especially his efforts to avoid the enamoured Mrs D.  The whole thing blew over when the widow’s patience abruptly gave out, and things settled down once more.  The Major is of advanced years, basically harmless and only indulges his ‘hobby’ occasionally.  Because of this we can look after him, keep him out of trouble.  Sometimes we even get girls to feign hysterics, just to cheer him up, particularly if his birthday is coming up.

Oh, dear, this is always happening with me.  It was my avowed intention, from the word go, to stick solely to the subject of William Cobbett.  How the Major intervened in this is anybody’s guess but there is so much stuff goes on up here that it’s very easy to become confused.

Aha! Of course!

The following is an extract from a well-attended talk given by Major Tom Sebring;

“William Cobbett, the 18^th Century English author of ‘Rural Rides’, hated London.  He referred to it as ‘The Great Wen’, a wen being then a boil, a wart or a skin eruption.  Cobbett, living during the period when the Industrial Revolution was gathering steam, not only witnessed the land being cleared of people, but watched entire ancient villages and towns being emptied and ploughed under in the name of ‘improvement’.  He railed against the great industrial cities and their insatiable hunger for people.  Cobbett knew that irrevocable damage was being done to the old way of life, that people were fleeing to the cities, straight into the arms of exploitation, disease and industrialised death.  He wrote a book explaining precisely how a man might live a dignified life and raise a healthy family, in the country.  He called it ‘Cottage Economy’.  The book is still in print.”

The point the Major was making during this talk was that industrialisation destroyed families.  Not, I think, families in the modern sense of Dad, Mum and a couple of kids.  What Cobbett saw, and the Major is reminding us of, is that we have lost something which is almost incomprehensible to the modern, post industrial mind.  Industrialisation destroyed the extended family.  Extended families, according to the Major, can only begin to exist again if people stay in the same spot, put down long-time roots and set about ignoring the blandishments of the commercial world.  The Major reckons we have, once again, the opportunity to do this.  He reckons we should grab it with both hands.

Oh, the Major has promised us another talk on this subject. We are all looking forward to it with great interest.  It’s to be called ‘The Commercial Nuclear Family.’

 Nuclear Families.
“A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005)

“Quentin, why is there “no man” in the Mine Tinkit Family?  Is it because they have been demonized, disempowered and destroyed.  That they have no meaningful role, that they are in jail?”

“Oh, Cecil, you really are taking this far to seriously, lighten up a bit.  Next you’ll be suggesting the “My Family” stickers are deterministic!”

Cockburn and Poole have great pleasure in bringing you this weeks wrap.

But first a word from Errol: “…contradiction has a place in human nature, in social values, just as it has in mathematics.  Contradiction is neither true nor false.  It (just) is.”  From My Wicked Wicked Ways, by Errol Flynn 1959.

NAPLAN dominated our posts early in the week and our hugely successful competition to search out the origin of the Acronym “NAPLAN” brought forth an international response. The winner was our ever popular PM with this entry: Negating Academic Principles Lowering All Norms.  A brilliant winner I’m sure you will all agree.  Thanks PM.  Oh, you can see the entries here, and view other Education posts here, and here.

Thursday brought  this post, a poem on “Wisdom”,  plus a link to the most challenging TED talk on the way education stymies creativity

The Musical Dispatch from the Front  is dedicated to Saraswathi the Hindu goddess of learning, music and wisdom..

Poetry Sunday brought the wonderful poem of Sherman Alexie, “Go, Ghost, Go”.  Read about Sherman, who grew up on Spokane Indian Reservation in the US,  here

Monday starts our week on Nuclear Families, with this wonderful quote “A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005)  See it here and here

.

Happy reading from Q Cockburn and C Poole.

 Nuclear Families.

“A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005)