Don't think our sun burnt brothers would do what Arthwoll- says, they tend to take min min serious. One aboriginal who worked where my son was (drove one of the road trains) would open a gate at night drive the huge truck through then do a huge circle to get the truck cab near the gate to shut it. Not to be lazy but the walk back in the dark worried him. My son knew him and had a lot of contact with him and he was spooked about min min and spirits, day time was ok just late at night and he is not a wimp, fight at the drop of a hat. To answer a earlier post our natives are not builders, don't thing they have ever been interested in house land car as the whites are. Happy to live easy and roughly in the dream time type of life. And they can survive and be happy where most whites would die, me included. Does the list know on a cold night they can slow the blood flow to there limbs to keep body core up to temperature and dare I say the famed Blacktracker's dowse to find target.
Gympie and ancient history
- Thread starter Old Bob
- Start date
Lionking grow up, nothing racist in the above post, just the different ability's of others. Would it be racist to say the Italians are good at making pasta? Can you slow your blood flow by choice. Can you do the black tracking bit? Don't spoil a good happy thread and it would be good if we had a aborigine here to hear his(her) side of min min and the folklore dream time stories.I know the list don't believe in ley lines but the elders of most tribes know all about them.
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
I haven't quite seen that, but I've seen moonrises where the Moon split completely into two separate squished-looking Moons. It's definitely the dry that seems to cause it alright.
I wouldn't say I've been close either, and I'm happy enough with that. There's usually some basis in myths, and danger is everywhere. As I said earlier, I don't believe that all the min min lights have the same explanation.
The "min mins" I saw at Gouburn followed us for nearly 100 km down the Hume Highway. The three of us in the car would have sworn that they were circling us. The light was sometimes directly in front of us and sometimes directly behind.
Retrospective common sense tells me that it was the car that was rotating with the curves of the road, but the genuine fear we felt at the time denied this. I acknowledge that a bushman would be unlikely to make this error, but fear is the mind killer.
There could be something in this, given one of the alternative explanations for the min min. Maybe areas of fossils indicate areas of coal or gas. There's lot's of that in Queensland, and perhaps from time to time it comes up through the ground and ignites. That would be spectacular AND dangerous, and would be enough for me to start a new myth!
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arthwollipot
Limerick Purist
Oh, you wouldn't!
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
Absolutely. Although there's certainly an opportunity there to have some fun with the tourists. I've had some first-hand experiences of that happening, but it's invariably been white folks doing it.
It would be easy for the Koori to hoax the tourists, or me, but not the locals who have lived in the area for generations.
Few are a immune, it seems. I've seen the phenomenon three times, on each occasion in the company of other soldiers, and "nervous" was about the mildest response.
It's a pity we left it so long before we realised what they could teach us, although some of the really old pioneers had a few clues about them. And there's a lot to be said for the simpler lifestyle when you look at some of the messes we create.
That earlier post was from Soapy Sam, and I hope we can get back to it, in our meanderings.
I was unaware that the Koori could do this, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. I have no idea how they manage the cold, but they do heaps better than I do.
Can we define dowsing as being really, really good at reading sign and spoor? I'm sure that's how a lot of white dowsers do it.
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
It's a bit of a generalisation, but a largely valid observation. I really doubt that Bob meant any insult, and if anything it's an acknowledgement of traditional aborigines following an approach to life that is superior to ours in many circumstances.
My apologies for answering out of turn. I do so perhaps because I'm comfortable with the politically incorrect phrasing that Bob uses sometimes, and wouldn't have noticed this had you not mentioned it.
Cheers
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist
Probably a good idea...
politas
Pirate King
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2005
- Messages
- 1,080
That's actually something that all mammals do completely unconsciously, so nothing particularly remarkable.
I'll leave it to you, mate, to tell the story of where Gympie got its name. I have painful memories of its namesake myself
You didn't happen to use some of it as toilet paper did you?
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
No, but thank you for that future recurrent nightmare.
You're welcome.
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
Like I said, I don't know how they manage, but they ranged all over the Snowy Mountains, in Tassie and in the high places in Queensland (the Bunya and Glasshouse Mountains, for example) Those places are bloody cold, especially in Winter, and nobody I know could survive there with nothing more than a Possum skin cloak. The aborigines had something going for them.
I'm being a thread whore, so it's over to you for your thoughts on Bob's and my anecdotes. We find it remarkable, else we wouldn't have remarked.
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Damien Evans
Up The Irons
Damien Evans
Up The Irons
I don't think Old Bob is racist, he seems to me just to be superstitious and a little ignorant, but nothing compared to some folks on here.
Lonewulf
Humanistic Cyborg
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2005
- Messages
- 10,375
According to some of the previous arguments we've had about gay marriage and the like, I wouldn't be surprised if his bigotry went so far as to encompass race. I don't remember any particularly racist remarks by him, though.
By the way, in Australia, all men are strong and handsome, all women are pretty. And marriage should only be between those two. All others keep out. That was Bob's argument.
Akhenaten
Heretic Pharaoh
<snippy>
By the way, in Australia, all men are strong and handsome, all women are pretty. And marriage should only be between those two. All others keep out. That was Bob's argument.
Lionking and others have met Pharaoh, and will vouch for the first part of the above statement having been completly falsified. Also, all women everywhere are pretty, especially Gwyneth Paltrow. This cannot be falsified.
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