Week 31/2024: Just visiting

Week of 29 July 2024

This week had some ups and some downs. I really wished I’d had my camera on Wednesday morning’s walk.

The Visitors

A night at the theatre

We went to see The Visitors at the Theatre Royal on Saturday night.

This is a play by Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison, which imagines a discussion between seven clan leaders that might have taken place in January 1788, as they watch a fleet of giant nawi—boats—making their way into the harbour.

The seven face a momentous decision: Do they welcome the strangers or do they try to force them to leave?

From the beginning, there is disagreement. What seemed to most at first to be a clear-cut answer becomes less so as the leaders debate what to do. Questions are asked about why the visitors would feel the need to leave their own Country and whose responsibility they are when they arrive here.

Some lines, like this from Wallace, were particularly poignant

Of course they’ll leave. Folks have come here on their noses before. Coming, going, sometimes trading, but always leaving eventually. We have long memories, eh. We know their visits are a passing event, a fleeting encounter. We’re still here and will be forever. Do you really think that just because they come ashore this one time that we might fade into nothingness, like smoke into the sky?

I think the messages of the play were directed to the people who call this country home now as much, or even more than, to the ‘visitors’ who arrived in 1788.

This is my country.
My father’s country.
I know its patterns, its seasons, its soils . . .
. . . .
Its rivers are my blood, its rocky outcrops my bones, its winds are my breath as my lungs fill and empty.
It is me.
When I welcome others, I honour my country.
We ask this, and this only.
While you walk on this country that you care for the land.
And that you look after the children of this land.
This is my country and my son’s country.

For those of us who are here now, it is our responsibility to look after it.

A visiting bird

Here’s a white faced heron that I saw at the beach on Sunday.

I’d never seen one of these before and had to ask the local bird enthusiasts what it was. Someone said they’d seen it hanging around their pool a few months ago.

According to Bird Life, they can be found where there’s water, so it’s not at all surprising to see it near the river. Or someone’s pool, I guess.

Week 31 summary

Habit tracker

• Walk 8,000 steps: 7/7
• Shut down at 9.00: 4/5

What was the best thing about this week?

I really enjoyed this week’s acting class.

What did I notice this week?

The foundation stone on the Argyle Street side of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG).

What did I learn this week?

The hyoid bone is a U-shaped bone found at the front of your neck around the level of the C3 vertebra. It doesn’t join with any other bones. Instead, it’s a point where muscles and ligaments attach.

What am I reading?

• The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
• The House that Joy Built by Holly Ringland