Today is a travel day back to Sydney.
Temperatures in Canberra this morning were cold enough to see your
breath in the air. We will stay in Sydney tonight, the same hotel that
we stayed the first 3 days in Australia, to take a plane tomorrow to
Melbourne, the 2nd largest city in Australia.
Before
leaving Canberra, we made two more stops for sightseeing. First we
returned to The Australian National University, site of our concert last
evening, to stop at the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre on
campus. As we walked into the cultural center, we were greeted by
another Didgeridoo player, serenading us as we entered the facility. We
were given a great 1st hand account of Aborigine culture by the
Cultural Center Director Ann Martin whose father was white and mother
was aborigine. She presented a didgeridoo to our president, Dr. David
Wilson, as a gift to the university. As she spoke about her first-hand
experiences as a child to our group, we all felt the sadness in her
spirit as she spoke of being separated from other family members due to
the local practices of the country. Another employee there, Asmi Wood, a
lawyer spoke of never-knowing his parents. He was taken from his
parents at age 2. He still remembers a few words of his tribe's
language, but just a enough to get by. You may notice that aborigines
although considered Black, were not African by descent but from New
Guinea. He shared with the group a map of the Aborigine "countries"
which were geographical named regions by aborigine tribe. He said that
there were over 350 "aborigine countries"in Australia. He said the
farther away the countries were from the cosmopolitan regions, the safer
their cultures were.
After
the cultural center, we travelled to the Australian War memorial. A
massive complex which was a huge memorial to the 102,000 Australian
soldiers who have lost their lives to war in all the conflicts in their
limited history. The facility was at the other end of the War Memorial
Mall (parade in Australian lingo). Their mall was patterned after our
mall in Washington DC. At one end of the mall was the Parliament
Building that we visited yesterday. At the other end of the mall was
the War Memorial. The distance between these structures was the same
distance between the Washington Monument and Capitol Building in DC -
see photos attached. The War memorial which is also a huge museum and
cultural center could easily take a day and a half to cover. As we only
had approximately an hour to see the memorial, the group took one of
two tours - World War 2 or Korean/Vietnam Wars. I chose the latter as I
knew a great deal more about WWII than the other conflicts. You will
see many photos of aircraft and army vehicles that were viewed through
the exhibits.
After
the exhibits we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A few years
ago, President Obama visited Canberra. He made it his business to pay
respect to this tomb, where so many Australians have fought on the side
of America. From the very beginning, America and Australia have been
staunch allies. Strangely enough, Australia has never fought a war on
their own soil, but always traveling far to assist in the wars of the
world. President Obama in paying his respects, was thanking Australia
for all the soldiers that teamed up with America for world peace.
Outside
of this tomb was the wall of Remembrance where the name of every
Australian soldier is shown. Between the names were poppies, to
commemorate their great sacrifice. I was told the poppy flower was
chosen because during World War I, the poppy was the first flower to
grow on the fields of France after their death. The poppy was
significant because the red flow symbolized the soldier's blood shed.
Below the Wall of Remembrance was an eternal flame that has been
burning since the War Memorial opened in the 1970's.
We had lunch in a small town about 20 kilometers outside of Canberra in a small town called Burgendore.
After
returning to our hotel, we went out for a group dinner. We all said
good bye to Scottie, our bus driver who has been with us these past
several days. We presented a small token of our appreciation to him
before his departure.
The
highlight for many was ordering a kangaroo burrito for dinner. The
kangaroo was delicious! It tasted like steak! See photos of the
kangaroo burrito served for dinner.
More to come. . . Upon a faster internet connection, I will send a link to video of some concerts and tours of interests.
Eric Conway
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