Whale Dreaming

I was fortunate to have gained my sea legs at a very young age. My mother still tells stories of her second daughter who at age 1 1/2 used to crawl down the beach and into the ocean before being hauled out and back up the beach coughing and spluttering only to repeat the performance all over again. In addition my father was always very proud of me as I was the only one in the family who did not get seasick. It may have been the fear of disappointing him that helped me find harmony on and in the water or perhaps I have been a whale in a former lifetime. Either way being brought up in the Bay of Islands the ocean has always played a very important part in my world and continues to provide a space that I tend to gravitate toward whenever an opportunity arises and/or whenever I am in need of nurturing.

As a result I did not hesitate to apply for the position of assistant cook on Arpana and Shamanatara’s 2010 Whale Journey to Hervey Bay. I had met Arpana through email when following the trail of the Whale Dreamers that had connected me with Bunna and Harry whilst I was in Cairns and they were passing through on their way back to Byron after the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land. Coincidently both Harry and Bunna, in the short time we shared, suggested that Arpana may be looking for another assistant cook for their October Whale Trip. And, not being one to miss out on an opportunity to share time and space with like-minded people on and in the ocean with my favourite cetaceans for company, I emailed Arpana as soon as I returned home.

A few weeks later having successfully completed the selection requirements which included phone interviews with Shamanatara, Arpana’s current wife, Moana, his ex-wife and Norma Mou their head chef my application was approved. Thus on the last day of September after a 24 hour bus journey from Cairns and an o/night visit with long time friends Mick, Lynn and their son Aaron I showed up with bag and swag in hand and reported for duty at the Urangan Harbour Pier in Hervey Bay. It was 4pm on Saturday afternoon I had no expectations of the journey ahead and nowhere else on earth I would rather be which enabled me to be absolutely present for whatever my week had in store!


Welcome to Hervey Bay the resting spot for many of Antarctica’s Humpback Whales during their winter migration to and from the warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean . . .

Arpana, his son Raj and Raj’s friend Arial were the first to arrive, two catamarans; Vallela and Cattitude, were allocated and supplies and sound equipment for 20 people for 7 days at sea began to be offloaded . . . arriving passengers, crew, and the stowing of provisions continued for the next few hours interspersed with a buffet dinner of homemade pumpkin soup and BBQ chicken aboard Cattitude. It was a busy evening yet also exciting meeting the 19 people I would be travelling with for the coming week. It reminded me of the many pre-departure meetings I had facilitated for overland journeys only instead of a formal meeting and p/work there were loads of self-introductions, hugs all round and an impromptu jam session that lasted into the wee hours. I remember slipping into my swag, which I had unrolled across the trampoline on Vallela’s foredeck, to the sound of guitar, African drums and Chinta’s Hung, a beautiful instrument originating from Switzerland. And, as I slowly drifted off into dreamtime under a sky full of southern stars I felt like one of the luckiest people on earth.

Waking to the sound of seagulls at dawn I looked at my clock for what was to be the last time for the next 6 days at sea . . . so long as I woke at sunrise I figured that there would always be time to do my yoga and meditation before preparing breakfast for our team aboard Vallela. Somehow I had landed myself on the muso’s boat and what a pleasure to have live music morning, noon and night . . . Bhajan’s for Breakfast, Lounge Music for Lunch and Jamming with the Whales each afternoon and evening . . . Whalesong, music, healing, ceremony and dance was the theme of the dream and we all shared the joy of spontaneity in co-creating our wonderland with the whales on the water and beneath the waves for a whole week!

Motoring out of Urangan Harbour we set sail north and it was not long before we encountered our first whale and calf. I had seen whales at sea and from land on several occasions yet not too dissimilar from elephant sittings in Africa it is very difficult not to be touched by the power, beauty and perfection of being in such close proximity of some of the largest mammals on earth. As my heart continued to expand my breathing became more difficult and the only way I could express the joy I felt was through song, not that I am any singer but the need to create sound outweighed any embarrassment I may have felt for singing out of tune.



What amazed me is that we never once had an organised ‘family meeting’, ‘circle’ or ‘formal discussion time’ to lay out any rules and regulations on board Vallela, everyone simply went with their flow/the flow and it worked. At times we visited Cattitude and at times their crew visited us which on one particular occasion was of great benefit to me when ZaKaiRan (www.ZaKaiRan.com), Cattitude’s skipper, came over and offered me a healing session to assist me with addressing my ongoing alignment and integration issues. He had his own unique style of working with energy and sound that I was not familiar with and whatever it was it worked in reaching and releasing the emotion that was still being held somewhere in the depths of my being. It left me feeling absolutely exhausted yet also very soft and gentle, I felt like curling up in a warm bed in the sun and that is exactly what I did until I heard the call of breeching whales!

It seems as though every time I work with someone I manage to retrieve an extra piece of my puzzle, this one in particular being from a life time on some other planet in our solar system. Each session tends to leave me more relaxed and expanded yet also somewhat disorientated; the depth of which I am learning is a good gauge as to the degree of each shift. This, combined with my inability to engage my mind as I progressively come closer and closer to aligning with my heart, seems to be a reliable indicator of relative progress . . . or that is according to my reality at the present time which, for those of you who have been sharing this journey with me have probably also realised, continues to expand and evolve ;-).

We soon slipped in to a daily routine which for me meant rising with the sun. On one particular morning this came with a call from two dolphins passing by and by the time I got out of my swag to see them on their way a whale and her baby passed within a meter of the bow directly beneath where I was standing . I enjoyed the still of the morning and the space on deck to do my ablutions and yoga while everyone else was still sleeping, the timing was to perfection and I could not have orchestrated the flow better if I had attempted to choreograph it myself. Going with the flow worked so well that by the time I had finished my meditation Norma Mou, my naturally naked and very beautiful cooking partner, would emerge and we would prepare breakfast for our family.


Once our work was done we were free to explore the ocean and/or Fraser Island which meant endless white sand beaches and crystal clear water beneath the warm southern sun. There was time to swim with the turtles and on one very special occasion I shared a magical moment of stillness in time and space within very close proximity of a whale and her calf, a moment in time that I will not forget so long as I live.


I did not really realise how busy I had kept myself in Carins until I slowed down long enough to smell the flowers which in this environment meant beachcombing, creating sand sculptures, spending time with women and bathing in the sweet waters of the island springs. Not to forget time to listening to Bunna’s stories of this ancient land and its indigenous earthkeepers that I still feel I know very little about. Our crew would generally gravitate back toward the boat around midday so that we could prepare lunch and set sail in search of whales which were never too far away as we headed in the general direction of our next evening anchorage.


On day two we met another colourful character by the name of Richie, a very gentle and humble elderly man who has spent the better part of the last 10 yrs following guidance from the Arcturian Star System to establish a grid across the length and breadth of Australia. Richie had spent a lot of time over the years on Fraser Island and as a result was the ideal candidate to lead two of the three ceremonies that took place during the course of our whale journey. Whilst Richie was up the mountain performing his first ceremony Bunna began the second one which held the vibration on the beach below. There was no prior organisation and the ceremonial space simply evolved with people coming as and when they were called and contributing to the altar and the energy in whatever way or form they felt.



Some of our best Whalesong was in the stillness of the evening which simply provided another excuse for a jam session. Kim would lower the microphone into the water and broadcast the live Whalesong over Vallela’s sound system and the boys would simply pick up the beat on the didge, the Djembe and guitar. Those who could sing led the way while the rest of us joined in for the chorus as we danced on any spare patch of deck space that could be found. And whenever I needed a break I would curl up in the mainsail cover and get gently rocked in my cradle by the ocean waves as I watched for shooting stars in the sky above. While the rest of Australia was experiencing heavy rainfall and flooding we were living like Gods and Goddesses in our magic bubble of daily sunshine and crystal clear night skies filled and overflowing with stars.

After four days in the north end of Fraser Island we made our way back to Watumba Creek to return Richie to his home base aboard his catamaran Earth Spirit and share our final ceremony. Most of those participating were called ashore in the early morning however as I had cook duties I did not feel as though I could join them as I would have liked to. This inconvenience however was soon overcome as we received a radio message of last call for ceremony just as my work was done. Slipping on my bikini and sunblock I jumped in the tender with Shelley and motored over to Cattitude to collect Annie before we headed for shore. The women were on the beach to welcome us and Bunna was waiting to paint our faces. It was time to share sacred space one last time before we headed further south for our last night at sea.


During the ceremony Richie passed on to Bunna an amethyst crystal for him to take to the land of his ancestors on the Great Australian Bite. I wondered then how related Richie’s work and Raeline’s guidance to Activate the Birthing Gates of the Starry Whale Palaces of Lemuria was to my Earthwalk Project. . . I guess only time will tell the connection and for now it is best I stay out of my head and accept that it is as it is and all seem as though they are pieces of a puzzle corresponding to some greater Divine Plan!


With our ceremony complete it was time to offer prayers and give thanks before closing sacred space. Richie invited Shelley and I back to his special space on Earth Spirit which reminded me very much of my visit to Sakina Blue Star in Sedona, Arizona only Richie’s museum was not only living but also floating. I enjoyed a long swim back to Vallela in time to raise anchor and hoist the sail as we headed out to sea to what turned out to be our most spectacular performance of whale behaviour for the entire journey.

It was early afternoon and Norma and I were doing our gig in the galley when we heard the call of whales breeching and that was simply the beginning of what turned into a 2 hour performance of breeching, tail slapping and rolling by four whales either directly in front or immediately between our two boats. Needless to say it took a long time to prepare lunch that day and the best thing was that nobody cared as there was more important music to be made.



That evening we received our first shower of rain and although I still managed my last night on deck by morning the wind had picked up and it was time to batten down the hatches and surf the waves back on the Urangan harbour on winds gusting up to 30 knots! Norma kindly made time to share her gifts of healing on the journey home and I was able to experience the benefits of another new yet perhaps very old technique working through the perineum and conception vessel. I felt an incredible opening especially through my lower chakras which made me want to feel what it was like to be a sail so I climbed up on to the top deck and flew the last leg back to Hervey Bay. And what a magnificent way it was in which to end our week of Whale Dreaming.


Raeline was at the harbour to meet us and I was able to introduce her to most of the Whaledreamers team in between sorting, packing and cleaning. My body felt as though it was still walking on water and my energy body was so expanded that I felt as though I wanted a week of silence and solitude so that I could integrate all that had happened over the past week. Now however was not the time, as it was 10.10.10 in 12 hours time and Raeline and I had too much we wanted to share before we joined in ceremony to open the first Birthing Gate of the Starry Whale Palaces of Lemuria . . .

Emersion in the Elements

Connecting with Global Fire Vigil from Great Barrier Reef

Debra and I had planned on venturing up to the Cooktown area to visit a few more Sacred Sites of Kuku Yalangi. The elements however had other plans as the Rainforest had been living up to its reputation and after a week of torrential rain, combined with only having a 2WD vehicle, limited our access to a few of the more remote sites that were highlighted on our intended map. Coincidently and without any prior communication we were both called in the direction of the Reef and as a result when Deb phoned to invite me out for a day on the Great Barrier, one of the wonders of our world, I did not hesitate to accept!


Our day began down at the pier as we boarded the Reef Magic Catamaran along with +/- 120 other local and foreign tourists and a multi-national and multi-lingual crew. Reef cruises had come a long way since my last trip out a few years back; there was a full safety briefing not too dissimilar from that of an aircraft and we had on hand dive masters, marine biologists, an attentive crew and a genuine Ozzie captain with a reasonable sense of humour. Once more, during the 90 minute journey both to and from the reef, there was a crew member on hand ready gloved and armed with ice, sick bags and compassionate smile to attend to any passengers who might find themselves in conflict with our precious element of water.


Since a couple of tourists went missing, albeit under questionable circumstances, during a trip to the reef a couple years previous all tour operators were obliged to facilitate a head count prior to departing the pier and the reef so that no one was left behind. It was during the count prior to our departure from the reef that the captain excelled himself with the comment “if you are feeling pressure on the soles of your feet it is because you are still standing on them when you should be sitting down for the count”! It reminded me of Roddy Smith’s Betty Kaunda joke form Zambia.

On Deb’s recommendation we opted out of scuba diving for the simple reason that there was little more to be seen in the depths that could not easily be viewed from the surface with mask, snorkel, a good pair of lungs and reliable set of fins. And as I recalled the same from my previous trip we chose to spend our day between the water and sundeck where form either vantage point we could easily observe the antics of “Wally” the infamous and very sociable Napoleon (Maori) Wrasse. It was the first time I had ever heard the term ‘Maori Wrasse’ even though it was quite understandable when studying the intricacy of the moko (facial tattoo) that Wally wore.


We enjoyed our time exploring the sights and sounds of one of our earth’s most colourful and beautiful eco-systems, that was until the whistle was blown and we were called back within the boundaries of the ‘snorkelling zone’. As we returned to the boat we were greeted by Wally an incredibly large, very beautiful and extremely curious Napoleon Wrasse. He actually swam up to us when we first arrived and we could see his eye carefully inspecting each one of us as we gently stroked him. Wally is a very playful character that clearly enjoys interacting with anyone who ventures into the near vicinity of his underwater world.


Deb also shared a very special story of the last time she came out to the reef with her friend Jo . . . They had been snorkelling for quite some time, long enough for the two of them to have ventured beyond the main snorkelling zone and for Jo to be feeling the cold. Deb took Jo by the hand and suggested they head back only the wind had come up and it was not easy to decipher the direction of the Marine World Pontoon. From out of the nowhere came one of the wrasse who circled them before proceeding to lead the way back to the boat. Once Jo’s hand was on the bottom rung of the ladder it turned to them in acknowledgement then disappeared back off into the blue from where it had come . . . what a beautiful example of how we are able to communicate with our natural world.

On our way back to the pontoon and coincidently with no prior arrangement I saw Deb conducting an underwater Oneness Blessing for the Reef at exactly the same time that I was connecting with Wake and Kinlen Wheeler’s Global Fire Vigil. For more information on Global Fire Vigil please visit; www.sacredpathways.us


We enjoyed an afternoon snorkel tour to the outer reef and a lazy afternoon watching the world go by as we motored back to Cairns. It was an opportunity to reflect on my 3 months and 3 weeks I had been residing in Carins. I have really appreciated being still for a while and becoming part of another community. In addition to my Argentine Tango lessons twice weekly I have also enjoyed participating and assisting when asked with Deb and Amanda’s Meditation and Oneness Blessing Group and to observe it evolve and grow. Consequently I was also very aware how easy it was for me to slip into my comfort zone. I had since received a couple more invitations to house-sit and if I hadn’t been invited to fulfil the position of assistant chef on Dr Didge’s Whale Research Journey in Hervey Bay on the 2nd October I may have been tempted to stay.

I may not have got around to editing my book to present to a publisher but I know that will happen in good time and could quite easily make it my project for the festive season if I am not called or tempted to venture elsewhere on our earth. I am however very pleased that the Earthwalk Project website is finally due to due to go live and I have managed to navigate my way into the 21st century of social communications with a little help from my first project donation of an iPhone and a lot of experimentation !@#$%^! In addition through the Munay-Ki and T5T workshops I have taught has come much learning, growth and trust in my own ability to share my knowledge and experience with others in a way that can be easily understood.


And what better way to end a wonderful day than sharing it with friends both new and old. It was a pleasure to prepare a seafood feast for Robert, Leanne and Debra to thank them for the privilege of house-sitting their special space and for simply being part of my life. And it was just as special to be woken by the Kookaburra’s at dawn the following morning to be called out onto the veranda where I observed a beautiful little spider weaving a new web. It made me realise that with the Munay-Ki gathering I had arranged for the coming evening I was busy in a similar way joining the dots with strands of light that linked like-minded people together.


Erica, Robert and Leanne’s cleaning lady, kindly loaned me her car for my last couple weeks in Cairns which was a great help even though my hope to purchase it fell through at the last minute. Coincidently this left me too little time to look elsewhere before I had to leave for Hervey Bay, perhaps the universe has other plans and my hope to return to Sedona to attend my Tantra Teacher Training and Drunvalo’s Advanced Earth/Sky Living in the Heart Workshop in November may still be on the cards. But that too is only one of the many possibilities of what the future may hold and right now I am very much pleased to be living very much in the present moment.

After all what more could one want than a 24 hour bus journey to Harvey Bay accompanied by Shirley MacLaine’s, ‘El Camino’? This is the homework I was given from a recent healing session with Celia Fuller where I explored, excavated and repaired a little more of my ‘Atlantean Experiment’ past life debris that is causing my current physical left/right integration/alignment issues. And if that doesn’t shed a little more light on my past and thus my future than I am sure a whole week on the water with the whales in Hervey Bay will certainly bring the elements and everything else back to balance!

Munay-Ki in Carins

Just when I thought my time in Cairns was complete I was asked to facilitate another Munay-Ki workshop. And, in a short space of time having agreed to the proposal I found myself with another six dedicated students ready to take the next step along the path of their respective spiritual journey. My time was flexible as was the weather patterns thus we were able to weave our workshop within the natural landscapes; parks and beaches on the outskirts of the city retreating to Alexi’s veranda at times of rain.

Perched on a hillside on the edge of a National Park behind Smithfield Alexia’s space proved the perfect venue, with mother earth the ultimate partner, for a magical journey with the Munay-Ki. Submerged in the tropical rainforest we were blessed with incredible interaction from the surrounding birdlife and reptiles, as well as Alexi’s interesting and ingenious neighbours that came and went from the upstairs section of the house she rented.


On my first morning at Alexia’s I met Kelli Craig, originally from Northland, New Zealand who for the past +/-20 yrs on assignment (her own) in Queensland Far North. Working with Aboriginal communities through circus (circle us) Kelli has developed the legacy of Blackrobats.

"Circus arts teach kids confidence through physical co-ordination and fitness alongside the value of co-operation and can help improve the health and education of the whole community."

Blackrobats aims to expand the horizons of the young people from the indigenous communities in Far North Queensland. Through workshops and performance opportunities, the young people are encouraged to develop their skills and experiences.

For anyone who may be interested in learning more about or supporting Blackrobats Kelli may be contacted through the following links;

Facebook: BLACKROBATS
Website: www.northerncircus.com

Meanwhile our weekends spent in workshop felt more like being on a goddess retreat than anything relating to work. And as with all my workshops I learn from teaching, my initiates are very much my teachers and I love the challenge of being absolutely present all the time so that I am able to source the correct words or practical exercises to help people better understand our multi-dimensional reality. As through realising this, combined with learning where our energy comes from how we hold it and where we expend it, we are better able to access our unlimited power and potential taking full responsibility of what we are creating in our lives.



And once the self-healing tools and techniques had been mastered and the theory understood there was no better way to end each day than through the ritual of sharing the Rites and the honouring of these unique gifts through Fire Ceremony.



"If you want to learn something, read about it.
If you want to understand something, write about it.
If you want to master something, teach it."

Yogi Bhaja



I am currently in Queensland, Australia however am happy to travel to anywhere in the world to facilitate both Munay-Ki (www.munay-ki.org) and T5T: The Five Tibetan Rites, Core Stability and Energy Breathing (www.T5T.com Workshops) in addition to offering my services as a live-in Holistic Life Coach and/or Private Healing Sessions. For further information please contact me by email; earthwalk.project@gmail.com.

What it means to be family in PNG.

Celebration, Initiation and Farewell

It was our last day in Tanhum and I decided to give the market excursion a miss in favour of my yoga and meditation group as today I also needed to make time to fulfil my promise to the children, that we would learn something new. The idea had been born by Isaac’s (age 9) insatiable appetite for reading. Without having any books of his own in Tanhum he had discovered the one I was reading; THE MINDMAP Book, Radiant Thinking by Tony Buzan. I figured the best way to help him understand the concept of mind-mapping would be if we shared one of the exercises and of course his siblings were not about to miss out on the opportunity of playing with paper, coloured pencils and felt tips!


At first I explained, as best I could to a group of 7 – 11 yr olds, what we were doing and then we began to create our own mind maps, or so I thought until I very soon realised that the way they had been taught to learn was by re-creating the same information in the same way that it was given to them. Instead of creating their own mind-map they were recreating their interpretation of mine, exactly the process of learning that mind mapping was designed to undo. Through the use of colour, symbols, drawing and writing mind mapping is a tool that encourages us to think outside the square, to step beyond linear thinking and access and utilise more of our brain’s capacity and creativity. To assemble and refine ideas by separating thinking and writing according to Tony Buzan, “allows us to be more creative and more efficient when interpreting our ideas into words”.

Wondering how I might go about helping the children to change their programming I decided that they would probably have much more fun if we changed our lesson into one based on Origami, creating shapes from paper. The situation reminded me of an experience Niki shared with me when she was Ops Manager on Lahir. She said that whenever she or any of her staff were teaching a new operator she or they had to make sure they got it exactly right first time as if they didn’t 9 times out of 10 the trainee operator would continue to make the same mistake over and over again. I cannot think of a more obvious example of imprinting or blue-printing that supports why we must “walk our talk”, the days of “do what I say and not what I do” are over! If we want to teach the next generation; love, compassion, honour, respect, equality, gratitude, joy then best we “practice what we preach” as they seem to learn far more from what we do than what we say.

Aisha, Niki and Nick returned from the market a little disappointed with the lack of produce available. We were evidently expecting somewhere between 50 and 100 people to feed this evening and Kelly’s pig was not going to be enough on its own. Stephen and his friends were taking care of the butchery dept while Mama, Papa and a few Aunties took charge of rest of the food preparations. By mid morning a number of different delicacies from palm nuts to doughnuts began to appear and although everyone was browsing from the table the intake managed to stay above the off-take.


As the day evolved and to my delight I found myself responsible for children’s entertainment, which certainly made a refreshing change to the old theme of “you will always find me in the kitchen at parties”. This meant completing our origami class and cleaning up the mess, preparing a salad for lunch, playing frisbee in the mud and rain and an afternoon off while the children congregated at Louisa’s house to practise their song and dance for their evening performance.

As the kitchen was under control, I decided to take myself off for my last walk through the Copra Plantation. The week had flown by and I had learnt a little more about myself and a little about life as a Bougainville National living on Buka Island. It was hard to imagine that malaria remained the major killer of a population that lived predominantly in rural areas on less than $1.00 a day on an Island so close to so called ‘Western Civilisation’. Especially when, PNG have such a wealth of natural resources that are currently being extracted by predominantly foreign mining companies.

Two of the girls met me on the road as I was returning just before sunset. I thought this was a little odd and figured that something must be up and when I returned to the house I found out what . . . I, as one of the distinguished guests for the evening, was late for what I had not realised was to be my own initiation ceremony! Oopps . . . a thousand apologies, time for a quick pee and a glass of water before I raced upstairs to get my Merry Blouse on and get back down in time for opening speeches and to be presented with my shell money; necklaces made of coral from the Solomon Islands. It was an honour that I had neither expected nor anticipated and felt very privileged to receive.


As the guests of honour Niki and I were invited along with the chief and elder gentlemen to lead the way to the table that was laden with fish, pork fruit and every possible starch you can imagine. The ladies were next followed by the children and by the time I came back to see if there was any fish left there was hardly a scrap remaining. Yet, seeing that I was looking for more one of the ladies took the remaining fish from her plate and placed it on mine. I wanted to refuse her offer but realised to do so would not be good manners so gracefully accepted.


That is one of the distinct differences I noticed about living with Aisha and Nick’s family compared with life in middle world western society and that is the feeling of being seen and heard without the use of words. People always knew where I was and what I needed without having to ask. There was an awareness beyond self where communication took place on many levels. That doesn’t mean that there was no village gossip as that remained as the main form of media in the rural areas, it was more like the 6th sense was still very much present and utilised.



Once the feasting was over there was time for the children, led by aunty, to share their music and songs. Then, the man who had introduced himself to me as Nelson Mandela did a little shape-shifting to become (according to him) Slim Dusty, and on guitar and vocals led the ladies on to the dance floor beneath the southern starts, a perfect way to end our visit to Tanhum. And as it seems, by the number of Orbs in my photo of the moon rising we had plenty of company from other realms to support the occasion.


Niki and Papa had made the most of the reamaing home brew that our visitors had not consumed leaving them a little worse for wear the following morning. This left the children and I with the wise choice of entertaining ourselves elsewhere and on that note an outing to the beach accompanied by Uncle seemed like a great idea. I have never needed an excuse to swim and our venture down to the beach also revealed a few more WWII stories and sites of importance. These included the caves where Uncle, as a child, took shelter during air raids and underground caches that were used to bury weapons and ammunitions.


We were back at the house in time for a late lunch after which I suggested we make a plan to leave by 3pm so that I could stand true to my offer of preparing supper for everyone on our return. And the best news of all was that as Aisha and Nick supported their extended family in the village that they would take care of cleaning the house. This is when Niki began to explain to me the one-talk system that society in the islands throughout PNG is predominantly based upon and, according to some, is what restricts the evolution of the culture as it attempts to integrate certain western values.

According to Niki, family are able to ask other family members for, ‘within reason’, anything they need or want and if you as a family member are able to fulfil that request then you are expected to do so. Niki explained that a certain amount of filtering does go on and as a queen in her particular clan Aisha and her mother fulfill this role. Therefore if anyone in the family asked Niki for anything she would first have to check in with Aisha before she went ahead and purchased it.

After a week at the village and a long drive home, children were tired and adults were relaxed although in some ways I felt they were perhaps also a little reluctant to come back to town living. Babies needed bathing, beds needed to be made and I had a dinner to cook, a large pot of beans and vegetables in a coconut curry. I always knew when people appreciated my creations as there were always many words of gratitude, compliments and requests for recipes. As a result I also knew when I was exploring foreign territory and our last night was one of these moments. Coconuts although used for drinking and eating were seldom used as part of the ingredients of a cooked meal and I soon realised why as I observed those who had dedicated much of their life to chewing betel experienced a little difficulty chewing the grated coconut. The flavour however was approved and I am sure with exclusion of the raw coconut the recipe will be revisited in Aisha and Nick’s kitchen on Buka.

On our last morning in Buka Town Nicole, Issac & Isaleen Aisha and Nick’s three eldest children, took us on a shopping trip to the local market for fresh fruit and souvieners. As Buka is not yet a major tourist destination it was quite surprising how expensive woven baskets and handicrafts were. When discussing this with Aisha and Niki they explained that inflation on the Island had been about 300% in the last 5 yrs and continued to rise. An example of this was the bus fare from main town Buka to Tanhum which now cost Kina 20, the equivalent of almost AUD 10.00, not cheap when held next to the average income of $1.00 per day.


It is a time of change in Buka and perhaps also Bougainville and greater PNG and what is encouraging is that Aisha and Nick, having decided that six children are enough, are ready and willing to fulfil their roles as leaders within their community and make conscious choices that better serve their island as a whole. We also had an opportunity to discuss the earth changes that are beginning to take place, information that was at the time new to them yet perhaps not to uncle, the story teller of the family, who carries many of the old stories.


I suggested uncle might like to do a little of his own research into any stories that people may still recall from the last turning over of time on our earth so that they may better prepare themselves for the one that is coming. It also made me wonder if the vision I had had the day before we flew from Cairns to PNG of a volcano erupting had anything to do with the one that erupted in Indonesia the day before we left these beautiful tropical Islands that sit on the rim of the Pacific Tectonic Plate???


Time to head to the airport and uncle arrived in his truck to do the honours, after all how else could you get 18 adults and children to the airport and back without it costing an arm and a leg in taxi fares of hire vehicles? There were many hugs, tears, and invitations to come back as we said our goodbyes and exchanged last minute gifts of gratitude. I am glad that I brought a Ponamu (NZ Jade/Greenstone) to gift to Aisha, Nick and family and they appreciated it from the cultural aspect of the meaning that it carried, that one day they too would travel to the land of my birth.



Due to torrential rain in Far North Queensland our return flight from Port Moresby to Cairns was delayed. This meant a few hours wait at Port Moresby International that was made all the more comfortable by Niki’s QANTAS platinum card which allowed us access to the executive lounge. Here, ‘coincidently’ we ended up sharing space with four men who were on their way back to Australia having just visited Lahir Island and the very mine where Niki used to be operations manager. This was my opportunity to see Niki in work mode as she rolled up her sleeves, cracked open a beer and began to talk shop with the boys.

It was interesting to listen to the conversation and learn a little about Niki’s world. It was also interesting listening to the silence that descended when, after sitting quietly for the first half an hour or so, I was asked what I did. I figured it best to speak my truth so introduced my line of work as conservation which effectively I guess it is, only now on a more planetary scale. I spoke a little of where I had been and what I did now and answered a few curious questions before the conversation reverted to mining and I found a common interested with the mine doctor. Eventually our gathering dispersed as everyone got called away by their mobile offices and I found a quiet space in the corner under a story board to begin recording my journey to PNG, a journey that I would like to thank Niki, Aisha, Nick’s and their extended family for making possible.

Village Life, Tahum, Buka Island

Slipping in with the rhythm of the land and the people brought to the fore the simplicity and beauty of village life. Rising with the sun I would step out on to the deck and do my morning yoga while the rest of the house and village woke from their dreamtime and went about their morning ablutions. Organically, my morning yoga and meditation class of dedicated young students would assemble themselves, joining in for as little or as long as they liked.

There was always plenty of hot water for tea, food to eat, and betel nut for chewing, and very rarely was there not someone from the house or neighbourhood to share this with. In fact eating was so much a part of life and it did take conscious effort not to eat just for the sake of eating, especially when Nick brought back some banana leaf packages filled with steamed banana and ground palm nuts from the local market. Betel on the other hand was much easier to resist especially when taking into consideration that the catalyst for the process was nothing more or less than pure unadulterated lime, the same stuff you get warned to wash off your car after passing through certain road works, and that was what people were dabbing into their mouths . . . http://www.wikihow.com/Chew-Betel-Nut-in-Papua-New-Guinea


Time was never really discussed unless we actually had to be somewhere early-ish such as on the one occasion I can recall which was the Saturday morning market prior to the evening Mumu (traditional feast cooked underground similar to that of NZ hangi). Otherwise the intent of the activity for the day was given and when all those who were interested in participating were ready to go we would make a movement. An almost organic process unless I thought I had ‘time’ to do something before the main party departed and Aisha would quietly yet quite clearly mention “that’s OK, we will wait”. Then I knew I was pushing the boundaries of natural law and matriarchal order to the limit . . . I guess I was not too good at sitting still when there was so much to explore.


We had a fun family outing to the ‘old house’, Aisha and Nick’s original house on the beach. A wooden house on poles that formally belonged to Mama and Papa now housed Aisha’s younger brother Kelly and his family. There was a huge gathering of people including the village chief and our visitation was the instigation of much feet washing and celebration. We paid our respects at Grandfather’s grave and were subsequently introduced to the majority of the extended family. It was a shame that the tide was out as I would have loved to have taken a swim although saying that, it didn’t seem right to take myself off to the edge of the reef during our first official family visit. The children however had nothing to worry about and made the most of the cool pools of spring fed waters at the edge of the sand.


As Aisha had said “your visit to Tanhum is the talk of the town” and this was clearly obvious when I took the children, or perhaps they took me, out later in the afternoon for a walk up the main road though the Copra Plantations. Here, although everyone knew exactly who I was and where I was staying, found it a useful way in which to open a conversation either in English, occasionally pidgin or in their local dialect through the translation of the children. Although there are over 850 indigenous languages throughout PNG the most common language I heard during my stay was pidgin and as it wasn’t too far removed from the English Language, although I could not always follow the detail of the conversation, by listening and paying close attention to body language I could usually get the gist of it.

Our first afternoon walk together began as an adventure which for the younger kids soon turned to boredom so I asked myself how we could make a game of it. Recalling endless hours trekking in the Himalayas during my earlier years with Encounter I figured that I had better quickly come up with a participatory song before I had a mutiny. And sure enough the boredom vanished, the energy shifted and, much to the amusement of our fellow villagers, the walking was forgotten and we sang and danced our way in and between the pools of water along the dirt road that ran through the Copra Plantation and our walks from then on became part of our afternoon ritual.


During our wanderings we were invited in to the local copra factory to learn what one of Buka’s main industries was all about. Coconuts were everywhere but what the problem was, according to both Aisha and Nick, was that Buka did not have its own processing plant and as a result the island earned very little for exporting its raw product. It did however provide a dozen young men with a regular job and income and our visit provided them with enough entertainment and stories to last for a few betel nut sessions with Bob . . . Reggae was clearly the music of preference on the island and dreadlocks were a common adornment on many of the men.


On one of our evening walks we bumped into uncle pushing his lawnmower down the road on his way home. And, as the sun began to set through the copra he shared with me stories of his childhood experiences during the Second World War. I must have either missed or forgotten that particular history lesson at college as until then I had no conscious recall how much PNG had been involved in the war, having first been invaded by the Japanese and then occupied by the allied forces. And, as uncle recalled these memories, I could feel the fear that was still being carried not only from WWII but also from the more recent Bougainville Crisis, a topic that to this day remains as one that is spoken of in whispers.


On our flight over to PNG Niki had mentioned that she once met Francis Ono, a former employee of Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and the instigator of the Bougainville Crisis. She described him as a man without a soul and the words of his she recalled from their brief meeting were “that although he did not regret what he did, he did regret how he did it!” Briefly, through what I understand from the few conversations where I was invited to talk about the crisis was that BCL, the mining company were prepared to compensate the local people for the losses they were claiming yet the PNG Govt would not allow this to be done. For more info on the Bougainville Crisis; http://epress.anu.edu.au/sspng/sspng_13_ONLINE.pdf

Meanwhile back to the story . . .


We woke on our second day in Tanhum to the sound of rain, thankful that it was not the day for our island journey I figured that we would have enough entertainment watching Papa and Niki create their ‘home-brew’. This meant Papa taking an early morning trip to the local markets to purchase a pineapple, perhaps the only organic ingredient that would go into the cauldron of sugar, water and yeast! And while Papa and Niki perfected the art of home brewing the girls made the most of the opportunity to play with my long hair and weave their own magic.


Having not visited a hairdresser once in the last 20 years it was the longest time I have ever sat still and allowed myself to be groomed. Even Raffiki, our little vervet monkey in Ethiopia, didn’t have the dedication these girls had! At first I was a little restless wondering how I might endure having my hair pulled into plaits during the course of the morning however the girls could not have been more gentle and did a great job that lasted all the way back to Carins.


Back to the business of food . . . I did my best to produce a balanced meal made of local ingredients for lunch each day. Although there was always plenty of food to go around, the balance seemed to sway very much in favour of carbohydrates with little emphasis on protein or fresh fruit and veg. And what surprised me was that there was no cheap source of vegetarian protein as found in many of the developing countries I have visited over the years. Perhaps this was because most people had access to fresh fish or perhaps it was simply because people were not aware of the importance of protein in our diet.

I also offered to prepare a Banana and Coconut Cake to take for our picnic lunch to Hitou Island the following day. It was a team effort and a roaring success all the way from the measuring and mashing of ingredients and licking the mixing bowl to preparing and supervising the fire for the camp oven and taste testing the final product! And, as it so happened, Niki and Papa also did a great job of their creating which kept the two of them (including us by default) awake well into the wee hours of the morning, and not in any particularly fit state for our excursion to Hitou Island the following day.


Nevertheless our journey to the Hitou, an island off the north east coast of Buka where Mama spent much of her childhood prior to being married by arrangement to Papa, ran remarkably smoothly. Nick ran two shuttles between Tanhum and the beach at the north where we boarded our boat to Hitou. It was a big day out as none of Aisha and Nick’s children had ever been to Hitou and Aisha hadn’t been since she was a child. It amazed me how well behaved all of the 12 children were but then I realised that there were just as many adults as there were children and everyone quite naturally took care of whichever child was closest to them.


Upon arrival at the island we were greeted with the customary foot washing right next to a turtle that was being butchered. I was wondering if this might be a special delicacy in our honour and was very relieved when lunchtime came and we were offered fish. Lunch however was the least of my concerns as before that happened I had an opportunity to explore the reef and take a swim off the edge and into the blue while Louisa and Aunty collected shellfish. Oh, how I wished I had brought a mask and a snorkel with me as where the reef around the main island of Buka had been destroyed by locals fishing with dynamite during the earlier years of mining in PNG, the far reef off Hitou was completely unspoilt.


We eventually made it back to base where having just finished lunch, dishes and tea were the priority, that was for everyone except Niki and Papa who both badly needed their siesta even more than they needed tea. We figured this gave us just enough time to indulge in our second green drinking coconuts for the day, consume our share of fresh fish and still have time to explore the rest of the island before we had to leave. I was beginning to enjoy hanging out with the kids and as much as I was teaching them they were teaching me how to live lightly with a beginners mind and a sense of fun and playfulness.


Our journey back took us via the island of Maloulou which although predominantly a fishing island provided us with a sheltered sandy bay that was perfect to take the kids for a swim before returning to the mainland and an early night for a house full of sun and sea weathered travellers.