Sunday, April 22, Day 42

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)




Yesterday we took in another weekly market at Nightcliff. We bumped into Saveeta and Jenne there as we had decided to go after learning about it earlier at the Parap Market and discovered they were also planning to pop around, during the course of the evening's discussions. After wandering the market stalls, Jenne offered to take us on a walk through the mangroves on East Point so we dropped off Saveeta at home as she had homework to finish and then made for start of bush walk. Left Cora Lee in a shady area picnic area, (Her foot is still sore, unfortunately.), overlooking gorgeous rocky beach and we set off for about a 3K loop. Saw a bush turkey and a bit later on came across two huge nesting mounds created by these creatures. Hard to believe the size, roughly 5-6 metres across, probably 2 metres high. Jenne and Saveeta were living in Cambodia for last 8 years and have just been back in Darwin a year or so. Rented out her house and came home to find one of these mounds in her front garden! Could have used Trevor's mini-cat digger!

Cool in tree tunnels through the bush, (turned out it was not actually a mangrove walk),but once closer to shore it was baking. I was simply drenched but din't mind as I'd dressed appropriately and cooling breeze dreid me off. Picked up Coriandre, reading comfortably on a shaded park bench and Jenne dropped us off at the near-bye East Point Military Museum, (our walk was actually in the tropical surrounds which are part of the East Point Military Reserve), as we wanted to take in the recently opened galleries displaying war memorabilia and live footage of the Japanese bombing of Darwin.

Thanked Jenne for terrific walk and made arrangements to meet her and Saveeta for dinner on Monday. Waved goodbye and made our way into museum about 2:20pm. Closed at 5:00pm and I was the last visitor to leave as staff were counting day's take! Outside were displayed a host of army vehicles and armament set around the original bunker which housed one of the 9.2" guns which, ironically were never fired, other than during testing, as they were completely useless against airplanes! The galleries inside the new structure, (Jenne had never seen it before since it was built while she was away in Cambodia.), were simply fascinating and took tremendous advantage of the new iPad-like, large, touch screen technology. The wall sized video screen showed a remarkable recreation of the bombing, mixed multi-media incorporating actual still photographs, animated sequences, (Star Wars-like airplanes, exploding bombs, anti-aircraft batteries, burning buildings, etc.), voice-overs of survivors. Extremely well-done and very powerful. 

I spent much of my time scrolling through the table display which allowed one to choose an individual, citizens through military personnel. Once one selected a particular screen the table top display showed the geographical location of the individual, during the raids, and the audio track played their account of the attack, either narrated from transcripts made after the bombing or, in some cases, recordings of the actual voices of the survivors. The stories were gut-wrenching but often filled with humour so it was not overly depressing, though profoundly moving, of course. One of the more delightful accounts was the description by the Aboriginal man credited with capturing the first Japanese prisoner-of-war, a downed pilot on Bathurst Island, I believe, whose plane received a bullet in an oil tank during a bombing/strafing run. Probably wasn't his actual voice but narration was true to Aboriginal speech patterns, at least as far as I know them to be, and it was remarkable, inasmuch, as his words and actions brought to life his keen intelligence and obvious understanding of dangerous situation. When he had disarmed flyer, (he tracked him for a short time), he removed the bullets from the gun and ordered him to show him how unfamiliar weapon operated. Re-loading the pistol he fired a number of shots at the prisoner's feet and pointed in the direction he wanted him to walk! All done with a relaxed yet deadly serious economy! I imagine the Japanese flyer was quickly disabused of any notions of over-powering his captor!

Back to find Cora Lee reading outside, (air conditioning was almost frigid!), and we called a cab as Museum is not on a local bus route! Once in our room Cora Lee had a short nap while I went back to Coles for more supplies. When I returned she was showered and changed and we made for Cinema, really only a pleasant ten minute stroll. The Darwin Central Hotel is aptly named!


That night we walked down to the Deckchair Cinema, again, with another picnic dinner, to watch a delightful, moving film, Africa United, about a group of five youngsters who make their way from Rwanda to Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup. More of a fairy tale, (cartoon graphics illustrate stories Dudu, main character, tells en route), but with important messages regarding safe sex, (Dudu makes a soccer ball out of a condom, plastic shopping bag and string), HIV, child soldiers, prostitution and the importance of education. Gorgeous scenery and charming characters. Lots of hilarity but enough very nasty bits to bring home the terrible situations people, children in particular, face across this incredible continent.