Joe McDermott in Concert!
Where in the World?!
Thanks for bearing with us as we careen to the close of the year- we are assessing, wrapping up projects, hanging art (and practicing volleyball for our challenge against the 8th graders this Monday – please light candles for us)! Even so, we managed to visit the continent down under and even got a fantastic glimpse of Australia’s neighbor, New Zealand!
Alphas know that climate and resources affect the way people live. They know that the scarcer the resource, the more precious it becomes. We saw that Australia is mostly desert and Alphas predicted that people would tend to live in areas closest to fresh water – and they were right!
We learned that during the ice-age, a lot of land between Asia and Australia was exposed which made it easier for ancient people to migrate to Australia – but when the ice melted and seas rose, Australia became isolated. So much so The indigenous people living there, Australian Aboriginal people were cut off from other lands and immigrants. These Australians are the oldest continuous inhabitants of an area on Earth: 65,000 years!
Australia doesn’t have a lot of rivers in the middle….
These people learned to live on the land – but as we noted, water was a precious commodity, as were hunting grounds. Elders of the tribes made coded maps, which were passed down from generation to generation to explain where to find things in their territory.
These remarkable people believe that there is no actual “origin” or creation myth because creation is continuous. They call it “Dreamtime,” or “The Dreaming,” where there is no past, present, or future, it is all happening right now and this shapes the values they feel towards the land and creatures that sustain them. Aboriginal people believe the interconnectedness of all things make them the stewards of their territory. They believe by taking care of it, takes care of them.
Aboriginal people made art to honor the sacredness of their land and totems were a part of that. We tried our hand at making Australian Dot Paintings. Out of respect for their sacred totems, we used native Texan creatures for our totems and we “hid” our billabongs, rivers, meeting places, and hunting grounds in the concentric “songlines” around our creatures
. 
Oh yeah! and marsupials! Australia is lousy with ‘em – thanks to their isolation after the ice melted!
Thank you Sadie and Yang for sharing your knowledge and travels with us!!!
Alphas loved doing the Tim-Tam Slam!
In Other News…
Happy birthday Reeder!!! Alpha loves how silly and inventive you are! We are also super thankful for the delicious popsicles.
Big Big thanks to Joe McDermott for coming by to share his music and wild sense of humor with our Alphas and Betas!!!
Ask your kids about the coolest form of poetry out there – Wet Poetry!!!
There’s a new beauty shop in town…
A real alebrije! Thank you Leo for sharing this majestic creature with us!
