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June 17, 2001
Overland Australia - basecamp update 2
'Tales From the Outback'
June 17th 2001
Hi everyone! My name is Rebecca; I'm the photographer from Minneapolis helping out with the photo/video exchange programs during the "Aussie" leg of Expedition 360. This city kid from the North side of Minneapolis has had quite an adventure so far. After adjusting to life in the sleepy little ocean-side town of Cairns, I began exploring options & resources for the exchange programs.
I teamed up with local teacher, Sheryll Oliver, from the School of Distance Education. This school combines HF radio daily lessons, home visits and mini-school camps for outback kids who cannot attend conventional schools. After massive brainstorming we came up with a plan to work within her curriculum. First I visited camp at Clifton Beach and let the kids use digital cameras to record the events: Campfires, Lessons, Fish & Chips night, Sandcastle competitions etc. In the meantime I snuck in a few lessons on composition & lighting under the disguise of a "photo scavenger hunt". (After all it was a school event they should learn something right?)
I was roped into doing a small photo-shoot, class photo's of all the kids at camp, with help from my trusty young assistant Dylan. I was also given the honor of filling in for Les Jensen, a local photographer, as a Juror for the "Dr. Koch Foundation's" annual art exhibit. My first attempts on the airwaves didn't go over as well. During the ABC radio interview, I referred to the lovely "Summer" weather Cairns was having and the kids couldn't understand my accent on their HF radio lesson with me.
Last week I had the privilege of tagging along on Sheryll's home visits to the kids in the outback. Everyone made a point to show us the most stunning places on the properties they lived on. The kids really enjoyed using my cameras, especially the 15mm fish-eye lens (a big step up from the "mold experiments" Jason has for cameras). Between the animals I met and the rustic life of the Tablelands, I learned a lot of new things: How to open gates, Why 4x4's have handles in them, "Donkey's" are not just animals (they are also outdoor tin shower stalls with a wood burning stove to heat the water), those big red rocks are ant hills (built by the ants, not sub-contracted out), cows can do the long-jump in PE class too, and how to feed a baby kangaroo it's bottle. Last but not least, the scary noise outside the shack I slept in was not a dingo but a little baby ferrel pig named "Dude" that growls like a dog. My little attack pig was kind enough to guard me the rest of the night from all the other barnyard noises so I didn’t have to bother Sheryll all evening.
Next I'm viewing the video that our high-tech wiz kids from Cairns State High & St. Monica's are putting together for us. Graft N' Arts was kind enough to lend me their darkroom to print the photo's for the "Zine" being constructed at Sheryll's mini-camp with the photo kids in July. Then I escape to New Zealand until I join up with the expedition in Alice Springs early in August, where I'll be working with Yarrara College.
Posted on June 17, 2001 2:10 PM