We've Got Crabs

 

I mentioned on FB the other day that David came home with a crab net. We had dinner with some folks who mentioned how good local blue swimmers were. “Hmm … what's a blue swimmer?” and we learned that they were the local blue crabs, so of course, our interest was piqued. Hence, the new crab net.

I checked on line with the South Australia fisheries to see if we needed a license and we didn't. We asked Kim, a local whose boat is across the dock from us, more about catching blue crabs locally. “Where's a good spot?”, we queried, hoping he might share a tidbit. “Off the end of your boat, I reckon”, he responded. Really? Here in the marina? Evidently yes! Wow … how easy is that?

So after coming home with a crab net one day, David returned from the local chandlery the next day with a bag of frozen fish heads. We weren't really ready to start crabbing yet actually, but when the compressor on the fridge went and those fish heads started thawing, it provided some incentive to begin the crabbing experience immediately.

David stuck some fish heads in a net bag, tied it to the crab net and we lowered it off the end of the dock next to the boat. Sure enough … a blue crab (and they definitely are blue) came a'calling within an hour or so. Then another ... and I got a kettle of water boiling. I looked up cooking instructions on line … not much different than cooking lobster. I sincerely apologized to them when I put them in the pot. They turned immediately from blue to red. We researched how to clean them … no mallets involved like we used to use when we ate them in the Chesapeake. It's simple, painless (unless a crab gets you with his sharp, pointy pincer) and the crab meat is as sweet as can be. Oooooh, la, la.

We did see a few crabs swimming away from our net every once in awhile. Locals Dwayne and Kelly came for dinner one night and we asked a few more questions. “Is there a better bait, like chicken skin or necks?”, we wanted to know. “It's illegal to use chicken or beef as bait in South Australia”, Dwayne told us, “… fish heads are the usual. Place them so they're in the middle of the net, not near the outside edge. The crabs will eat from outside of the net if they can reach the bait.” (tricky crabs, huh?). Aha, David had tied the very aromatic fish head sachet to the side of the net and immediately made the adjustment. Sure enough we had enough crabs for dinner again last night.

Life is good … despite the hiccups.

Art in Adelaide

Art Gallery of South Australia and Tandanya

We were interested in getting a little culture and with the temps soaring into the 100F's (40C's), an air-conditioned art gallery didn't sound bad at all. We headed to the Art Gallery of South Australia first since it was just a few blocks up from the train station on North Terrace, Adelaide's “culture boulevard".

The Art Gallery of South Australia was founded in 1881 and is housed in a beautiful, stately building next to the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide. Its collection of 38,000 pieces includes all types of media from paintings and sculptures to ceramics, metalwork, photographs, fabric and jewelry and most everything in between. The galleries are spacious with arched dome roofs that allow in soft, natural light.

We were most interested in the Australian and Indigenous Art.

But the Asian galleries were very interesting, like these life-size carved Japanese temple guards ...

and a wall of Indonesian dance masks

and the only dedicated Islamic gallery in Australia.

A late lunch at the gallery and we gasped as we left the A/C and headed out into the heat. We took the free downtown circulator bus to within a block of Tandanya, the oldest Aboriginal owned and managed gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Islander art in Australia.

Tandanya, by the way, is the name given by the indigenous people, the Kaurna (pronounced Garna), to their native lands in the Adelaide area. It's the word for “red kangaroo place” and their logo reflects this.

The quality and diversity of the artwork was wonderful: acrylics, carvings, weaving, fabric, all highly influenced by the Aboriginal beliefs, myths and natural surroundings. The gallery is not large, but each piece was well-documented and for sale. A carved croc was particularly beautiful.

We were introduced for the first time to the works of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, probably the most renowned Aboriginal painter of all times. Several of his works were on display which brought up the question of Aboriginal Dot Painting which is very distinct and unique. A helpful docent answered thoughtfully and further research provided more answers. It's all theory, but the best answer is probably … keeping secrets.

South Australian Museum

 

I've always extolled the virtues of early development of libraries, art galleries and museums. It impresses me that when actual existence and survival were at stake, people still found time, energy and money to develop the arts and museums. Founded in 1856, just 20 years after Adelaide was founded, the South Australian Museum sits majestically on the cultural boulevard known as North Terrace, in the Adelaide Parklands. With over four million objects and specimens in their collection, we figured that would be enough to keep us busy for a few hours.

Though the Museum offers exhibitions on dinosaurs and Egypt and meteors … all interesting, mind you … we were most interested in their Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, considered the largest collection of Aboriginal artifacts in the Southern Hemisphere. This and the Pacific Cultures Gallery are what intrigued us the most, though we couldn't help admiring the dinosaurs in the front entry hall.

“The Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery celebrates the cultural achievements of Australia’s Aboriginal people, one of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. This object-rich experience features over 3,000 items across two floors. The artifacts are from communities across the country, drawing from the Museum’s extensive collections.” This was on the must-see list and we headed there straight away.

One facet of Aboriginal culture we had heard of, but never really researched, was the Dreaming. We thought it referred to out-of-body, drug-induced experiences, but we couldn't have been more wrong. Rather it is the Aboriginal creation myth and stories of their cultural development, laws and traditions handed down in art and storytelling for generations.

One particularly striking exhibit was entitled Yuendumu School Doors. “The people of Yuendumu [in the Northern Territory] began transferring their traditional ochre ground paintings to canvas in the 1980s and then to the doors of the Yuendumu School. Twenty-seven Dreamings (tjukurrpa) were represented on the Doors, referring to more than two hundred sites in Warlpiri and Anmatyerre territory. For thousands of years the Warlpiri people traced their Dreaming symbols onto compacted desert sand as part of their ceremonies and when the ceremonies were over the images would be brushed away by hand or by the desert winds. The Yuendumu doors have now captured these stories in paint.” The South Australian Museum acquired the entire collection of doors in 1995 and restored them. The best 12 are on display here now for all to see and admire. The interpretive information and the stories they tell give some insight into Aboriginal ideas and beliefs.

We're always amazed to see island cultures that we've never even remotely heard of … tiny little isolated places that have developed their own unique cultures … like Tiwi, for instance, a tiny island group off Darwin in the Timor Sea. I'm sure there are hundreds of little islands out there with people being born and dying and carrying on life in centuries' old ways. Pictured are very distinctive Tiwi Island burial poles.

We wandered into the Pacific Cultures Gallery. We've visited Tonga and Fiji and Vanuatu and had a feel for their cultural artifacts, motifs and designs. Papua New Guinea (PNG), however, has always held a particular fascination for us. Replicas of the PNG thatch huts and trading canoes were on display.

The weapons, masks and especially the painted human skulls were a bit disconcerting. We know of a few folks who have stopped in PNG and enjoyed their visit. We know of another couple who were held at knife point and robbed. It's not on the way currently, but you never know what the future holds.

As always, as questions are answered, more questions arise. We just learned of the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute here in Adelaide and, before we leave, we're going to try to visit this gallery, touted as Australia's oldest Aboriginal-owned and managed multi-arts center.