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- Written by Garry
- Created: 02 January 2009
Two days into a new year and two days out from leaving for Europe seems like the perfect time to get a little philosophical about what’s to come. And as we all know, what I really need is another excuse to upload more of my rambling thoughts and incomplete musi…
I recommend skipping the previous paragraph and cutting straight to the next bit.
A few weeks ago I found myself in a strange predicament. I went to see Baz Luhrmann’s Australia with some friends. Everyone else seems quite keen to bag it, but I actually enjoyed it. Being from the Territory, I loved the big landscape shots and the rugged isolation Baz was able to get across.
It made me feel quite homesick at times, which was ironic given that I was sitting in a cinema in Crow’s Nest and hadn’t even got as far as leaving the country, which I’m doing on Sunday. Although Sydney is equally archetypically Australian as a story about drovers and cattle stations is, it’s a long way from the sprawling and majestic landscapes of the Northern Territory.
One of the friends I was there with asked me, quite reasonably I suppose, why, if I miss Darwin so much, do I not just go back there instead of to the other side of the world? I didn’t really have an answer for that one, but fortunately one of my other friends (I’m just so damn popular these days) found one for me in the very movie we had just watched.
“Weren’t you watching? He has to go walkabout before he can go home, otherwise he won’t know who he is.”
I’m not quite arrogant enough (although I’m working on it) to think I can apply Aboriginal spirituality to my city-boy life with any real integrity, but I think that might have been the most profound statement anyone has ever made about me.
So now I’m off to have a wander and check out some new stuff and maybe, just maybe do a little introspection.
Where’s David Gulpilil when you need him?
Far from home
Garry with 2 Rs