It's been a busy week and a half, so I'll try to bring everyone up to speed on recent developments in the lives of Tim, Laura and Edie. Some of you may be wondering how we are dealing with the pressures of child-rearing while far away from home, and if we've reached the breaking point yet. Well the other night there was a moment when I thought Laura may have found the end of her tether. It was the middle of the night, probably around 3:00 a.m. Edie was awake for her 2nd feed since we went to bed, and both of us were low on sleep and energy. Laura finished feeding Edie and rocked her to sleep, leaving her in her crib. I was dozing at the time and didn't notice when Laura left the bedroom. A few minutes later I woke and realized Laura was not in bed (where she should have been since Edie was fast asleep and it was the middle of the night). I got up and checked the office - not there. I checked the bathroom - not there. All the lights were out. I was starting to think that perhaps I would find her sobbing uncontrollably in the kitchen when I came across her in the living room.........in the dark..........munching on a peanut butter and jam sandwich that I had made for her earlier in the day. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to parenthood!
On the weekend I spent my first nights away since Edie's birth. I flew north to Cairns to attend the Mitchell River Indigenous Forum. This meeting was a chance for all of the different language groups that have traditional ownership over the land in the catchment to come out, meet us, and tell us what they would like us to work on in terms of environmental and socioeconomic issues. It was a fantastic experience. It was held at a campground with bunkhouses, which were shared between us and the local people. There were about 70 Aboriginal people and half as many children. We had only about a dozen in our own team so it was nice to be in the minority for once. We presented our work (15 minutes to talk without any of the usual visual aids such as powerpoint) and took some heat from a few of the younger individuals who believed we were undervaluing traditional knowledge and overvaluing white scientific knowledge. Point taken. Overall they were pleased with what they heard from us so we now have a foundation on which to build as we continue our work trying to understand ecological and cultural processes in tropical rivers of Australia. I've written in this space before about Kowanyama, the community located near the mouth of the river. Well recently some UN people were there doing some filming for a feature on Aboriginal perspectives on climate change. Luckily the video is available online. Check it out! In it you'll see some footage of Kowanyama as well as shots of the Rangers (Philip, Stanley, and Anzac) with whom we work when we are there.
I also found out this week that I'll be receiving funding to do some supplemental research. It's my first ever research grant, and I'm going to use it to determine if mercury is an issue in the Mitchell River. There's plenty of gold mining in one of the tributaries of the river, and gold mining causes mercury pollution in places ranging from the Amazon to northern New Brunswick. Since Kowanyama sits downstream from where the gold mining takes place, there is concern that the traditional diet consumed by the community (including fishes such as barramundi and river sharks) could be leading to unsafe levels for human health. So I am going to test some of the fish for mercury. Hopefully it will turn out to not be a problem. A nightmare scenario would involve me having to recommend avoidance of certain elements of the traditional diet, since our Western diet does not generally agree with Aboriginal people.
Given the amount of work remaining to be done (by our research team) in northern Australia, Laura and I are considering moving up there. We've enjoyed our time in Brisbane, but there are several reasons why a move north would be a good idea. The place we are targeting is a village called Kuranda, west of Cairns, about 1700 km north of Brisbane. I would try to describe it here but it might be better just to click on this link. It'll tell you everything you need to know. Needless to say, it might make visiting us even more desirable, hint hint. Hard to argue against an area where the Great Barrier Reef meets World Heritage Rainforest.
One other note before I go. There is a new feature in google maps called street view, where you can move a cursor over the map and be shown an image of the street. They've achieved this by sending a crew around in a vehicle with a camera mounted on top, recording still shots along the way. Because this has been done in Australia (not yet in Canada though apparently coming soon) you can actually go online and view our current house and street. Just go to google maps and type in 29 Yarranabbe St, QLD. Then click the "street view" icon at the top right. Viola. You can even rotate around for a 360 view. Pretty cool stuff, but apparently it has the privacy police up in arms. Some people were photographed in compromising positions during the drive-by, so you can actually request that your property be taken out of service if you don't want billions of people to, for example, be able to see you passed out drunk on your front lawn. Keep an eye out for it Canada in '09.
On the weekend I spent my first nights away since Edie's birth. I flew north to Cairns to attend the Mitchell River Indigenous Forum. This meeting was a chance for all of the different language groups that have traditional ownership over the land in the catchment to come out, meet us, and tell us what they would like us to work on in terms of environmental and socioeconomic issues. It was a fantastic experience. It was held at a campground with bunkhouses, which were shared between us and the local people. There were about 70 Aboriginal people and half as many children. We had only about a dozen in our own team so it was nice to be in the minority for once. We presented our work (15 minutes to talk without any of the usual visual aids such as powerpoint) and took some heat from a few of the younger individuals who believed we were undervaluing traditional knowledge and overvaluing white scientific knowledge. Point taken. Overall they were pleased with what they heard from us so we now have a foundation on which to build as we continue our work trying to understand ecological and cultural processes in tropical rivers of Australia. I've written in this space before about Kowanyama, the community located near the mouth of the river. Well recently some UN people were there doing some filming for a feature on Aboriginal perspectives on climate change. Luckily the video is available online. Check it out! In it you'll see some footage of Kowanyama as well as shots of the Rangers (Philip, Stanley, and Anzac) with whom we work when we are there.
I also found out this week that I'll be receiving funding to do some supplemental research. It's my first ever research grant, and I'm going to use it to determine if mercury is an issue in the Mitchell River. There's plenty of gold mining in one of the tributaries of the river, and gold mining causes mercury pollution in places ranging from the Amazon to northern New Brunswick. Since Kowanyama sits downstream from where the gold mining takes place, there is concern that the traditional diet consumed by the community (including fishes such as barramundi and river sharks) could be leading to unsafe levels for human health. So I am going to test some of the fish for mercury. Hopefully it will turn out to not be a problem. A nightmare scenario would involve me having to recommend avoidance of certain elements of the traditional diet, since our Western diet does not generally agree with Aboriginal people.
Given the amount of work remaining to be done (by our research team) in northern Australia, Laura and I are considering moving up there. We've enjoyed our time in Brisbane, but there are several reasons why a move north would be a good idea. The place we are targeting is a village called Kuranda, west of Cairns, about 1700 km north of Brisbane. I would try to describe it here but it might be better just to click on this link. It'll tell you everything you need to know. Needless to say, it might make visiting us even more desirable, hint hint. Hard to argue against an area where the Great Barrier Reef meets World Heritage Rainforest.
One other note before I go. There is a new feature in google maps called street view, where you can move a cursor over the map and be shown an image of the street. They've achieved this by sending a crew around in a vehicle with a camera mounted on top, recording still shots along the way. Because this has been done in Australia (not yet in Canada though apparently coming soon) you can actually go online and view our current house and street. Just go to google maps and type in 29 Yarranabbe St, QLD. Then click the "street view" icon at the top right. Viola. You can even rotate around for a 360 view. Pretty cool stuff, but apparently it has the privacy police up in arms. Some people were photographed in compromising positions during the drive-by, so you can actually request that your property be taken out of service if you don't want billions of people to, for example, be able to see you passed out drunk on your front lawn. Keep an eye out for it Canada in '09.
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