The Australian Bite

Icebergs, alcohol, and Welcome to Country explained

23 December 2010

Listen and download: MP3

For this holiday edition of the Australian Bite, we’re revisiting a few great stories broadcast earlier this year.  Aboriginal elder Richard Walley explains the significance of the Welcome to Country ceremonies that are performed at a growing number of public events in Australia.  We find out why local experts have been calling for greater regulation of alcohol sales and marketing.   And we take a trip to Antarctica with sound artist Philip Samartzsis and find out what an iceberg sounds like underwater.

“Welcome to Country” explained

Over recent years, it has become more and more common for public events to be opened with a “Welcome to Country” Ceremony, in which local Aboriginal custodians or elders welcome people to their traditional land. These ceremonies can include singing, dancing, smoking ceremonies or a speech in traditional language or English. They’re embraced by many people as an important gesture of reconciliation and a way of recognising the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to their country. But there are those who see the whole process as tokenism, or worse still, something just recently invented for the sake of political correctness. Babs McHugh asks Aboriginal elder Dr Richard Walley for his thoughts on the matter.

You can find out more about “Welcome to Country” ceremonies at the Reconciliation Australia website.

Experts call for increased regulation of alcohol

While most people drink alcohol in moderation, excessive or binge drinking by young people is on the rise and young women in particular are drinking more than ever. So with alcohol being one of the major causes of preventable death and illness in Australia, why is it that a bottle of alcohol contains no health warnings? And why is alcohol, unlike tobacco, able to be advertised on television, on billboards, and sponsoring sporting events? To talk about these issues, Tony Delroy was joined by Dr Sam Roberts, a psychiatrist with the Sydney Clinic – a private psychiatric hospital and Geoff Munro – National Policy manager with the Australian Drug Foundation

The Australian Drug Foundation has a selection of Fact Sheets relating to alcohol and other drugs. You can find them here: http://druginfo.adf.org.au/druginfo/fact_sheets

A sound journey to Antarctica

Earlier this year, Australian sound artist and academic Philip Samartzis travelled to Antarctica under the auspices of the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. His aim was to investigate the impact that extreme environmental conditions have on the people who live and work in Antarctica, and how these people adapt to such conditions in order to survive. He speaks to Camilla Hannan, and shares some of his wonderful sound recordings with us.

For more information on Philip’s work you can go to his website – www.microphonics.org

And for more information regarding the Australian Antarctic Division go to www.aad.gov.au

Music ( not in podcast)

Melbourne multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer J. Walker started making music 13 years ago under the name machine Translations. His last release was back in 2007, but now he has a new single and an album to follow later in the year. It’s called Telepathic Head and you can listen to it at the Triple J Home & Hosed blog

Artist: Machine Translations

Track: Telepathic Head