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He Who Tries The Hardest Achieves The Least

© Larry Low

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The title of today's exploration into the world of folklore is apt for it suggests that the thing to do with folklore is to let the message be. If one tries too hard to see or know there is every possibility that the quest will be in vain. In a similar vein, if one is too critical of the folktale, the point of the tale may be missed, leaving a smug awareness that it was from another time and of course would have no place in the modern scheme of things.

Whenever, I get to feeling this way, I hearken back to time spent in Arnhem Land, a 97,000 sq. km. Aboriginal reserve east of Darwin extending for about 150 miles to Cape Arnhem on the Gulf of Carpentaria. A UNESCO World Heritage site about midpoint contains ancient cave paintings going back to the time of the Dreaming, which in essence, is the time of Creation, Aboriginal elders tell us.

Arnhem Land

My job had nothing to do with cave paintings. My purpose was to carry out a scintillation survey on behalf of Queensland Mines, which was owned by the Aboriginals and is now incidentally the largest uranium deposit in the world. One afternoon, while I was boiling a billy for tea, while waiting for the temperature to subside so that I could tie in my readings for the day, so that I could tie in my survey, an Aboriginal bloke and a couple of specialists from UNESCO happened by.

The Aboriginal bloke was an acquaintance of some standing, I could never manage to spell his last name correctly, so you will have to be satisfied with his first, which was Sammy. He was the only member of his tribe who had a master's degree in anthropology. I guessed that's why he had been asked to join the UNESCO expedition, for no one could be better qualified. Just how well qualified, we will see in a moment.

The trio were heading for a cave, lying about two hundred feet above our heads. The route was a rather convoluted one. To get there one had to navigate several canyons, many of which ended up in dead ends. After tea, they set off to find the cave, which was interesting because it contained a detailed rendering of a British naval ship that had sailed Arafura Sea, the surf of which could be seen about 3 miles to the north. With the aid of naval historians, anthropologists have a fairly accurate idea as to how long ago this particular painting was done. It was at the turn of the 19th century, which would make it almost brand new.

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