On the road with Sophie Matterson
When I got the call from Australian Geographic to track down Sophie Matterson and...
‘Youth from across SA joined us at the 2013 Mentoring Camp at Ten Mile Creek a Traditional Bush Camp in Coober Pedy. The camp allowed the Elders to share their knowledge, wisdom and skills while teaching the Traditions of Respect’ UACAC
Fast and furious was the pace of locations and events at the Mentoring Commission which really stretched my illustrative style into a hybrid bridging into the editorial.
Over fours and multiple locations, some as far as 250kms away, five hundreds frames were fired with an end result of 295 great shots. To put this into perspective I usually take maybe 3 images in a day.
This was a real opportunity to connect with a broad spectrum of the Aboriginal culture from the young, middle age and the Elders of Coober Pedy and the surrounding regions.
Activities on the trip included inma the traditional dance of the ladies and men in traditional paints and movement, kangaroo & goanna preparation and cooking, yarning around the fire, bush trips to selected sites of cultural importance, music stick and boomerang creation and the passing of knowledge, dreaming and tradition.
None of this was passed over or taken for granted I felt extremely humbled to be even on the trip and every moment was another lesson in how you aren’t your car or your apartment or your oversized plasma television.
I would say the highlight of the experience would have been eating tail, which I have done many times, however not cooked to this standard and also drinking the warm kangaroo (malu) blood amongst the elders and mentored young people.
