Mountain Man's Global Nativity Archive The Flight of Ducks by Simon Pockley
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia in the Southern Spring of 1996

Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 14:31:48 +1100
From: Simon Pockley (simonp@cinemedia.com.au)
Newsgroups: e-mail
Subject: The Flight of Ducks

Mountain Man

Love your inspiring site.

You may be interested in this large archival site about a camel journey into central Australia in 1933. It not only contains journals photographs and artefacts but also papers about the digital representation of secret/sacred Aboriginal material and the digital preservation of this material. It is most certainly concerned with institutional issues raised by the legal and political recognition of indigenous customs.

It is called 'The Flight of Ducks' and it can be found at:

http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/

Recently the site won the ATOM award for best Australian on-line production and the Victorian Premiers's Gold Award for best Australian Multimedia product (I hate the word product).

Regards

Simon Pockley

The following extract is but a small snippet of the textual account and expedition journal of the journey made, in 1933, by one F.J.A. Pockley and a group of others, to a place called Mount Liebig, in Central Australia:

"We heard amongst many others the 'duck flying away' song. It is impossible to describe but it was rather frighteningly effective. Rhythm was paramount and the pitch tended to rise to a crescendo while the pace quickened in most of the verses. Forms were inverted and the character of the black man's voice gave it all something indescribable, at any rate we all knew that the ducks were resting on the water, were surprised, and took off clumsily then flew off and away but returned with a swoop at terrific speed to disappear into freedom again and peace.

When it was over I made it clear to the leader, a man of over 50 (as far as one could tell) that I knew what it was about, by signs, and gestures, flapping elbows, duck noises etc. He was delighted and I presented him with a stick of tobacco and went and woke Hezekiel, after some toing and froing he found a spectator who could talk to the old man then back to Hezekiel, then Hezekiel to me. All this took a long time and there was always a high chance of misunderstanding. In a nutshell, I gathered that this song and a few others, was in a very old 'dream time language', that they did not understand the words, but that all the tribes knew the old words and the song.

[ ... ]

After this night I will always respect the blacks as the custodians of a real culture,
wherever it came from and however debased it is today."

F.J.A. Pockley
28th January 1933

The website in which the above extract resides is extensive, and consists at present of almost 700 separate documents, some text, some old photographs, some original documents, some maps and other reference material. Crafted by Simon Pockley, the son of the journal narrator, the preservation of these original materials and their presentation upon the web permits those who journey to this Flight of Ducks web_site to experientially contemplate - through the journal of his father, and by means of photographic and other resources - the expedition into Central Australia which was conducted more than 63 years ago today.

Subject: The Flight of Ducks
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 14:02:58 -0800
From: Mountain Man
Organization: Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
To: simonp@cinemedia.net (Simon Pockley)

G'Day Simon,

I have spent quite a large number of hours reviewing "Flight of Ducks" and have enjoyed the experience ... thanks.

Provision for thought is engendered by the words and observations of both yourself and your father, and I would hazzard a guess that the picture "Shadow on the Olgas" holds special significance for you, and for your father's aspirations.

Words cannot adequately express the evocation of your evolving website, and there is little doubt that it deserves the awards it has attracted. However, the really important awards are those which are individually given ... the fractal sum of the many small reports which assist in establishing a personal dimension of reward for the labour and work out of which the site has gradually emerged to where is stands today, and tomorrow.

Accept this note as one such contribution ... I will be linking to your main page from a resource of my own labour entitled "Global Terrestrial Nativity and the Cosmic Solidarity of the Human Soul" which is located at the following address:

nativity.html

Perhaps, somewhere up the track, where all paths meet, the differences of many peoples - the manifest diversity of cultures and beliefs and opinionated struggle - will be seen to involve the nature of a fundamental commonality, and that within the complex and third millenial specifications of scientific analysis of the living environment which most know as nature, there will dawn the appreciation of the simple and the straight-forward observation hiding, as it were, in the very midst of simplicity.

Such is the world we share.

All the best for now,

Pete Brown
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
Publications of Peace and of Great Souls
welcome.html

QuoteForTheDay:

"You shall hear how Hiawatha
prayed and fasted in the forest,
Not for greater skill in hunting,
Not for greater craft in fishing,
Not for triumphs in the battle,
And renown among the warriors,
But for profit of the people,
For advantage of the nations."

- Longfellow (1855)

Mountain Man's Global Nativity Archive The Flight of Ducks by Simon Pockley
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia in the Southern Spring of 1996