オーストラリアの芸術家と著名な文化の大使：ヨス・ヤィンディ Australia's artists and cultural ambassadors: Yothu Yindi

ヨス・ヤィンディは、1986年に結成されたオーストラリアのバンドです。バンドは先住民とバランダという非先住民の両方からなるメンバーで構成されています。先住民のメンバーは、ノーザンテリトリーの北東アーネムランドに住んでいるヨルヌー族です。バンドのヨス・ヤィンディという名前の意味は、「子供と母親」で、これはヨルヌーの人々が共有する親族関係を表しています。先住民の音楽やダンスと欧米のロック音楽が混ざったようなスタイルがそれまでなかったので、彼らは非常に斬新なグループであると考えられていました。

バンド・リーダーのマンダウイ・ユヌピングは、彼のバンドには2つのビジョンを持っています。一つ目は先住民とバランダの人々が互いに積極的に関係を促進すること、二つ目はヨルヌーの音楽やダンス、文化を世界へ伝えることです。ヨス・ヤィンディがすぐに、世界的な成功を博し, 彼らの2番目のアルバム、「部族の声」は、マルチプラチナのセールスを達成しました。彼らの一番ヒットシングル、「トリーティ」は、ボブホーク首相（当時）がオーストラリアの先住民とバランダ人々の間の条約に締結の約束の実行するのための嘆願として書かれました。これまでに、バンドは6枚のスタジオアルバムを発売し、世界ツアーを何度も行いました。バンドメンバーはヨス・ヤィンディ財団の活動的なメンバーであり、その目的はヨルヌーの文化を維持して、ヨルヌーの人々のため経済的な機会を奨励することです。彼らはオーストラリアの重要な文化の大使として活動を続けています。

Yothu Yindi is an Australian band that formed in 1986. The band consists of both aboriginal and 'balanda' (non-aboriginal) members. The aboriginal members come from the Yolngu tribe, whose people live in North-Eastern Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. The name of the band, Yothu Yindi means 'child and mother' and this represents the kinship that the yolngu clans have with each other. When the band first started touring, they were considered to be a very novel group because such a mixture of aboriginal music and dance with western style rock music had not been seen before.

The band's leader, Mandawuy Yunupingu, has two visions for his band. The first is to promote positive relations between the aborigines and the balanda peoples and the second is to present Yolngu music, dance and culture to the world. They quickly achieved worldwide success, and their second album, 'Tribal Voice' achieved multi-platinum sales. The hit single, 'Treaty' was written as a plea to (the then) Prime Minister Bob Hawke to fulfil a promise to sign a treaty between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australians. Rarely has such a politically motivated song achieved so much success.

To date, the band has released 6 studio albums and toured the world many times. They are active members of the Yothu Yindi foundation, which has the purpose of maintaining the Yolngu culture and to encourage economic opportunities for the Yolngu people. They continue to be important cultural ambassadors for Australia.

A (brief) Australian lifestyle case study: living in the rural community of Childers あるオーストラリアの生活様式についての（小さな）ケーススタディー：チルダースの農村に住んでいます (In English and 日本語で)

チルダースの人口は、他の多くの農村のように、とても少ないです。 地元の住民がメインの町に行ったとき、知っている誰かに偶然会えば、それぞれの農場や事業、うわさなどについての会話を交わすのは間違いないです。チルダスでの受けられるサービスは限られているので、専門医師などからのサービスを受けるためには、バンダバーグやハービーベイなど近隣の都市に行く必要があります。 このような移動は、オーストラリアの小さな田舎町に住む一般的な必要条件です。 チルダースには、2つの小学校と唯一の高校、イシス高があります。チルダスの60キロメートルの半径内には既存の小さなコミュニティがいつくかあり、 それらと一緒に、イシスと言う地区を構成しています。 ちらばっているそれぞれの地域はかなり小さいので、小学校を卒業したら、５つの地域の学生はイシス高に入学しなければなりません。 チルダス地域ではさまざまな 果物や野菜が栽培されていて、このために、多くのバックパッカーが作物の収穫の仕事をするためにそこに滞在します。 チルダースはまさに オーストラリアのサラダボルの一例です。自然に囲まれ、また、海に近い場所などという理由が、 子供達がチルダースで生長するいい地域として認証されています。 そこに住む学生にとって、 学校が休みの間に、作物の収穫の仕事をするのお金を稼ぐためだけではなく世界中からのバックパッカーと会うためのとても良い方法となっています。 田舎の生活には多くの利点があると思います。 皆はどう思いますか？

Childers, like many other rural communities, has a very small population. When the locals go down to the main township, you can be sure that they will run into somebody they know and strike up a conversation about their respective farms or businesses and also swap the latest gossip they have heard around town. Services in Childers are limited, so it is often a requirement to travel to the city of Bundaberg or Hervey Bay in order to seek out services such as specialist doctors. The need to travel like this is a common requirement for small rural towns in Australia.

In Childers, there are 2 primary schools and only one highschool, Isis High. There are a number of small communities existing within a 60km radius of Childers, with them together making up the Isis District. Because these neighbouring communities are so small, students from 5 of them have to attend Isis High when they graduate primary school.

A variety of fruits and vegetables are grown in the Childers area and because of this, there are many backpackers that go there for picking work. Childers is indeed a prime example of the Australian 'Salad Bowl' (or 'Melting Pot'). The natural surroundings and close proximity to the coast make Childers a great place to grow up in. Taking a holiday job during school holidays is a great way for local students to not only make money, but meet backpackers from all around the world. The country life has many advantages. What do you think?

Kanji by Kappa Edition 2: 梅雨

Mnemonics. You gotta love 'em; especially when using them to remember Kanji and the compound words that they make up. As was the case for 恥かしい, sometimes you get Kanji that have radicals, that when put together, can make a story to help you remember their meaning. This time however, we have a Kanji Compound word (a word that is composed of 2 or more Kanji) and rather than use the radicals of the kanji to remember the word, we will use the meanings of the individual Kanji. Also, we will use both the etymological origin of the word as well as a cheesy pun to remember the word even better.

So the word today is 梅雨 (tsu-yu), the rainy season in Japan. It is composed of the Kanji for plum, 梅, and the kanji for rain, 雨. In China (remember this is where Kanji come from), the rainy season commences in June which coincides with the ripening of the plums. The rains will tend to follow for ~3-4 weeks, though there are records of the season going for much longer. In fact, there exists an old proverb which goes, "When the rain falls on the ripe plums, there follows 40 rainy days".  So when we think of the order of the Kanji as the rain that follows the plum, we get a nice mnemonic for the rainy season.

Our second mnemonic relies on the pun of plum and plumb. Plumb has many definitions, but the one we need here is the adverbial meaning of "to a very high degree", "extremely" and "exactly." For example, "The king was plumb crazy," meaning he was completely bonkers. Fans of cricket (all 2 of you, woo!) will also appreciate that "plumb L.B.W." means, to be square and perfectly hit on the pads, directly in front of the stumps, leaving no doubt as to the batsmen being out. So when we think of plum/plumb rain, we can be assured that the rain is by definition, going to mean business/be the real deal. Therefore, the onslaught of 'plumb' rain will occur during the rainy season.

Ok, that wraps up another Kanji with me, Kappa! You'd better watch out for me and my brethren during 梅雨 as the bowing trick won't work as well on us because the rain will replenish the water that you so deviously make us lose. Better wear your running shoes, heh heh heh.