Legends of Ngukurr

I don't mean legends as in 'stories' I mean legends as in 'very cool people' and I tell you this Wamut here, my san, 'me' a.k.a Greg is one of those. Last night we went down to the community 'disco' to check it out. This requires some exaplaining, the disco is a large tin kind of shed (a recreation centre), massive really, with a concrete basketball court and a stage... often on weekends a 'dj' or someone collects some music they like (think Boys II Men, dance music), and blast it and tens (maybe a hundred..?) people come and sit around and listen. The real show starts with the dancing, beginning with the little kids, who can shake it, I tell you! The boys do kind of break dancing with incredible skill, the crowd ( of teenagers to adults and babies) cheer and whistle, but mainly sit around the edges looking- so the whole basketball court is open for dancers to 'perform'- as the night moves on some of the older kids get up and start to dance, with really incredible moves, they run into the centre, dance for maybe 1 minute and then run off and hide behind their friends. The standard of dancing is pretty high ( it is defintiely a performance!)

Well last night, our very own Wamut took off his glasses, shook himself and did the equivalent of jumping off a cliff- he got up and danced in front of all those people! En im sabi dens gud boi!! The crowd went wild, all the women around me were going crazy, yelling and whistling, and someone put the spotlight on him ( you have to remember everyone else was sitting down on the ground, maybe only two other people were dancing), Greg and I were the only two munanga ( whitefellas) there, anyway those two mintues were absolutely electric- everyone was cheering so hard ( to see a white person that can really dance!) and then like everyone else he stopped and stepped back into the crowd, nonchalant.

I wish I could adequately explain it- it was like by doing this he stepped over some invisible boundary (maybe there is a fourth 'space' or law, along with the Church, Tradition and Council- the Disco!), and now he has become a legend in Ngukurr. And I couldn't be prouder to call him my san!

Go Wamut!