Stingray Surprise

On the weekend I was sitting on the front porch at Dhamabla, talking to Nathan and our friend Alex via Skype (on-line video call) when a group of the small boys who live here on the homeland came marching passed in a line, singing and swinging buckets. They called out, 'Stingray'.

I took the laptop over with me, with Nathan and Alex wathcing through the screen from my kitchen in Healesville, and when I got to the boys I saw they had half a dozen baby stringrays in one bucket and a huge ray in another.

I was in awe. The boy's took the baby rays out of the bucket with their hands and patted them like they were kittens. Then one of the boys held up the large ray, which appeared to be smiling up us. I was mesmorised, but one of the boys pointed to my laptop and could see Alex and Nathan watching on electronically. I explained, 'These are my friends from Melbourne' and I held the computer up so Alex and Nathan could see the rays and the boys, and vice versa.

The boys were so excited. They thought they were on television and started dancing and singing and showing off their fishing catch. I went and grabbed my camera and got these shots. I don''t know what Alex and Nathan thought of it all - via the web - but here on Elcho the boys and I thought it was a very entertaining cultural exchange.