Xmas At Tamba- Tamba...

Here's an e mail we recently received from Joe in Kingston - upon- Hull, England.
Hi PROTT,
I am followin youre blog as part of  my school project on different societies.
I was just wonderin what Xmas is like on Tamba tamba?
Is there any special traditions or anything?
Is there turkey?
Also whats the wether like ?
My uncle Tony sez in some countries xmas is in the summer?
be lucky
Joe
Firstly Joe, it's nice to see young people taking an interest in Tamba- Tamba.Our culture is undoubtedly very different from yours in England.
You might be surprised to hear that we don't celebrate Xmas in Tamba- Tamba, at least not in the same way as you do.
This is for the simple reason that we are a secular society. There is no religion on Tamba- Tamba. I know that some people in the west say that Xmas no longer has anything to do with religion. But of course, being a Socialist Republic we are also opposed to conspicuous consumerism, capitalism and the generation of debt.
Don't worry though. it's not all bad news!
From the earliest days of the first settlers there as always been a winter holiday. Even though Thomas Lazenby Cock and his followers rejected Christianity, they still celebrated Xmas after a fashion, with big feasts and drinking parties.
In fact they still referred to this holiday as Xmas, even though it was absolutely removed from any religious context.
As time went on the 25th December was supplanted as the main winter holiday by New Years Eve /Day.
People at Tamba- Tamba celebrate this in much the same way as you do Xmas, by giving presents and getting together with their friends and relatives.  People here, of course, are not so able to spend massive amounts of money.
As for the weather we are lucky. It's not hot at Xmas but it's not exactly winter either. The average temperature for December/ January is 15 degrees Celsius.

 Here are some pics from last years New Years Holiday:

 Buffet at Palmerston Quays Maritime Workers Club.

 An eat out at Cox's Plantation- Joyce Stock tucks in!

 Girls from PROTT academy at the college party.

FC Tamba-Tamba New Years BBQ

Dick Francis' Hospitality Stand at The House of May 15th.

Enjoy your holidays!

The Death of Clifton Gates Kakoy.

Despite the martial atmosphere life on Tamba- Tamba followed a relatively normal pattern and the hostilities remained a very distant affair.
In April 1915 the islanders prepared for the Hargie Cull, which had taken place annually since at least 1800.
Every man, woman, girl and boy big and healthy enough to bear a weapon participated in the event.
Clifton Gates Kakoy and his party had a lodge near Cox's Plantation, and after breakfasting with their guest, Snr.  Juan Angel McDonald, an engineer from Buenos Ares, the Kakoy party set out to bag their first lot of bandicoots.

At approximately 11:00 the party divided into two in order to flush some quarry out of a thicket.
A rifle discharged and The Kakoy fell. He had been shot through the left cheek and died instantly. Dr Bramwell Livermore was at the scene, but could see that there was nothing to be done.
The identity of the person who's gun caused the fatality was never revealed.

Sons of Dreadful Hargie Hunting Club.

Members of the Kakoy's party on the fateful day, left to right: Snr. Juan Angel McDonald of Buenos Ares, Sir Hugo Gates, Harry Roy.

The Kakoy had been well liked and the island plunged into mourning. Every person on the island attended the funeral, as well as a group from Wessels Island.

Clifton Gates Kakoy lies in state at The Big House.

Clifton Gates begins his final journey- left to right: Lady Cecilia Gates, Letitia Sleight, Dickon Berry (he built the coffin),  Sir Hugo Gates, Harry Roy  Kakoy,  Dr Bramwell Livermore, Lawrence Stock,  Harold Makepeace (a member of the Kakoy household).

The Old Cemetery-used from 1777- 1965- note the solitary Christian gravemarker, that of The Unknown Sailor.

 

 

The Kakoy Mausoleum photographed in the 1970's. It was demolished after the Revolution.

Music and Dance

Many of the traditions of Tamba -Tamba are the produce of a marriage between the habits of 18th century mariners and the indigenous traditions of Wessel's island.
This is best illustrated by the traditional music of the island.
Music played a vital role on board ship. Every ship had a fiddler or a squeezebox player. Various shanties, jigs and reels were associated with various routines on board. Dancing was also used as a form of physical exercise on long journeys.
The men of the HMS Dreadful would have been familiar with the Hornpipe and other similar brisk dances.
Dance is very important in the traditions of Wessel's Island, with various dances, unchanged for centuries, central to ceremonies of courtship and thanksgiving and most social occasions.
Music and dance from  both traditions and a hybrid of both are very much in evidence on the island today...

Dancers at Palmerston Quays.

Big Joe Rowley dancing a hornpipe at The Sons of Dreadful Club.

Mr and Mrs Howard dancing at Cox Plantation c. 1910

Girls of PROTT Academy performing a traditional Wessel's Island dance.

Dancing classes at Berry Sands High School.

Flying Saucer Mania

Wessel's Island Legend.

When the time comes the Spirit of all life will visit. It will not come by sea, as men do. It will not come by land, as men do. It will come from the sky. And all the people shall see it, like the sun itself. Then there will be people where now there are no people, and houses where now there are no houses. But most of all men will be shown things that before they could not see, and they will hear things that before they could not hear. And the Spirit of all life will give them knowledge. At this time all men will become wise...

In 1976 Tamba- Tamba was gripped by Flying Saucer Mania.
On May 20th a Palmerston schoolboy, 12 year old Cook Makepeace, reported having seen a large, disk-like object hovering above Gough Hump. During the next four months there were a total of 12 separate sightings of unidentified flying objects in the skies over Tamba- Tamba. 14 year old Connor Cox, of Cox Plantation, described being followed by a beam of light from a hovering saucer, and struggling against a strong magnetic force before losing consciousness. Remarkably a number of photographs were taken:

Local writer Donald Rowley became completely immersed in the mystery, and spent years investigating, making interviews and corresponding with UFO experts from all over the world.

Donald Rowley

Cynics were inclined to put the sightings down to some form of mass hysteria , particularly when the first few sightings were reported by young people. Attitudes changed however when prominent citizens joined the ranks of the witnesses. For example, 72 year old Mason Greene described a trio of 'saucers' moving in a choreographed formation over Berry Sands.

Mason Greene

Major Ambrose addressed the Council and stated that it was his belief that the 'aircraft' were Soviet spy planes. His assertion that the security of the island was under threat led to something of a panic, with members of the public demanding that the Council approach either the USA or Britain for help.

Cook Makepeace

Donald Rowley invited prominent UFOlogist Dr Viktor Buschmann to Tamba- Tamba to consider the evidence in person ( this cost Rowley thousands of US$ out of his own pocket to arrange).
Incredibly, when questioned by Dr Buschmann both Cook Makepeace and Connor Cox said that they had made their stories up.
This still left ten sightings and the photographs, but the Council were happy to dismiss the whole affair as a hoax...

Connor Cox now: Doesn't want to talk about UFOs...

Giants?

Governor Sir Brougham Sleight was convinced that Tamba- Tamba, as tiny as it was, might have some role to play in the great industrialisation that was sweeping the world.
For reasons that remain unclear he harboured the strong belief that coal would be found on the island, and in 1850 he instigated an excavation of Gough's Hump, the highlands at the centre of the island.
A cutting was excavated on the south western slope. At a depth of approximately 'one fathom' the workmen uncovered some very large bones. The bones were not an intact skeleton, and no skull was ever found, so it was not possible to tell from what sort of animal they came.
The islanders were quick to decide that the bones had belonged to giants who had inhabited the islands ( Wessel's Island legends spoke of giants). Within two generations every child on the island knew the story of how the diggers had unearthed the Graveyard of Giants and how those involved in the excavation of the bones had met untimely deaths...


A selection of the bones are still kept at the May 15th Museum.
No coal was ever found on Tamba- Tamba.

Sports in Tamba- Tamba, part 1: Field Sports and Fishing.

Mrs Jackson with Lucifer.

Sports and games on the island fall into 3 categories:

1.Field sports and fishing.
2.Sports in general.
3.Tamba- Tamba sports and games.

Let's take a look at field sports and fishing:
Hunting and fishing have always been an integral part of life on Tamba- Tamba. Naturally there is now less reliance on these skills for survival, but the skills have evolved into competitive field sports.
Fishing- rod fishing from boats is surprisingly popular with the urban population of Palmerston. Toppimuri and Southern Ocean Bass are the main catch. Some shark fishing expeditions leave Hooper's Point. Beach fishing is more popular still, with clubs participating in many competitions and cups.

Palmerston Ladies Rod Club.

Rod fishing at Berry Sands.

Shooting- we have seen how the shooting of Hargreaves bandicoot assumed a ritualistic status in the culture of the island. There is no big game in the archipelago, so hunting is mostly confined to the annihilation of smaller mammals such as the Hargreaves Fox and the Shorteared Coney.
Wildfowling is particularly popular (sea birds were traditionally a great source of meat for the islanders). The Hargreaves Hornbill was an early victim of over zealous hunting.

Cox family hunting

Hunting- Hunting on foot with dogs has a long tradition on the island. Dog racing has evolved from this. Modern youth have taken this tradition and revived it. A good dog is something of a status symbol.

Palmerston lads with dogs.

The Hargreaves Bandicoot

Unsurprisingly many of the species of animals on the archipelago are named after Hargreaves, the ground breaking naturalist who catalogued these animals in his revolutionary work on evolution.
Probably the best known of the animals native to Tamba- Tamba is the Hargreaves Bandicoot (Microperoryctes Hargreavsia). It featured on the pre- revolutionary coat of arms, and is as much of a national symbol as the kangaroo is to Australia.
Incredibly, the Hargie as it is affectionately known, was almost hunted to extinction, largely due to the traditional Easter culls that dated back to the earliest settlements.
These culls developed into highly effective sporting events during which thousands of Hargies would be bagged.

Thankfully the practice was outlawed after the revolution and the Hargreaves Bandicoot now thrives on the island once more.

The Hargie cull circa 1910...

The Easter Cull of 1963.