ON THE WALLABY- 4th February 2007

” Even though we live in an artificial world, we belong to the natural world” – Ken Salwey – “Tales of a River Rat” – ABC television last night

A MISSISSIPPI RIVER RAT SHOWS US WHAT LIFE IS REALLY ALL ABOUT

The “artificial world” that Tales of a River Rat host Ken Salwey referred to is, in the main, reflected daily and nightly through our television so it was with great joy that Sam and I watched as his ”natural world” unfolded before us through the scenery and his narration.

Kenny Salwey, the legendary Last River Rat and famed storyteller, presents a new collection of “rat tales,” sure to delight, inform, and entertain. A modern-day American hermit who has lived most of his life in the Mississippi river bottoms, Kenny knows the river ecosystem with an intimacy unavailable to most.

In the program he shares his love of, and knowledge about, the mighty river. Known as the Woodsman of the Mississippi Backwaters,he’s a hunter, trapper, outdoor guide, and self-sufficient woodsman.

Kenny Salwey is said to have cut his milk teeth on a canoe paddle and seasoned it with Mississippi mud. He’s a Mississippi River guide for hunting, fishing, and nature watching; a storyteller; an instructor on environmental education; and a keynote speaker.

The magnificently filmed documentary took us through a year of his life, the seasons coming and going as they have for eons and as the film progressed, I came to see, and agree with, what he had meant in his quotation that I have headed this OTW with.

For we do live in artificial world and I suppose having been raised in a small rural community (Grenfell NSW), so much of what he was saying had great resonance for me.

There I saw and experienced seasonal changes (although not of the beauty we saw last night), not in temperature but also visually. We saw and grew up with, unlike city folks, the “natural world” that he referred to.

We knew, not “knew of” the people who had died and who’s funeral cortege we silently watched as it progressed towards the Young Road and Grenfell’s cemetery.

We saw closer up the ravages that drought causes, not only on the farmers and their families but also our little town as a whole for we all depended on “the man on the land” for our livelihoods.

We saw, and knew, our neighbours, most of whom probably left their houses unlocked and the keys to their motor vehicle either in the ignition or on the floor of it.

We knew who was not “travelling well” in health or finances and there was nearly always some comforting words, or that cake dropped in, to help them through another day.

And so it was with Ken Salwey’s world where he took only what he needed, be it a fish or a duck, to provide himself with food and did not kill indiscriminately for the hell of it.

We saw such beauty as the tundra swans that called into his waterway every year around the 20th October on their way south from northern climes heading for Florida. This was their only stop on the long flight and they reminded me very much of the mutton birds that fly each year from Siberia south to Mutton Bird Island at Coffs Harbour (NSW north coast), lay their eggs and in due course, head back to Siberia.

We saw the snapper turtles that come ashore (probably in the same place they themselves were born) and like their salt water cousins, lay their eggs, cover them and head for the water again.

In time, after the soil heat and sunshine have done their work, the hatchlings break their egg with a tooth on the top of their beaks and, after emerging from the sand, scurry into the flowing river and start swimming and eventually replicate the whole process again when they are mature females.

Yet we here in “the artificial world” spend our time worrying about such “major” factors as “should we user botox”; “who’s sleeping with who in the ritzy social world”; chasing the almighty dollar so that we can buy (mortgaged to the hilt as we may well be) the prestigious “Mac Mansion” that now covers so much of Sydney like a darn rash; in short, all factors of that artificial world Ken Salwey referred to.

I am realist enough to know that very few of us, myself included, could live as he does although I have to say the years I spent living aboard my yacht in Queensland waters came very close and gave me a great insight into where he was coming from.

I don’t know how many “River Rats” are left existing as he does but what I do know is that all will, as the natural world dictates , leave their time on earth as men (and maybe women) who have known and appreciated what life is and not merely existed as the majority do.

Read through the pages of ”Kenny Salwey’s Tales of a River Rat" and you’ll gain a new perspective on what it means to live with the rhythms of nature.

Carpe diem

Tony

Tony Fountain

Professional Speaker, auctioneer and author

Sydney NSW Australia

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