Group items tagged

Caring For Our Country The TAFE Caring For Country Program started in 1990 at the request of North Queensland Aboriginal communities who wanted culturally appropriate ranger training. The Diploma level course runs for four years and is equivalent to tertiary education. Aboriginal rangers have unique skills as they are trained to use both traditional knowledge and contemporary management practices to preserve cultural and natural values. Practical skills taught include such things as map reading, site surveys, animal and plant field skills, visitor facility management, first aid and office management. An ecological component includes vegetation management and feral animal control as well as traditional knowledge. Archaeological and anthropological knowledge and techniques are gained in class as well as on sites in the field.

Which Way Our Future Aboriginal people are very proud of their indigenous heritage. They want the importance of their culture recognised, respected and protected. To ensure the ongoing survival of their culture, Rainforest Aboriginal people have been negotiating for shared management of their traditional country with government agencies. Rainforest Aboriginal people want to be to be recognised as the traditional land owners of the World Heritage Area with distinct cultures and individual needs. They would like to negotiate plans for their traditional lands and be involved with all aspects of land management decision making, and activities such as tourism and walking tracks planning, fire management, wildlife protection, and on the ground management. Other important goals include ranger training and employment opportunities so that Rainforest Aboriginal people can actively use their customary and contemporary land management knowledge to continue their traditions of managing their country.

Aboriginal rangers now work for Aboriginal communities and in some government agencies such as the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, looking after rainforest and sea country. Aboriginal rangers are involved in all types of nature conservation and cultural heritage work. They liaise between Elders, Aboriginal community members and government agencies. They build and manage walking tracks for tourists. Rangers carry out surveys on cultural sites and help to manage and protect these sites. They are involved in pest and weed control, and help Government agencies to use controlled fires to maintain the diversity of plants and animals in the World Heritage Area.

Rangers also have an important role to play in public education. They visit schools, talk to tourists and the wider community about their work and culture. Cross cultural education and experiences for the wider community and visitors help to promote interracial understanding - an important step towards reconciliation. Aboriginal community rangers are often employed on a part-time basis to work in their communities on land management and cultural heritage protection through funding from the Commonwealth agency, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP). CDEP is similar to the mainstream "work for the dole" (unemployment benefits) program in that these schemes also benefit local communities. A difference is, in some cases, that many Aboriginal people may not have other opportunities to find work or be involved in caring for their country. Many young community rangers find it frustrating to be employed only on CDEP after having done four years of training. Employment of more Aboriginal rangers has the potential to greatly increase the integration of traditional management knowledge and techniques to improve overall management of the World Heritage Area, it is a question of resources. With their Elders, Aboriginal rangers are negotiating with government land management agencies for more permanent, full-time positions managing their country in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.  

t agencies.

The tradition of wall painting in Greece goes back at least to the Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age, with the lavish fresco decoration of sites like Knossos, Tiryns and Mycenae. It is not clear, whether there is any continuity between these antecedents and later Greek wall paintings. Wall paintings are frequently described in Pausanias, and many appear to have been produced in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Due to the lack of architecture surviving intact, not many are preserved. The most notable examples are a monumental Archaic 7th century BC scene of hoplite combat from inside a temple at Kalapodi (near Thebes), and the elaborate frescoes from the 4th century "Grave of Phillipp" and the "Tomb of Persephone" at Vergina in Macedonia[1], sometimes suggested to be closely linked to the high-quality panel paintings mentioned above. Greek wall painting tradition is also reflected in contemporary grave decorations in the Greek colonies in Italy, e.g. the famous Tomb of the Diver at Paestum. Some scholars suggest that the celebrated Roman frescoes at sites like Pompeii are the direct descendants of Greek tradition, and that some of them copy famous panel paintings.

There were several interconnected traditions of painting in ancient Greece. Due to their technical differences, they underwent somewhat differentiated developments. Not all painting techniques are equally well represented in the archaeological record. [edit] Panel painting [show] List of known Ancient Greek painters One of the Pitsa panels, the only surviving panel paintings from Archaic Greece.   Agatharchus Antiphilus Apelles Apollodorus (painter) Aristides of Thebes Cimon of Cleonae Echion (painter) Euphranor Eupompus Melanthius Nicomachus of Thebes Panaenus Parrhasius Pausias Polyeidos (poet) Polygnotus Protogenes Theon of Samos Timarete Timomachus Zeuxis and Parrhasius The most respected form of art, according to authors like Pliny or Pausanias , were individual, mobile paintings on wooden boards, technically described as panel paintings . The techniques used were encaustic (wax) painting and tempera . Such paintings normally depicted figural scenes, including portraits and still-lifes ; we have descriptions of many compositions. They were collected and often displayed in public spaces. Pausanias describes such exhibitions at Athens and Delphi . We know the names of many famous painters, mainly of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, from literature (see expandable list to the right). Unfortunately, due to the perishable nature of the materials used and the major upheavals at the end of antiquity, not one of the famous works of Greek panel painting has survived, nor even any of the copies that doubtlessly existed, and which give us most of our knowledge of Greek sculpture. The most important surviving Greek examples are the fairly low-quality Pitsa panels from circa 530 BC, and a large group of much later Graeco-Roman archaeological survivals from the dry conditions of Egypt, the Fayum mummy portraits , together with the similar Severan Tondo . Byzantine icons are also derived from the encaustic panel painting tradition. [edit] Wall painting Symposium scene in the Tomb of the Diver at Paestum, circa 480 BC. The tradition of wall painting in Greece goes back at least to the Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age , with the lavish fresco decoration of sites like Knossos , Tiryns and Mycenae . It is not clear, whether there is any continuity between these antecedents and later Greek wall paintings. Wall paintings are frequently described in Pausanias, and many appear to have been produced in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Due to the lack of architecture surviving intact, not many are preserved. The most notable examples are a monumental Archaic 7th century BC scene of hoplite combat from inside a temple at Kalapodi (near Thebes ), and the elaborate frescoes from the 4th century "Grave of Phillipp" and the "Tomb of Persephone" at Verg in a in Macedonia http://en.wikipedia.org

Information about the Sumatran rhino has been difficult to come by because it survives in small, scattered populations in the thick undergrowth of their rainforest habitat. It is known that the females have territories of about 1.2 to 2.2 miles in diameter that partially overlap with other females. The males seem to be nomadic. The estimated density per animal is approximately one animal per 15 sq. miles in high density areas, and one animal per 31 to 46 sq. miles in low density areas.

They live in a variety of habitats, but prefer higher elevations in the mountain moss forests and tropical rain forests with few human developments. The rhinos are most often found near water, and spend much of the day in mud wallows, which they dig out themselves and whose perimeters are kept clean. The wallows help the rhino avoid biting insects and protects them from the heat .

Sumatran rhinos are solitary animals who only come together to breed. Breeding of captive Sumatran rhinos has shown that the female will not come into estrus until she senses the nearness of a male. This reduces energy spent on cycling when the rhinos don't come into contact with each other on a regular basis. Gestation is 475 days with one calf per birth. The calf is covered with a dense coat of reddish hair. Calves are weaned at 18 month, but stay close to their mother for 2 to 3 years. Females reach sexual maturity at 4 years, and males take 7 years to reach sexual maturity. Birth intervals between calves is 3 to 4 years. The life span of captive rhinos is around 35 years.

Rhinos feed just before dawn and after dusk and move about during the night. The normal diet of the Sumatran rhino includes wild durian mangoes, figs, bamboo and plants species characteristic of disturbed forests. It will knock down saplings to get at the tender leaves. They are very fond of salt licks and each territory will include one.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest and rarest rhinoceros species. There are thought to be only 300 animals still in existence and the IUCN has put it on its critically endangered list in 1996. These survive in very small and scattered populations, their habitat fragmented into smaller and smaller pieces by encroaching human populations. The number of Sumatran rhinos has declined 50% due to poaching in the last 10 years. There are no signs that the situation is stabilizing. Efforts have been made by IUCN to set up a 3 year program for the protection to the Sumatran rhino in Indonesia and Malaysia in the wild. They are seeking to extend the program, whose funding ended in 1998. Captive breeding programs have also been set up, but have not been very successful. Since 1984 40 rhinos have been captured to participate in breeding programs, but 19 of these have died. Artificial insemination efforts have also not been very successful. These failures were the result of lack of knowledge of the diet and reproduction of the Sumatran rhinoceros. Experience so far has shown that the rhinos need larger enclosures with more natural conditions. Time is running out as efforts to save the Sumatran rhinoceros from extinction continue.

The Toco Toucan is the largest of the toucans. It can get to about twenty-four to twenty six inches in length. Its bill is brightly colored orange and black and can get to about eight inches in length. The Toco Toucan weighs about ten to seventeen ounces. The Toucan's massive bill is not as heavy as it looks; it has a hard outside and a hollow inside. A bright blue patch of blue skin surrounds the eye.

ifty degrees North to fifteen degrees South, and thirty-five degrees to sixty-five degrees in

The Wagler's pit viper lives in trees of the Southeast Asian rainforest. The climate in the rainforest is wet and humid and it rains a lot. During the wet season, or monsoon season, it

Chimpanzees are about 3 to 5 feet tall and weigh from 99 to 176 pounds. They have black hair. Adults are very often bald, usually a triangle on the forehead of the male, and more complete baldness in females. Their faces are hairless. Infants have pink faces which turn darker with age. Although chimpanzees have no tail, infants have a white tail tuft.

Africa Forest Elephant Bengal Tiger Chimpanzee Common Palm Civet or Musang Dawn Bat Golden Lion Tamarin Harpy Eagle Jambu Fruit Dove King Cobra Kinkajou Linn's Sloth Orangutan Proboscis Monkey Red-shanked Douc Langur Silvery Gibbon Slender Loris Sumatran Rhinoceros Toco Toucan Vampire Bat Wagler's Pit Viper