Welcome to the Down Under Club of Winnipeg. We’re a social club based far, far from our original homes and hold regular events for members and guests. We also produce a monthly newsletter about connections in our new community and all things happening down under. Go on, explore our site and consider joining our group. Hooroo, mates!
The Yarn is once again ready for your reading pleasure.
If I had a bucket list, it would now be one item shorter: I got to witness the “Toast to the Haggis”! This rare excitement came about while volunteering (mostly flipping pancakes) at the 57th Manitoba Highland Gathering last month in East Selkirk.
Selkirk is an apt choice for hosting this event as it was named for Lord Selkirk, who sponsored the Scottish settlers to the area in the early 1800s. [read more: www.lordselkirk.ca/the-settlers]. Congratulations to Margaret Walker and her team for pulling all the bits together that make the Gathering such a culturally significant event. It was fun and also an opportunity for Judy and me to make good use of our little Boler camper for its first outing this year.
In fact, the Selkirk campground was the perfect spot. One of the birding trails brought me within good range of a couple of good specimens – a great blue heron and a bald eagle (see p. 8).
Thanks again to those who contributed other articles of significance in this issue – Sam Dawson for the Club gathering at OEB (p. 1), Jenny Gates for our proud moment in the Legislature (p. 3), Michael Workman for the AFL report (p. 7), and everyone for our Club’s memories and reflections (p. 6).
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25-Yarn_0506-MayJune 
The Yarn is once again ready for you to read.
At the risk of overdosing on folate, I have no plans to change my regular enjoyment of Vegemite and toast (p. 4). Hopefully the powers that be will take note of the nationwide, multi-generational “study” that has been in progress for more than a century down under with no warnings coming from the Australian medical profession, and add fortified spreads to their allowable imports.
In this issue, we also farewell a long-standing member (p. 3), offer some viewing ideas (p. 5) and get the low-down on the AFL (p. 7).
This resident ornithologist is taking a break this issue. And instead of my Birds I view column (p. 8), we share (with permission) Gord Mackintosh’s entertaining and informative bird tour of Manitoba. In case you’re of the Scottish persuasion, we have inserted an announcement for the upcoming Manitoba Highland Gathering (p. 3).
All this and so much more – for your reading pleasure.
OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD
a play by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Dr. Bill Kerr
April 2 – April 5, 2025
John J. Conklin Theatre, Gail Asper Performing Arts Hall
150 Dafoe Road, West Taché Arts Complex, UM Fort Garry campus
Wednesday to Friday – 7:00 p.m.
Saturday – 2:00 p.m.
Our Country’s Good stages the landing of the First Fleet and its transported prisoners who enact the first theatrical production in Australia. Both highly comic and greatly troubling, the play suggests that theatre can enable positive futures while also acknowledging the pressing need for a just post-colonial future.
Tickets for Our Country’s Good are $10.00 plus Eventbrite fees and can be purchased online. You can also follow along with the theatre students on Instagram as they prepare for the production @umanitobatheatre.
Presented by the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media‘s Theatre Program. Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois. Set design by Bill Kerr with students Martina Caceres and Deklan Jocelyn. Additional design elements by technical staff Shane Stewart and Karen Schellenberg along with students from the production lab of THTR 3000. Promotional design by Joseph Ogbonnaya.
The March-April issue of The Southern Yarn is ready for you in glorious full colour. Come check it out by clicking on the image of the front page, or perhaps you are one of our postal subscribers, in which case you will be eagerly awaiting the swift delivery of the B&W version on distinctive yellow paper, by our venerable postal network.
As promised on page 5 of the newsletter, the answers (and JUST the answers) to the trivia questions are below. Don’t look until you’ve tried to answer from the questions first.
Australia Trivia Answers
New Zealand Trivia Answers
Another new year is upon us with 2025, and the first new edition of The Southern Yarn is ready for you, in both glorious colour online here, and (wait for it…) monochrome on yellow paper through the post, if you are so inclined. To get you started, here is Charlie’s editorial. Continue reading