Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

But we are only just beginning, because the sense of orientation that is required to speak a Guugu Yimithirr-style language has to extend further than the immediate present. What about relating past experiences, for instance? Suppose I ask you to describe a picture you saw in a museum a long time ago. You would probably describe what you see in your mindБЂ™s eye, say the milkmaid pouring the milk into a bowl on a table, the light coming from the window on the left and illuminating the wall behind her, and so on. Or suppose you are trying to remember a dramatic event from many years ago, when you capsized a sailing boat off the Great Barrier Reef. You jumped out to the right just before the boat rolled over to the left, and as you were swimming away you saw a shark in front of you, butБЂ¦ if you lived to tell the tale, you would probably describe it more or less as I just did now, by relaying everything from the vantage point of your orientation at the time: jumping БЂњto the rightБЂ«of the boat, the shark БЂњin front of you.БЂ«What you will probably not remember is whether the shark was exactly to the north of you swimming south or to the west swimming east ...»