[Regia-NA] life downunder

[Robert Woodman]

people might not know this, but for the last 8 months I have been stationed 
in Australia (I have 4 more months to go). Things are very different here 
than what I am use to in the reenactment world, In Australia you have 3 
styles 1 is the SCA then you have what they call here "metal weapon groups"  
which seem to be everywhere these seem to be broken into two camps one we 
will call,  authentic (and they do look good, about as good if not better 
than anything you will find in europe or the US) then  you have the "slash 
and hack people" these guys don't care about authenticity just about 
fighting with real swords.

The thing is the hatred (and from what I have seen it is hatred) between 
"metal weapons" groups and the SCA and it is strong. I went to a display a 
few weeks ago at a small place north of Sydney and I drove in to the parking 
area,  I saw a fist fight between a couple of people from two of these 
groups.

I have posted messages on the SCA mailing list here about attending "metal 
weapon" events and all I get is replies about how they will never attend one 
of those events, as they feel people will make fun of them. I have also 
asked people from local "metal Weapons" groups and they say they don't want 
the SCA at their events and they will only attend SCA events as a joke.  
When I ask these people why, they give me all these stories, but it all 
seems to date back to one event 15 years ago at a place called Morisset.

It's this mind set that makes me fill like I don't fit in with any group 
here.

I don't know if this is the case everywhere in Australia (hell it's a big 
country) but around the Sydney area it is and from what I can tell from the 
email lists many other areas as well, plus web sites like this one do not 
help http://www.routiers.org/sca.htm

We must make sure this type of thing does not happen in the US.

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