This is brilliant.
There's something about public art or stunts like this that can cause such a wonderful response from people. I love it.
Background to the whole thing here.
There's something about public art or stunts like this that can cause such a wonderful response from people. I love it.
Background to the whole thing here.
Shrieking, Hysterical and Desperate. CC on Sam Newman and the most recent Footy Show outrage.
So I've written and re-written a mammoth post to try to describe the trip to the Pitjantjantjara lands but there's just too much to do it any justice.
It was an extraordinary experience. Confronting, beautiful, moving. It's difficult to believe we have places like these in this country. The lives people in these communities lead is so far removed from anything in my experience that it was quite humbling to see the problems first hand and to catch a glimpse of what European settlement has done to the Aboriginal people.
So rather than try to explain what it was like in words, here are a couple of photos that will at least give you a feel for the whole thing.
The rubbish was astonishing and confronting.
Oak Valley
It rained one night.
The most devastating thing were the kids. Such little people whose lives of almost certain destitution, ill-health and abuse seem to be mapped out already. The last weekend we were in Yalata someone estimated that there were probably 80 to 100 kids in town (most about this old) and maybe 30 adults. Their parents had left for the weekend to go to Ceduna to drink.
The lake was dry on the way out to Oak Valley, but the overnight rain made a difference.
We had a brief side trip to the Head of the Bight. The cliffs start at this point and stretch unbroken for over 800km. In the other direction was low-lying beach and dunes.
Well, we're back. And it was extraordinary as expected.
I'm currently working on a monster post to explain all about the trip, but in the meantime, Virginia has alerted me to the Powerhouse Museum's photo collection that has recently been loaded to Flickr. It's mesmerising.
The photos are mainly of Sydney (like this one of Bondi beach at the turn of the 20th century)
But it's fascinating nonetheless.
Powerhouse should be congratulated for opening up their collection in this way.
Tomorrow morning at 7:30, Snooze and I will pile our stuff into a 4WD and start out on a 1,700km journey to a place called Yalata.
We will spend a couple of days in this remote aboriginal community and then head to Oak Valley, an even more remote aboriginal community 500kms or so North West of Yalata. Right in the guts of the country.
The reason for the trip is a book that Snooze is editing about the Anangu communities in these settlements. Yalata and Oak valley are the end result of the aboriginal displacement caused by the Maralinga nuclear test range. I expect it will be quite confronting but also quite extraordinary.
Despite living all my life in this country, I have never ventured into what can genuinely be called the Outback. I've spent plenty of time in the Bush, but never the deserts. I think it might be quite alien but I am very much looking forward to it.
If I feel it's appropriate I might blog about it when I get back home.
In the meantime, wish us luck...
