major upheaval over the last few days with the dream run coming to an abrupt obstacle. got home from the art centre on thurday afternoon, half hour later someone turned up and was trying to get in through my gate, i went out, only to be asked 'who are you?' i didnt answer but just asked the same thing back. he was some form of council site manager, i explained who i was and what i was doing here, only for him to laugh, tell me i had no right to be staying here, and would have to evacute the premises immediatly. i explained that jane had organised for me to stay here, but he wasnt particularly interested, and didnt go and speak to her as i suggested, just got in his car and drove off. i went and told jane what had happened, he came back, repeated what he said about me moving out. to add to it all, it was getting dark and a thunderstorm was building up. so we are all standing in the rain arguing, the urgency being he apparently had staff of his that he had arranged to stay in here tonight. i still think there was more to that because he was demanding i left, in the rain, with no other options to go to, whilst he had other places where his staff could have stayed locally. told me i had an hour and he'd be back. jane went to try and make some calls, except being after office hours it was nearly impossible to get a hold of anyone. she was adamant that he had no right to turn up like that, and that i shouldnt pack anything, and we should sit it out. next time he came back he threatened calling the police if we continued to stay. our only real option we had was to pack my stuff into the back of her car and drive the 2hrs back into alice springs in the rain and dark and find a hotel for a night or 2 untill the problem was sorted. we sat it out a bit longer, he finally came back and said i could stay that night but had to be out first thing in the morning.
he came back friday morning, didnt speak to me but had a go at jane, saying that we had till 2pm, when he'd return with the police. there isnt a police presence in titjikala, nearest station is in santa teresa community, im not entirely sure how far away that is. whether he was right or wrong, the way he was going about getting his way was out of line for a public servant, or for anyone for that matter. we have since found out there is not a lot he or the police can do without a court order stating that they are right and that it is a council owned property and not community owned, and that i actually am here illegally.
the whole problem has arisen out of the federal governments intervention plans for nothern territory communities - the Northern Territory National Emergency Response which took ownership of a lot of land and property back from communities and placed under these shire super councils under 5 year leases. this property was under council ownership, but was apparently then no longer on their asset register, so was back under community ownership, which meant jane was perfectly within her rights to allow me to stay here, thats just not the opinion of the council. they have not been able to prove it belongs to them, or follow normal legal eviction procedures.
so i sat 90% packed waiting for 2pm friday, which came and went with no sign of the council manager or the police. jane, and simon from the art school had been in touch with the council CEO who has no intention of backing down. jane had attempted to call lawyers in alice springs but everyone that she called had some dealing with macdonnell shire council and refused to speak to her because of conflicts of interest. it is a long weekend her which is good and bad, good in that we will probably be left alone untill tuesday and i should be right to stay here till then, but bad because it means that we still have no resolution and so i have no idea, from tuesday onwards, what will happen. main problem being that there is one option for short term accomodation for a night or 2 but not long term for the rest of the trip, untill the end of september.
jane had driven around and spoken to some of the women that come into the art centre to tell them what was happening. even though there is not a lot they can do, its a very unique situation to be in the middle of a residency dispute with the backing of aboriginal elders on your side.
nothing else really happened on friday, just more phone calls to various advocacy groups for the art centres etc trying to find out where we stand. at the moment, the general concensus is that we stay put, and see what develops, but also that the council are unlikely to back down anytime soon, so to be prepared to get out, and have an 'exit strategy' in place....
if the thought of being homeless in the desert in the rain was a little easier to handle, i'd probably find this vaguely amusing. i can imagine my best buddy rohan from the council riding in on horseback to make claim for his land.
makes for a good story...
will update as it unfolds.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
heading east.
i had no idea anyone was actually reading this untill i got emails asking when the next was coming. so here goes...
the art centre is closed at weekends so having an entire weekend with nothing that necessarily had to be done was a novelty that i havent had for a while. sleeping till midday, then taking a chair out into the sun for 4 or 5 hrs reading and drawing, working on some book covers that havent and wont ever be written. more to come... followed by a long walk off into the desert at sunset. was tough... really tough.....
i've been spending this week going through the catalogue system that the art centre uses, and updating missing or incorrect information and photographing and making entries for un-catalogued works. may sound like a boring job but it has been great to go though and get a chance to see every single work and put certain artists stories together by looking through their entire avaliable collection. it gives a totally different perspective when you have to re-catalogue a deceased artists work, becuase they can no longer have their first name or photograph associated with the record of their work. their entries are labelled 'kumunara',(think i got that right), then surname, which is an informal greeting so that they can be acknowledged without having to say their name out loud, and their photo gets removed from authenticity certificates etc.
maryvale cattle station is right out the front of where i'm staying, they've been mustering the cattle in the last few days, there's been a helicopter around in the evenings. last few nights though all i can hear are cow noises, occasionally one sounds like its being strangled. hard to sleep when there is several hundred cattle only a few hundred meters from your front door.
we've had an auditor in going through all the books at the art centre for the last week. jane drove us up to a place called gunya today thats 5 min or so out of the community up on a hill where there are these massive tents set up on wooden platforms. they had been set up as a tourist venture where people were being charged $1500 a night! they operated for a few years apparently but now sit abandoned with no one taking responsibility for them, their maintenance or hiring them out. all of the hot water systems and fittings have been stolen. they are pretty nice but i cant imagine anyone being stupid enough to pay that kind of money for the night. they are out of the way enough that i might try sneak a night in up there, incredible views.
im still amazed at the sky here. different blues throughout the day and every night there is just the most amazing hour long light and colour show as the sunset goes through its motions. its different every day depending on the cloud cover. the sky just generally feels bigger than in the city. the weather is equally as fascinating. the temperature is ok during the day but just drops rapidly 15 degrees or so after about 5pm. yesterday was really cold, but today was totally different, sun had a different feel and was hot and windy. even the last hour there's been intense dry wind and a dust storm followed by a torrential downpour now its cold, clear and still.
im craving everything i cant or dont have.
and have totally lost track of days and time....
the art centre is closed at weekends so having an entire weekend with nothing that necessarily had to be done was a novelty that i havent had for a while. sleeping till midday, then taking a chair out into the sun for 4 or 5 hrs reading and drawing, working on some book covers that havent and wont ever be written. more to come... followed by a long walk off into the desert at sunset. was tough... really tough.....
i've been spending this week going through the catalogue system that the art centre uses, and updating missing or incorrect information and photographing and making entries for un-catalogued works. may sound like a boring job but it has been great to go though and get a chance to see every single work and put certain artists stories together by looking through their entire avaliable collection. it gives a totally different perspective when you have to re-catalogue a deceased artists work, becuase they can no longer have their first name or photograph associated with the record of their work. their entries are labelled 'kumunara',(think i got that right), then surname, which is an informal greeting so that they can be acknowledged without having to say their name out loud, and their photo gets removed from authenticity certificates etc.
maryvale cattle station is right out the front of where i'm staying, they've been mustering the cattle in the last few days, there's been a helicopter around in the evenings. last few nights though all i can hear are cow noises, occasionally one sounds like its being strangled. hard to sleep when there is several hundred cattle only a few hundred meters from your front door.
we've had an auditor in going through all the books at the art centre for the last week. jane drove us up to a place called gunya today thats 5 min or so out of the community up on a hill where there are these massive tents set up on wooden platforms. they had been set up as a tourist venture where people were being charged $1500 a night! they operated for a few years apparently but now sit abandoned with no one taking responsibility for them, their maintenance or hiring them out. all of the hot water systems and fittings have been stolen. they are pretty nice but i cant imagine anyone being stupid enough to pay that kind of money for the night. they are out of the way enough that i might try sneak a night in up there, incredible views.
im still amazed at the sky here. different blues throughout the day and every night there is just the most amazing hour long light and colour show as the sunset goes through its motions. its different every day depending on the cloud cover. the sky just generally feels bigger than in the city. the weather is equally as fascinating. the temperature is ok during the day but just drops rapidly 15 degrees or so after about 5pm. yesterday was really cold, but today was totally different, sun had a different feel and was hot and windy. even the last hour there's been intense dry wind and a dust storm followed by a torrential downpour now its cold, clear and still.
im craving everything i cant or dont have.
and have totally lost track of days and time....
*disclaimer*
i recieved some welcomed constructive criticism from a respected source in regards to the fact that i agreed to carve another artists woodblock, questioning how ethical it was and whether i would have made the same decision if a white anglo artist had made the same request. i tend to agree with their point of view, but the circumstances surrounding this situation werent as clear cut as i may have initially suggested. christobelle has a profound mental disability so the decision that she'd draw on the block and have someone else carve it was made very early on in the project. she makes incredibly beautiful paintings fairly autonomously but will only work with someone else sitting next to her helping her make the decisions of colour and composition that we tend to make easily. anyway...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=188255&id=550432954&l=4712bbe2c9
whether you're on facebook or not, that link should let you see the photo's ive put up.
fingers crossed.
whether you're on facebook or not, that link should let you see the photo's ive put up.
fingers crossed.
Hard Sun. Long Nights.
nearly a week gone already. first few days at the art centre went well.
the Desert Mob festival in Alice Springs runs each year in September. Jane is starting to organise which works the art centre will be submitting, and the women are painting to get things finished. Basil Hall Editions, a print studio in Darwin is organising for each of the 38 art centres around alice to submit a woodblock, carved by one of their leading artists, which they will print and have on display and for sale at the festival in september. Jane had chosen who she wanted to do Tapatjatjaka art centres block - Christobelle Briscoe, who drew on the block and then went and disappeared, which apparently isnt that unusual for her. apparently i'd been talked up as a 'master' at woodcarving, so jane had saved the block till i arrived and got me to carve the drawing. it was only 3 and a half months overdue, and i only had a set of $3 tools to work with. ironically i had taken my good tools out of my bag the night before i left thinking it was ridiculous and i wouldnt need or use them. i worked with what i had however, took 2 full days, and carving 90% of the block away with blunt tools, but its finished, and jane said still looked like her work, so i guess that is all that matters.
the women at the centre are friendly but fairly closed off to begin with, although intrigued about the carving and want to know how its done, i'll show them more next week. theres 3 young guys in their early 20's that jane employes in the office area. she also wants me to show them how to screenprint. really looking forward to that, they've got a lot of designs and drawings that will translate well onto screen, mostly things about their football team, Titjikala eagles, their jumpers etc.
starting to get used to living so remotely. the temperature isnt too bad during the day but drops very rapidly after about 4pm. the power is all from these pre-paid cards that you put into a box on the side of the house, like a pay phone. went back into town yesterday to get a tax file number etc for one of the young guys so the art centre can pay him. took best part of the day, nearly impossible to get things like that and open bank accounts when there is very little recorded information about your past. finally tracked down a birth certificate for him which helped, just another thing ive realised we take for granted. after a few hours in town all i wanted was to get back out to titjikala. as we were leaving we were approached by two drunk aboriginal women who jane knew as the mother and friend of someone from the art centre, they didnt live at titjikala but wanted a lift out there to visit.. after making a few calls jane reluctantly agreed, so made for an interesting trip home! the community is an alcohol free zone and seems to have a lot of people living here that have moved to escape the alcohol problems of the city or other communities.
the art centre is closed at weekends, so i spent today in the sun with a book, then a long walk off down a track into the desert. its a hard life....
over and out.
the Desert Mob festival in Alice Springs runs each year in September. Jane is starting to organise which works the art centre will be submitting, and the women are painting to get things finished. Basil Hall Editions, a print studio in Darwin is organising for each of the 38 art centres around alice to submit a woodblock, carved by one of their leading artists, which they will print and have on display and for sale at the festival in september. Jane had chosen who she wanted to do Tapatjatjaka art centres block - Christobelle Briscoe, who drew on the block and then went and disappeared, which apparently isnt that unusual for her. apparently i'd been talked up as a 'master' at woodcarving, so jane had saved the block till i arrived and got me to carve the drawing. it was only 3 and a half months overdue, and i only had a set of $3 tools to work with. ironically i had taken my good tools out of my bag the night before i left thinking it was ridiculous and i wouldnt need or use them. i worked with what i had however, took 2 full days, and carving 90% of the block away with blunt tools, but its finished, and jane said still looked like her work, so i guess that is all that matters.
the women at the centre are friendly but fairly closed off to begin with, although intrigued about the carving and want to know how its done, i'll show them more next week. theres 3 young guys in their early 20's that jane employes in the office area. she also wants me to show them how to screenprint. really looking forward to that, they've got a lot of designs and drawings that will translate well onto screen, mostly things about their football team, Titjikala eagles, their jumpers etc.
starting to get used to living so remotely. the temperature isnt too bad during the day but drops very rapidly after about 4pm. the power is all from these pre-paid cards that you put into a box on the side of the house, like a pay phone. went back into town yesterday to get a tax file number etc for one of the young guys so the art centre can pay him. took best part of the day, nearly impossible to get things like that and open bank accounts when there is very little recorded information about your past. finally tracked down a birth certificate for him which helped, just another thing ive realised we take for granted. after a few hours in town all i wanted was to get back out to titjikala. as we were leaving we were approached by two drunk aboriginal women who jane knew as the mother and friend of someone from the art centre, they didnt live at titjikala but wanted a lift out there to visit.. after making a few calls jane reluctantly agreed, so made for an interesting trip home! the community is an alcohol free zone and seems to have a lot of people living here that have moved to escape the alcohol problems of the city or other communities.
the art centre is closed at weekends, so i spent today in the sun with a book, then a long walk off down a track into the desert. its a hard life....
over and out.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sci-Fi Sunsets
day one was off to a ripper start... sydey to alice via adelaide should have taken 4.5hrs, ended up taking 8.5... an hour sitting on the plane in sydney before take off was manageable, 3hrs in adelaide airport was painful though. after learning from the best, i had a whinge, they gave me food vouchers which were happily spent in the Coopers lounge - there is NOTHING else to do in adelaide airport.
Got into alice finally, checked into hotel for the night and went and climbed Anzac Hill. Amazing view and a sunset like something out of star wars. no real memories from when i was there 21yrs ago surprisingly but i could tell i'd been there before.
Jane Easton, Tapatjatjaka art centre manager picked me up early today, i had to buy food for the week which was mildly traumatic, knowing whatever you forget has to be done without for at least a week. Jane is fantastic and easy to get along with so should make the next few months easier.
The road to titjikala is longer than anticipated, took about 2hrs even with beautiful weather and reasonable road conditions. landscape is stunning. the colour of the sand kept changing from the darkest red to pure white and back again. titjikala is not what i expected, although i have no idea what i did expect. dogs everywhere! the vet was in for the day desexing and putting down any sick ones. the art centre is located in the middle of the community and the artists and other residents live in houses around that side, then there is another area off to the other side where the school building is, and where there is accomodation for the outsiders. met brett the youth worker who lives opposite me, he apparently worked as a life model at the art school sometime last year, small world. going to do an off-road 4WDing training course with him next week!
my house isnt all bad. took a bit of getting used to, and a 4hr cleaning spree with jane but is now clean and comfortable.
start work tomorrow.
over and out.
Got into alice finally, checked into hotel for the night and went and climbed Anzac Hill. Amazing view and a sunset like something out of star wars. no real memories from when i was there 21yrs ago surprisingly but i could tell i'd been there before.
Jane Easton, Tapatjatjaka art centre manager picked me up early today, i had to buy food for the week which was mildly traumatic, knowing whatever you forget has to be done without for at least a week. Jane is fantastic and easy to get along with so should make the next few months easier.
The road to titjikala is longer than anticipated, took about 2hrs even with beautiful weather and reasonable road conditions. landscape is stunning. the colour of the sand kept changing from the darkest red to pure white and back again. titjikala is not what i expected, although i have no idea what i did expect. dogs everywhere! the vet was in for the day desexing and putting down any sick ones. the art centre is located in the middle of the community and the artists and other residents live in houses around that side, then there is another area off to the other side where the school building is, and where there is accomodation for the outsiders. met brett the youth worker who lives opposite me, he apparently worked as a life model at the art school sometime last year, small world. going to do an off-road 4WDing training course with him next week!
my house isnt all bad. took a bit of getting used to, and a 4hr cleaning spree with jane but is now clean and comfortable.
start work tomorrow.
over and out.
Friday, July 16, 2010
desert rain.
last day in the gaol done and dusted. 10 week release started, back for remainder of sentence in october... it will be the longest i have been away from NAS since 2006.
turns out titjikala has had unseasonable rain, and the river bed is back to being a river, and they had flooding and lost power, and here i was thinking i was off to the driest part of the country in the driest time of year!
something to look forward to.
leaving Syd early on monday, via adelaide, spend a night in Alice then will make it to Titjikala sometime tuesday to asses the damage!
over and out.
turns out titjikala has had unseasonable rain, and the river bed is back to being a river, and they had flooding and lost power, and here i was thinking i was off to the driest part of the country in the driest time of year!
something to look forward to.
leaving Syd early on monday, via adelaide, spend a night in Alice then will make it to Titjikala sometime tuesday to asses the damage!
over and out.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Watch Me Disappear
2 weeks tomorrow and i'm off...
check out
http://www.tapatjatjakaarts.com.au/
and
www.aboriginalartonline.com/regions/titjikala.php
check out
http://www.tapatjatjakaarts.com.au/
and
www.aboriginalartonline.com/regions/titjikala.php
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