origami emu

the women from the art centre were supposed to be away this last week at a law and culture conference in docker river. these events are strictly women only and it is a pretty big deal for them and quite intense. i managed to score a week off by default because the art centre would have been closed while they were away. i booked myself a campervan and had planned a week out around the territory. turns out the women decided against going, was too far for some of them to travel and because of the weather, the roads and camping situation wasnt looking promising. i had already booked and paid deposits so i left anyway. met up with some mates from sydney in Alice for a few nights then off on my own for the week.

the henley on todd regatta, is about as australian as you can get. 2010 was its 49th year. its a boat regatta held on the todd river in alice springs, based on the henley on thames regatta in london which is fought out between cambridge and oxford universities. only difference being that the henley of todd is held 1500 km's from the nearest large body of water, on the dry todd river bed! the days events culminate in three 4wd battle ships - manned by vikings, pirates, and the navy - fighting it out with high pressure water cannons, flour/water/smoke bombs. the crowd then votes and chooses a winner. this was the harder of the 2 votes required on august 21, but in the end the winner was clear, and the pirates took out the title.

i brought michael out to titjikala on sunday, then we conitnued out to chambers pillar. he didnt make much comment on the community, but i was the same when i first arrived and didnt know how to react and take it all in.

monday morning i collected my van and headed off to uluru. just me and 475kms of outback highway. driving out there was one of the best days ive had so far. fantastic weather, long stretches of road, music up loud and heaps of roadkill to keep things interesting. when i arrived in yulara, the weather closed in and it rained non stop for the next 48hrs. seeing the rock in wet conditions is apparently a rare privilege. i did the 11km base walk in the rain - which meant crossing ankle deep red mud and knee deep creeks in parts, but was worth every bit. all the waterfalls and creeks were flowing, and kept a lot of the tourists in their cars and off the tracks. carried my camera around my neck with a plastic bag over it...

the weather began to clear on wednesday, i headed out to kata tjuta and did the 3km gorge walk and the 7 km valley of the winds walk that takes you up through the middle of the formations. the campground and resort area were full but there was hardly any tourists around out there. i think the rain had kept them away the day before and they'd all gone to uluru as soon as the sun came out, suited me perfectly.

drove back to Alice thursday, found a net cafe and reconnected with the world. jane had emailed me during the week to see how i was getting on. here's an excerpt to show the madness im living next to :
"I went over to your house on Wednesday night and did a few things. Prunella and Tju Tju were so happy to go there they jumped up on the bed and went sleep. Prunella refused to move so I left her there all night . Of course faithful TJu Tju followed me back next door. Last night I gave a pigs foot it to Tju Tju. He loves them so much....Anyway he ran off with it , I didn’t see where he went. I suspect he has buried it. (In your bed) At least its a dried foot ...not fresh."

went out friday exploring the east macdonnell ranges. drove out to ross river homestead then worked my way back into alice through trephina gorge, corroboree rock, jessie gap and emily gap. climbed up and across trephina gorge, it is truly amazing. high rock walls that look like they are made of tetris bricks. i went for a drive and found my old preschool. hasn't changed in 20 odd yrs. i pulled the car over and took a photo, untill i realised i was a dodgy looking guy with a beard in a van taking photos outside a preschool. i left pretty quickly... tammie (other NAS intern) and her mob from ikunji art centre was in town also so met up with them finally and shared war stories.

quick trip saturday morning to standley chasm out on the west side, mainly to use up the remaining fuel before i took my car back. complete rip-off, its the only privately 'owned' formation and they charge an $8 entry fee to walk the 20 minute track. back in the community now, spent most of the day making an origami coat of arms out of my alice springs - uluru road maps.

christabella's woodblock prints arrived back from basil hall editions in darwin, really beautiful - glad i could be a part of it. now just to get her to sit still for long enough to sign them all.....

few weeks back i had photographed 4 of the paintings in the gallery and ordered postcards prints of them, jane wanted to develop a few ways of bringing in a more regular flow of income, i thought the postcards would be an easy sell, more tourists travelling through are likely to buy a $2 postcard than a $2000 painting, at least they are buying something, and we are making about a 300% profit on each one. they arrived while i was away, im pretty impressed.

the whole accomodation thing seems to be just sitting in the background at the moment. im still in jane's place and she is in the other house. from what i can work out it seems that the council does in fact own the actual structure, but it is on crown land that they have no right to have a building on which just complicates the whole issue. but it also means that they had no right to build the two new houses opposite us where the youth worker and maintenance guy live, turns out they never had the required clearance from the central land council to build there. not sure what happens from here, im just staying out of it, sitting back and watching out of interest.

before i left i went through the screenprint inks that jane had told me where fine to use still. they were over 10yrs old, and had been sitting in a storeroom that gets well about 50 degrees over summer, so were far from usable and had turned to a jelly like consistency. they were good quality hydrotech inks from sydney but were that old that the phone number didnt have the '9' added to the front yet. we took them across to the tip with the hope that kids will get into them and spread it far and wide. i bought new inks yesterday, pays to be a 'nice guy', you get your 4lt print paste for $60 rather than $110. just got to get the young guys to turn up for work and we might get around to printing the screens. cant wait to print my eviction poster, i'll send a signed copy to the council office.

as i write this, there's a bunch of kids with slingshots knocking zebra finches straight out of the tree in front. remarkably good aim for a 5 yr old.

and i still havent found the pigs foot...