Sunset Photos

I have been walking with Sandy from the clinic. They have lots of extra forms to fill out thanks to little Johnny but still doing the work they always do - no sign of extra help yet. Here is a photo of our shadows as we walked towards that distant mountain where I've gathered bush tobacco - minkulpa.

A very well-spoken grey haired fella called Jeremy Long turned up the other day and said he had worked here in the 60's, taking trips out to the desert to pick up the Pintubi. I took him out to visit old Snowy McDonald who went with him then and is the oldest person here, at 85.

It has been very cold here, frosty nights. No sign of the army or the administrator yet. Will keep you posted.

The Other Invasion

I have just spent the weekend in the company of the Alice Bushwalkers Group, hiking for miles at Kings Canyon , one of the most beautiful places on earth. So I have been part of the other invasion, tourism, and just to remind me there were helicopters every half-hour or so above the canyon: the war continues. And it took us five hours of evil earth-destroying fuel-guzzling road travel to get there. We walked 22 k along the Giles track on Sunday and avoided the helicopters and saw some of the most spectacular and exhilarating country...walking the dotted line as Lisa calls it, following the markers - but it was so beautiful. And so exhausting, good healthy workout for the body/mind. My broken foot reminded me ligaments taken a long time to heal but all was well after a day or two. ...these pictures are worth a thousand words, apologies to those on dial-up. Click on a picture to see it bigger... This is ancient rock, but the climate is doing the same to my skin... o to be a duck in paradise!

Invasion Day

Well, it has come and gone, the latest invasion day. Jan is presently writing up her heated response to the meeting that was held to announce/softsoap the bull..t.

I was very heartened to hear the community leaders speak very clearly and well about their opposition to any changes to the permit system and the proposed take-over of the lands by 5 year leases in exchange for investing money in what has been such a shoddy infrastructure for so long. It's hard to imagine that five years could make any difference (does that bring it up to the next election year?)...but anyway that's not the point. We were made to sit down and listen to a lot of public servants waffle on in vague support of the pathetic little plot, all except one were an embarrassment and boring to boot. Wafflemongers selling bureaucratspeak. So it was great when Sid Anderson and Michael Nelson (he designed the mosaic/painting out the front of new Parliament House) spoke so well - and they were the only ones to receive any applause.

I spoke to Sid later and told him I wished I'd had my video camera there so we could send something to ICTV to broadcast and he said that the community leaders in other communities are saying the same things and that they probably don't need any encouragement.

It's blackfella business to say what they want after all. And it's the job of people like us to make sure they are heard and that the response is flexible and open enough to allow the change that people want and not what the government wants. So I encourage you all to write and sign petitions and pray and activate in whatever way you can to support the principle of land rights and the right of self-determination which has been so eroded in the communities out here.

The Little Children are Sacred Report can be accessed by following the link on my list. Please do whatever you can to support the findings of the report rather than the political idiocy that is designed to make all of it irrelevant.

Here are Jan and I on the road to nowhere and enjoying it immensely - she is collecting materials for an artwork and I am just enjoying being in the drivers seat...