Gagging. For. This.

I am simply in love with this painting by Norah Napaljarri Nelson, Milky Way Dreaming. It's a shame that it was auctioned for $7,000 by Sotheby's - just a schmidge above my art budget :-)

The artist takes Dream Time to the night sky by telling the story of a man who pursued 7 sisters that were all wrong for his skin type. The painting initially caused much distress to the artists father and other male members of her community who believed that she did not have the rights to paint the story.

Thankfully it got to see the light of day and we got to see it.

This Old Man

Learning "This Old Man" is so much more fun with the right choreography!

The landscape

Can you see the moon above Uluru? It feels as though the moon is everywhere here, it is prominent and lights up a clear and amazing view of our milky way. There are no street lights in Docker River, which has made locating planets and observing the ever changing night sky an absolute joy. This week I am taking some students on a camp out along with an astronomer and a telescope. Lucky me!

From the Docker River turn off you can see the Olga's from a different angle.

It is mostly about 30 degrees and perfect here but the winds at night are rather fearce, resulting in a the trees and grass all being uniformly slanted.

The landscape is absolutely amazing. I didn't imagine that it could ever be so beautiful. It's like someone has turned the colour up. The reds come in all shades, as do the greens and blues. Sunset is my favourite time of day, watching the blue sky turn to lilac, orange, yellow and finally black.

Good night to you! xxxx

Umenda - Pitantjara

Happy Weekend!

Pitantjara (Pit) is the first language of ‘the Docker mob’ as they call themselves. There are two people who know how to write in Pit, two elders who currently live in the community. Sadly, there doesn’t seen to be an urgency to pass this knowledge on. Students are taught in their second language, English, (spoken to them only by white fellas) and noone in this community can write in English. Much like me trying to learn in German, Haagen Dazs, now THAT I understand, but that’s about where it would end. As a result, when it comes to school the students are disengaged and disinterested.

Everyone here calls me Umenda, it’s my Pit name, the kids were chuffed to tell me and to call me by a name they had given me, they were chanting it and laughing at me, when I asked them what they were laughing and saying they said ‘You…Umenda, Umenda, Umenda’, lets hope it secretly doesn’t mean white woman who doesn’t know we can see her knickers through her dress.

It’s Saturday night as I write. My weekends here have been filled with pottery, knitting, painting and locating planets and constellations in the night sky. The pottery shed gets my company regularly, I spend a part of most days mixing paints and making tea for the ladies, mainly so that I can be in their company and listen to them singing, I have no idea what they are singing about but it sounds pretty amazing, one will start and before I know it everyone is chanting.

Spending time with Alison and learning pottery has been a wonderful experience, I am a long way from becoming friends with the pottery wheel but enjoying it very much and hoping that someone invents a collapsible wheel that 'folds down and slots under my bed with ease', my money is on Danoz Direct.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Love Umenda xxxx

Which doctor?

Good morning!

I don't have the right attachment for the camera I am using, so for now, you will have to trust that my photos are amazing!

In the mornings I drive the school truck into town (ten minute walk) to collect all of the students (approx ten-on a good day) and bring them in for breakfast before starting class. Today was a little more interesting. I arrived as usual to collect an elder-Naomi. Usually Naomi is doing what everyone else in Docker is doing at that hour, sitting around a fire making tea, not this morning.

Today there were a lot of people pacing around the yard at Naomi's house there was chanting accompanied by exaggerated gestures . I pulled in to see what all the commotion was about and was informed that there was a Witch Doctor in town to perform a healing ceremony on a nephew of Naomi's who was being taken by the 'bad spirits' (I later discovered that these 'bad spirits' were manifesting themselves as a marijuana habit).

Naomi's nephew started walking around the community, trying to escape the attention (and no doubt find a cookie). The Witch Doctor followed him, along with around 30 other people, oh and me, trailing in the truck, trying to entice the students in with promises of painting and pottery at school! I got 2 in the end, a win by anyones standards!

Lots of love Shan,

P.S. HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Lucy McAlary! xxxx

Pitchury

Computers are slow, I rarely have access and there is so so SO much to take in about this place, the people, the intervention, the politics, the culture. Sorry for being a crap updaterer. I will attempt to share some of the details of Docker with you over the next week to give you an idea of what it's like here.

I will start with what I thought was a whole community of people with mouth cancer. Pitchury. You can see it in the mouth of the girl to the right in the photograph above.

Docker is a dry community, I was warned on arrival that there is a $50,000 fine for anyone caught with alcohol (rather severe for a community where there 99% of the population are unemployed don’t you think?). Petrol here no longer contains any mind altering qualities so people have come up with their own mind altering concoction. Pitchury.

Pitchury is a mix of ash from a particular tree (this tree looks albino, tall, thick and bright white, the contrast to the deep red earth surrounding it is pretty amazing) and tobacco, it is then then rolled into a ball and placed inside the lip. I am told that it brings numbness to the face and has a relaxed calming affect on the body and mind. The youngest person I have seen with pitchury is 3 years old. It is common for parents to give this to their children to chill them out.

Tonight I am moving houses, I have been living on my own in a little house (I was housesitting a cat-Finn, who despite my preference for dogs I ended up becoming rather good friends with). I am moving into 'the shed' where I will stay for the rest of my time here. I will update more throughout the week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Sunday Mum.

Love Shan xx

Bush Camps

As of next week I will be going on weekly 2 night/3 day bush camps with Luke (the teacher-there is only one) and the students as part of a project that involves the students collecting photos and information about bush plants. This information will be then passed onto the elders who will share the traditional medicinal use for the plants. Luke hopes to publish these findings from Docker River to create funds that will go back into the community for future projects.

The camps will be at outstations, which are smaller communities that are so remote that they don’t come under a council. I am told that it is just a tin shed where a three or four families live. We will be sleeping under the stars in swags which will give me a good chance to track stars with my newly purchased constellation map. I am looking forward to story telling time when the sun goes down.

Oh, did I mention that the landscape is Amazing? Although I am not going to be able to do it justice I will try to get some photos up.

Have a good week!