Australia day double - and quilts

This year we got two Australia Days, because the real one fell on a Sunday, and today, Monday, is a public holiday: to not have a public holiday would be 'unaustralian' (I'm not complaining...)

Yesterday  we went to a 'Survival Day' gathering organised by Benarrawa Community Development Association by the Benarrawa, or Oxley Creek, which is a tributary of the Brisbane river at Graceville.

This is the second time we have attended this community event: last year it ended in torrential rain and floods. Interestingly, the emphasis has shifted this year from Invasion to Survival, which I guess is a more positive reframing.

There is a bronze canoe on the riverbank, which commemorates co-operation between the local Indigenous population and white people many years ago. Two convicts where given a lift across the river by the local Aboriginal people, to help them escape their fate.

I used to bring my sons here when they were younger, to play on the 'pirate ship' playground, not knowing the historical significance of this venue.

I just read a fascinating, and related, article in the Courier Mail Weekend magazine, about a forthcoming Museum of Brisbane exhibition called Many Lives of Moreton Bay, about the social history of the Bay's islands.

The article makes a link between the prior use of Peel Island as a leper colony in the colonial era, and Nauru and Manus Island in the present to detain refugees. Islands are a convenient place to dump people we don't want to think about, in other words. There are parallels here with the institutional treatment of people with mental health issues, and the segregation was often based on fear. Fascinating and shameful stuff.

I just came across the term 'Depression Quilts' via Google, referring to quilts made in America between 1920 and 1930, which forms a nice segue to the next bit, or piece.

The photographs are of quilting blocks I have been making, out of precut printed fabric strips, which are sewn together into stripes, then cut again across the stripes, reconfigured and resewn (alternating different strips) into a sort of chequerboard design. Hard to describe, that process, but its another form of reframing...

This is another pattern that I can't remember how to do. Again, it involves sewing, cutting, reconfiguring and resewing. I'll eventually figure it out. The moral is, don't abandon projects for too long.

Saw the movie of the Book Thief the other night, having read the book...I appreciated it in a different way to reading it. It was very evocative of war, in a more graphic way than words can convey, which is ironic, as the book is all about the power of words.

more later

a very long and 'big wet' weekend: facing eco-anxiety

Still photo from the fabulous 2012 eco-movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild, currently with several Oscar nominations, including youngest-ever best actress nominee, Quvenzhane Wallis, pictured, aged 6 when she made the movie. The words, in case you can't read them, are: 'When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe'. Which should mean something to the particle physicists, at least.

Our long Australia Day weekend started by participating in Benarrawa Community Association's Invasion Day event on the banks of Oxley Creek, Graceville. This was an introduction to the local group for us, and brought an awareness of the Indigenous population who lived in this area. It put a very different perspective on Australia Day, which tends to bring out Australian flags, unpleasant jingoistic behaviour, excessive drinking, with the result that it is the busiest day of the year for Accident and Emergency Departments.

Meanwhile, the rain, which began with a steady drizzle, became increasingly intense, and by the middle of Sunday, it was unrelenting, becoming a fierce storm with wild winds, which continued for much of the night. This was the frightening impact of ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald, which had tracked Southwards from North Queensland, dumping huge amounts of rain in its path.

Queensland Floods 2011

I cannot remember a similar storm, in the 24 years I have lived in Brisbane. Given that Australians have experienced several catastrophic 'natural' (or should that be 'man-made'?) disasters this year already, including bush fires earlier in January, and extensive flooding, as a result of this event, I imagine we won't have to wait that long to experience something similar again. In particular, this storm came just two years after the devastating floods of December 2010-January 2011, and although the effects were less in most cases, it certainly has generated a great deal of fear and anxiety.

The after effects, for us, really are minor. Some small trees down, and part of the next door neighbour's roof (corrugated iron) flew into our verandah, which was scary at the time. And the following day I got stung by wasps, when we tried to lift up a huge cactus, knocked over in the wind, disturbing the wasp's nest within. The weirdest part was being, temporarily, at the mercy of the elements, and having to cancel any plans which involved going outside.

Meanwhile, I have been experimenting with Intermittent Fasting, which I wrote about in my last post, and am on my third Fast day so far. I'll report more in the future, but it is going really well. Hunger, it seems, is good for us in small doses, giving the body time to renew and repair.

more later.

Australia Day - almost...

 

Back into the light

 

The image on the right,  Back into the light, is a response to the image on the left, Through the floodgates, which I posted a week ago. (The first image was a reflection on how the grim reality of the Brisbane floods, had broken through a previous happy mood. This image in itself was a response to an earlier image, feeling joy, which I posted on 8th January.) Are you still with me?

In the second (or should that be third?) image, I reversed the dynamic of the previous image, so it now depicts breaking through from the dark foreground, which looks like a wall, to the bright and colourful background. What I wanted to do, was play with the idea of contrasts, or what you might call positive and negative, and to see how this could change the mood of the whole image. I am also interested in exploring the idea of an image being a response to another image (and another...). And how moods change, over and over again.

What I then noticed, when I turned the image on its side, is how similar the central shape is to the map of Australia, give or take a peninsula or two. Well, sort of...

 



This surprising similarity, so close to Australia Day tomorrow, made me think about how I feel about life in my adopted homeland, and what I appreciate about it. After all, the image was originally supposed to represent positivity breaking through from a dark place. So here is my unpremeditated short list of thirteen Australian things I am grateful for (I love lists!):

• bright sunshine on so many days
• rain on the tin roof (but not when it doesn't stop)
• the Pacific Ocean and the Barrier Reef
• the expression 'That's un-Australian!'
• multiculturalism
• indigenous art
• the rainforest
• enthusiasm for life and BBQ's
• parrots
• we said 'sorry'
• islands - Straddie, Tassie et al.
• great food and wine 
• the vast scale of the landscape

 
I finally had my Angel interview yesterday. It was for the Pyjama Foundation, which sends volunteers to read to foster children. The volunteers are called 'pyjama angels'.
 
More later.