Diabolical Clay

This is a press release by Mick Dodson, former Australian of the year, this comes courtesy of the Tasmanian Times Website.

It beggars belief that this is even legal in Australia. Aboriginal land in one of our most fragile ecosystems has just been earmarked for compulsory acquisition by the Western Australian Government.

The reason? Energy giants including BP, Woodside, Chevron and Shell want to build a gas pipeline, and they don’t want to wait for Indigenous consultation. Some traditional owners are in favour of the pipeline, others disagree. But one thing is clear: compulsory acquisition means no genuine consultation, and far less compensation if the project goes ahead.

We need to respond quickly and make sure Premier Barnett’s announcement is met with national outrage. Locals are delivering a petition to the Premier’s office next week. Can you back them up by adding your name today, and asking your friends to do the same? Go to link http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/nocompulsoryacquisition

The nation is talking about hung parliament negotiations in the marble halls of Parliament House. But far away, in the red dirt of James Price Point, 400km from Broome on the Dampier Peninsula, there is another power struggle going on; pitting the profits of BP, Shell, Woodside and Chevron against the rights of Indigenous Australians. You can help shift the balance.

There are numerous registered Aboriginal heritage sites in the vicinity of James Price Point (Walmadan). Locals tell of Indigenous burial sites and ancient rock art; in some areas you can actually see the footprints of prehistoric birds, long extinct. But the Western Australian Premier wants to bypass Aboriginal elders in what’s been called “colonialism all over again” by Wayne Bergmann, Kimberly Land Council CEO. And what’s more, the project hasn’t even received environmental approvals required by State or Federal law.

This is about more than one site, or one gas pipeline. Compulsory acquisition in WA would put the profits of multinationals above the rights of traditional owners—and threatens decades of progress on land rights. Can you stand with traditional owners behind a campaign to stop compulsory acquisition? Colin Barnett’s decision could set back the Indigenous Rights movement by 30 years or more. Together we have the opportunity to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Slowly, slowly, inch by inch the construction of my studio is starting to happen. I am not used to sub-contracting out any building work as “The Spouse” is my builder. Together we have been owner-builders for the past twenty odd years but as “The Spouse” gets progressively more broken and some days can barely manage to stand without pain, it was time to call in some outside workers.

The plans for my studio were approved by the council in May and now it is September and work is only just starting to happen. Patience isn’t one of my strong points and the frustration of not being able to do some serious work has been making me a tad gloomy.

But!!! Now that work has started I am hoping that with everything crossed, fingers, toes, etc that I might be in my studio by Christmas.

This is the site, it is nearly ready for the concreter to come up and work his magic.

When my mother died I lost the ability to see the light, I put the camera away because there was nothing to see, everything was muted and grey. I lost the ability to find joy in the way the light played through the trees, there were no joyful shadows because everything was dark. It didn’t help that it also rained and rained for weeks and the soggier the earth got the soggier my spirits were.

For over two years my soul has been stained by the colours of cancer and grief and I stopped seeing.

It has been a long journey and now slowly the light is seeping in under the cracks.

Making the film for my teacher Glen Dunn has helped me start to see again. In the beginning I whispered to myself  that I didn’t have time to do the project justice, but in truth it was because I was afraid that I would make something grey and then I would know that I had truly lost the light. I had to force myself to look at things again, to watch as the greyness began to separate into light and shade.

As an Artist I am often afraid so I come here to my blog for solace and comfort, for applause and affirmation that what I do has meaning.

Thank you my dear earthlings for making me feel that what I do has some worth.

The next four photos are of  work by Tasmanian Artist Linden Langdon, photographed by me.

I was listening to local ABC radio the other day and Tim Cox was having a conversation with Sally Bryant about Tasmanian Wedgetail eagles. I thought I would share the information I picked up.

The female wedgetail eagle is a larger bird than the male of the species and the darker the feathers the older the bird.

This still doesn’t help me identify the sex of this lovely eagle that has been visiting me but I do like to gather and share snippets of useful information as well as interesting links like this one,  Raptor and Wild life Refuge

I am a storyteller, I hadn’t really thought about it much until this weekend at the Junction 2010 Arts Conference. I had just been blogging away merrily here at Frog Ponds Rock telling stories about my life, working away creating ceramics, all of which have their own stories and now I am discovering film making which is the easiest way of all to tell a story.

I also like to help other people tell their stories. So if you are here reading this because I offered to help you in some way please be assured that my offer was genuine. Send me an email or leave me a comment and we can work out a plan.

I am always astounded that people are interested in what I do. I keep on waiting for someone to tell me that I am stupid and useless (thanks Dad) and that what I am doing is a ridiculous waste of time but people never do. They smile when I talk and they ask me questions about my work and let me waffle on about dead albatrosses, ethical food production and dragons eggs.

I have passion in abundance. I am passionate about my work, my family, life in general and thanks to Ernesto Sirolli my newest guru I know that I am on the right track.

It was amazing to listen to a passionate speaker like Ernesto Sirolli confirm what I truly believed, that if you are doing what you love, the money will follow.

I have always told my children to do what they love and to worry about the money later and a small part of me has often wondered if I had been doing them a disservice. I look at my daughter doing what she loves passionately and I know that although her path is difficult she is happy. Once my son starts to follow his passion I know that he will be happy as well, it is just a bit hard for him at the moment because he is such a gifted child that all his teachers want him to excel in their chosen field and that is a lot of pressure for a sixteen year old to carry.

I have so many stories to tell and so little time in which to do it. So stay tuned my dear bloglings I have come back from Junction 2010 with so much energy and renewed passion that it could be dangerous.

Here are some photos from my weekend away, just mouse over the photos to get the titles.

Here are some images from  Friday at Junction 2010. These images are straight out of the camera. I am suffering from information overload and it is fantastic.

I am sitting in bed in a cabin in a caravan park, my laptop is balanced precariously on my knees and I am trying to write outside of my comfort zone. I only have picasa installed on the laptop and not being able to edit my photos how I am used to is bothering me much more than it should.

I stopped on the side of the Midlands highway just outside of Campbell town yesterday to talk to my daughter Veronica on the phone. As usual most of our conversation was about the apple of my eye, my grand daughter Amy and Aspergers.I took this photo as the trucks were roaring past my window, shaking the car and shaking me.

I am here in Launceston for the Junction 2010 Regional Arts Conference and Festival. I have been sent up here as a delegate for the Greater Green Ponds branch of Tas Regional Arts. This is an amazing opportunity for me to network and meet other artists and arts workers. My focus this weekend is the  role of Arts in health and the Arts and disengaged youth.

The fact that my gorgeous girl most probably has Aspergers has made me determined to pick the brains of every Artist working with children like Amy. I am going to be very busy this weekend.

Well maybe not all of them will be super pretty but there aren’t any photos of roadkill, spiders or  super blurry treescapes in this lot.

I have been going for a walk each morning, (well the last two mornings anyway.) I have put on a lot of weight this past year, comfort eating and losing my teeth combined with a general malaise regarding food preparation have seen me slip into some lazy eating habits.

I had been too busy to exercise or too tired in the evenings when I get home. But now with spring just around the corner it is light enough in the mornings that I can go for a walk before the morning mayhem begins.

Though I also don’t think that they are horrible photos either. I went for a walk this morning and took some photos. I was fascinated by this piece of roadkill. This was a wallaby. Now it is a series of photos.