Corroboree Preparations

Continuing on with the Sovereign Embassy story... it's still there, just in a different part of Musgrave Park. They have 3 tents: one for men, one for women and a kitchen tent. The controversy seems to have died down and on Sunday there was a Corroboree to help celebrate National Sorry Day. It was a beautiful autumn day - warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. I hung out for about an hour or so but things were taking their time getting off the ground. I was especially looking forward to seeing some dancing but I had to leave before it all started. The BBQ food was all donated by the local church and elders ate first.

Stand-off at Musgrave Park

I couldn't really see much as the police had cordoned off the area with fences and blocked off the footpaths but the Sovereign Embassy in Musgrave Park this morning was not the happy peaceful place it was a couple of weeks ago when I visited. Scroll down to my May 1 post for shots of what it looks like.

Over the weekend, the residents were asked by the Mayor to vacate the site. The council has offered them another piece of land but the residents say that this is in fact their land with their sacred fire and they have no intention of leaving.

Today, over 200 police have surrounded the camp site in the north-western corner of the park. This is to make way for Panyiri this weekend which is the annual Greek festival held on the site (and the rest of Musgrave Park). Organisers of the festival have reportedly said they have no problem with the campers being there but Brisbane City Council haven't been swayed.

Brisbane's Sovereign Embassy

Brisbane's Soveriegn Embassy is an indigenous protest site set up in Musgrave Park in South Brisbane and has been open for just over a month. Read about the politics here.

Some of the coals from Canberra's sacred fire in the original Tent Embassy were carried to Brisbane to start a fire here. The residents of the camp have kept the fire burning despite prolonged rain over the past few days. 

Sovereignty of sacred land (like Musgrave Park where the camp is), an end to the disproportionally high number of black deaths in custody and a change to the intervention laws currently in place in the Northern Territory are all mentioned on the various signs around the site.

The signs are hard-hitting but the mood around seems pretty light. I've heard there is a playgroup being held there and of course there is some great art going on...

Signs around the place strictly forbid drugs and alcohol but it looks like the cups of tea are going down a treat.

Boundary Street, Friday

Boundary Street in West End has a mix of restaurants, bars and independent traders. Friday evening sees it come alive with delicious food smells, a wide variety of music and general weekend excitement. You get an eclectic mix: office workers, people dressed up in all their going out finery, hippies, transients, young and old, black and white.  There's also a big mosaic lizard under some trees - a shady place to hang out. This was taken yesterday afternoon where, with lunch out of the way, the atmosphere was one of quiet anticipation. I stuck the camera on top of the big lizard's head.

Fairground Attraction

During NAIDOC week last week, Musgrave Park in South Brisbane hosted a family fun day which, among countless other attractions, included fairground rides. This one (called "The Dementer") was a favourite with all the kids. The guy on queue control had his work cut out for him that day.

NAIDOC day at Musgrave Park

The winter sun shone on Musgrave Park yesterday for NAIDOC family fun day. As a whitey living in Brisbane, it was amazing for me seeing so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander faces in one place. Going through the motions of Brisbane daily life, it's easy to forget that Australia has a black history.

Chip Off The Old Block

This is 'Apu Kaz' by Dennis Nona (2005) - two beautiful bronze carved sculptures of a mother and baby dugong, sitting upstairs at the Gallery of Modern Art.  You can read about it here.

Sea Of Hands Poster

Look, I'm not one to blow my own trumpet... OK maybe I am.

 Back in October '09 I did a post about a "Sea of Hands" which was being exhibited as part of the West End Live festival. The organiser, ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation), contacted me recently to see if it would be OK to use the photo as part of a poster... and here it is! I'm very proud.

Read more about the Sea of Hands here.

 Find out what's happening with ANTaR nationally here.

 Have fun designing your own hand here.

Loving Life!

New Farm Park's finest.

N is for NAIDOC

It's NAIDOC week from 4th-11th of July. It stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee but it is known now only by the acronym. It's a time when Australia celebrates it's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. 

On Queen Street Mall in Brisbane, they are doing an art installation spelling out the word NAIDOC using a different artist to decorate a letter each day from Sunday to Friday. This is Melita Harris who was just starting the mammoth task of doing dots all over her 'N' as I walked past.

If you weren't planning on celebrating by visiting the NAIDOC website and seeing what's on around Australia, can I suggest you take four and a half minutes at some point this week to familiarise yourself with the fabulous Aboriginal musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.... here.

Sunday Morning in the Mall

He looked to me like his mind was somewhere else. The clap sticks were beating to a different tune, despite the reassuring hand.

Sea Of Hands

Here's another one from West End Live. I know I'm posting loads from that day but there was so much going on - and over a hundred shots I haven't posted. This is a section of the Sea of Hands: a long-running campaign by ANTaR aimed at reconciling Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Supporters design a hand using the colours from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags and attach their name to it. Over 2.5 million people have added a hand since 1997. The target is 4 million. You can add one too here.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

Kev Carmody and West End State School senior choir brought Boundary Street in West End to a standstill last night during West End Live, part of the Brisbane Festival. Hear him sing it with co-writer Paul Kelly here.

A Week In Hands (last one) and Traffic Stopping Art (number 11)

My ultimate combination of themes would have been to have incorporated glass in this shot... then I could have posted this yesterday in a triple whammy!

Definitely room for improvement, there.

For the rest of the "Week in Hands" series, click on the "hands" label below.

For others in the Traffic Signal Box series, click on the "TSBs" label below.

A Week In Hands (Saturday)

Here's another hand from the South Brisbane mural. Plenty of Australian motifs here: the painted indiginous man, the hand print, the dots (used a lot in aboriginal art), the gecko (of which there are loads in Brisbane) and of course the Kangaroo.

Kangaroo meat is quite the go here right now. The steaks are looked upon as a healthy choice as they are high in protein and low in fat. They even make kangaroo sausages. Stick these in some bread and hey presto - kanga banger sangers!

A Week In Hands (Wednesday)

Here's the hand stencil again - this time posing with its modern counterparts on a little "Graffarty" wall.

A Week In Hands (Monday)

There are a lot of hands around Brisbane...
Stenciled hands on walls go back to the earliest Australian cave paintings. The main function of them was to record people's presence and association with a site. They are used a lot today too.

These ones are on the wall of West End primary school.

The Vatican vs South Brisbane

This is St. Mary's Catholic Church in South Brisbane, one of the most popular churches in Brisbane with a flock of 800. It is well known for its "rebel" priest Father Peter Kennedy. Many of his practices have been frowned upon by the Vatican including his wording of The Lord's Prayer ("Our MotherFather who art in heaven") and his political outspokenness (one example was the big banner outside the church last year demanding David Hicks be returned to Australia from Guantanamo Bay). His church recognises the land it is on as Aboriginal and has strong ties with the Aboriginal community in the area. Read an interview about it here. This is definitely not on as far as The Vatican are concerned and they have been threatening action for a while. A couple of days ago the Archbishop of Brisbane told the priest unless he tended his resignation, he would be fired as parish priest on 21st of February.

4 Faces of Brisbane

Here's an alternate "Paths and Passageways" shot - this time taken from an alley down the side of the GPO. Can you guess what the 4 faces are?

Musgrave Park

This is one of two big boomerangs that mark the southern entrance to Musgrave Park in South Brisbane. The park is an important Aboriginal site and is said to be sacred, having a buried bora ring beneath it. Brisbane celebrates Pride here in June, NAIDOC day in July, and it is also home to the city's annual Greek Festival, Paniyiri in May. Each year they hold a "Zorbathon" where they try and get as many people as possible to dance to Zorba the Greek. Apparently the record is 3300 people for 8 minutes! That photo is definately on my to-do list.