cr8tv

i been collecting....as i ride around on my bicycle

we seem to be a weird bunch uphere in the northland

stay tuned

telling stories with wacked words

a new language

number plate vocabulary

4X4

some paintings i did last year

made like 30

primed cardboard

but just wanted to see what they looked like

so ner....

ESOterik

don't normally do this but.....
went to Bliss n Eso concert saturday
was wicked
still got sore neck
those guys are awesome.

crowd (i jumped alot)

imbi and eso


izm side shot...bit gammon

imbi and izm (i'm so polite)


something about the old skool rifts, scratching and wicked fellas made me smile!!

was fun... i got signed shopping list! And hugs from eso. so silly. but he got really blue eyes.

onley ones - samson and delilah

yep on a recent trip to the beach
couldn't help but find the beauty
that inscribes itself frequently in odd places
this is nothing new really
love the old scratched gum tree
but these ones good
my friend thought i was capturing the lovely textural surface of the bark
bah stuff that
human scratches and destruction
is way more interesting
always
(sometimes...anyway)

methinks basquiat would have loved it

by the way...if you havn't seen it yet

you should

samson and delilah

the movie

hits you in the guts

makes you cry

but is a love story

S 4 D onley ones

little prince

i just read the end of the little prince

from the part where he meets the fox

and the fox tells him a secret

i cried a bit for the parting

but then realised that if you do look to the stars

that somewhere

on a little planet is a laughing prince

with a heart

love love

it makes no sense but is the only sense

but when you understand

it is eternal

just like the stars

bless for the little prince

love.LINVS. IIIIIIVVVIIIIXXXXXX

here are some of the latest...but they have all changed a bit

all a bit sad in this here two worlds lately

and my work is tough

dark, messy, sorrowful

and yet i hope there is some love

something that makes us all remember

to love

that struggling and pain is love

that it makes us tougher

and we never really know what effect we have on anyone

that even a glance can make us better

that even a smile can bring hope

even a black mark upon the soul can help us cry out

for love

a thousand words fly out

a thousand words spoken

for love

the hardest and most honest journey.....

apologies for my sorrow

gotta keep it real

hey India if you read this I havn't forgotten our swap!!

Am in Adelaide in Sept...dark scratchy stuff for you witch!!

xx

witches and angels

as i got goosebumps
i got the story today that a beautiful angel i met in NZ passed away....
as i read about witches brewing
i feel his passing
and my heart hurts

even though i only passed his way briefly briefly
he was the most beautiful person i ever saw
he was always radiant
alive and smiling
he was like a magnet
and you saw him and just stared
a shining star
literally
amazing
dancing
loving life
tattooed
beatiful

now gone...bless to this person who really really was special and full of love, even after they amputated his arm...he told the doctor he loved him!

A majical creature if ever there was one, with giant butterfly wings across his back
thankyou thankyou that you were in my dreams
that i met your shining self
and that you fly
xxxxxx

pics pics

here's some pics for the aforementioned bapuru:

as time passes....in honour of Rraywala mildjingi

i have been thinking about a book my great-grandmother gave to my father sometime around 1950. It was called 'piccaninny walkabout', by axel poignant. It tells the story of a couple of yolngu kids who get lost in the bush and shows how they survive. Amazingly, overtime, this book was given to me as a youngster, who loved it, drew in it, absorbed the black and white pictures of kids playing in another distant world.

And then, years later, i walk around the same beaches, meet the grandchildren, meet the old people who are in the book. Yesterday, here in Darwin was a small ceremony...it was attended by maybe 100 people but I think it should have been witnessed by the whole country! We were celebrating a man, whose face I have known for years, who appeared in the book and whose children I have lived with. His name was Rraywala....he was born here, in mildjingi land:

At the time he was born, most of his family were being killed, massacred and eliminated by pastoralists. When I lived out bush, here in central arnhem land, i was told stories all the time about the struggle to exist, how clans were wiped out, how only one or two men survived from whole clans. No wonder these people are warriors and fighters....anyway....this man, Rraywala had an interesting life. He walked around and befriended a white fella, Donald Thompson, who took photos, fought, lived and learned with the yolngu mobs in Arnhem Land in the 1930-40's. Rraywala fought against the Japanese, moved around, lived his life and ended up passing away here in Darwin in the 1060's. His grave has been an unmarked number amongst thousands since then. That was until yesterday....

It is a beautiful thing to remember, to see stories entwined. to be a part of something that connects us all, whether we be ballanda (white fellas), yolngu, young, old whatever....we all got stories. Mine began as a kid, with piccaninny walkabout...i remeber the tears on the face of the the little girl rrikili in this book and testerday i stood with her family, as they mourned and shed tears over an old man who was gone but not forgotten.

Donald Thomson's family was there, as were many of Rraywala's family,but especially his daughter margaret mayal and son jimmy burrinyila. Margaret is one tough old chook, she kept wacking me on the arm and she thought it hilarious...but i was like,man ouch. She tough. And old jimmy. It was a ceremony to remember, to acknowledge the past and a man who despite everything, just had a damn big heart and forged a connection that spans the country today. They placed, after nearly 40 years a headstone on rraywala's grave and finally his children could spill forth their songs and tears....ngarri marringi, ga nyuni ngadji ngadji ngajie...butdal

and these fellas....the wak waks, well they send it out there....

i will remember.

my feet have walked tthis red earth country

my heart has heard this song

i get goosebumps

i shiver

when i think of the bones underground

and the spirit in the silence.

i will remember things i do not know

i will feel what i cannot understand

maybe one day

i will go back

to where my feet

touch this land

i wail with tears for the dead

for the story untold and unspoken

but i smile

with love for the beginning

i get goosebumps