“We are doing it for Allison” is the video produced by family and friends of Allison Baden Clay to call on Queensland people to support a rally this Friday in Brisbane.
Already, the media is expecting thousands of people in Brisbane to join the Allison Baden Clay rally to challenge last week’s court decision to down-grade the murder conviction of her husband, Gerard Baden Clay – to manslaughter.
All Brisbane residents who are against domestic and violence against women – are asked to meet at 12:15pm, King George Square on Friday, 18 December.
Some of my readers may remember the story of the mother-of-three I posted on this blog in August. Her body was found at Kholo Creek, Anstead on July 2012. This creek is less than five minutes drive from our house.
At that time, her husband had already told police he did not know of her whereabouts. Baden-Clay, 45, reported his wife missing in April 2012 and her body was found 10 days later. During the trial last year, he denied killing his wife. There is a lot of media coverage of Allison’s death and you can read the ABC timeline on the events of her death. Gerard Baden Clay was found guilty on July 15, 2014 and convicted for murder. He was serving that sentence until his appeal and the court’s decision last week to give him a lesser penalty.
Allison comes from Brookfield, one of several local communities in Western Suburbs and our family property was bought from Baden Clay’s real estate business over four years ago. Please share this post and if you can make it – see you at the rally.
The freak Storm we had two weeks ago brought rain to soften the bark. The lighting in this picture is natural, everything was orange as the sun and the rain fought out the event of the day.
I have not thought of creating art from gum bark until this season.
In the past month, the gum trees (in Bellbowrie, and other parts of Queensland) have shredded their bark, leaving behind beautiful trunk colours. Surrounding each shedding trees are barks of different shades and density, giving the trees, a kind of carpet or stage to show themselves off.
My neighbours had already cleaned up their bark.Our driveway – see the bark on the bitumen.
The gum trees look so striking I decided this year to collect most of the bark around our house to try using its dyes and mulch the bark for my garden. The easiest way to break the bark was to leave them out in the rain to soften and then line our driveway, so everyone can help ‘mulch’ the bark for me as they drove up and down each day. It has been almost three weeks of bark-driving. The mulch is ready, but what I did not expect were the beautiful shapes and colours the bark pieces would make. I hope you like this selection I photographed with my phone. I messed with a few of them using an App called Paper-artist.
Currently, the case of the Yam Hole (Ambisi) is an ongoing dispute amongst our people in Wagang Village, Lae, Papua New Guinea. The national government is negotiating with the villagers to build a large fisheries wharf on my village. Wagang is a small coastal village less than 20 minutes drive to the heart of Lae City. This is the story about the site of the proposed development which is referred to as Ambisi, or the Yam Hole. The Yam Hole is my family’s inheritance, but due to foul play, the authorities have been negotiating with other people who have claimed to own the land referred to as the Yam Hole. With the permission of my Uncle Ahe Max Mambu, I am proud to tell you this oral history and a story about the Yam Hole as told by my late grandmother Geyam Baim to me. This story was told to my grandmother by her mother Geyamtausu Baim and her aunt Awelu Hampom. In one of the flash fiction stories I wrote in Monday’s Finish the Story, I made a reference to this story in Scatterings of the Blood River (Budac) and how a child was discovered.
My grandmother told this story almost every evening and in between other stories after our dinner. When I was 15, I presented the story of the Yam Hole to a large crowd of Lae City residents in the Lions Club Youth of the Year awards. It was in 1980. I represented Busu Provincial High School in the Lions Youth of the Year challenge. In the competition, an outstanding student was picked from all high schools and tertiary schools to give a five-minute original speech of cultural significance. After a gruelling week of interviews in an elimination process, the final test was to give a five-minute speech in front of business houses, leaders, and distinguished guests of the Lions Club (a large charity organisation) in a 3-course dinner event.
That evening, I borrowed a batik skirt, a white cotton blouse and a pair of sandals from my high school principles’s wife. I did not have anything of such quality and was specifically instructed that it was a high society gathering and I must not even wear slippers. Most children owned a pair of slippers or jandals, which we wore to school. None of my family members had any fancy clothes, let alone shoes of any kind. Despite not having anything smart to wear, my family was excited because I would make this speech about our ancestry. I tried to practice my speech in English because in Bukawac, I knew it by heart. It was after all, out family history.
My speech, although based on the Yam Hole and our family’s oral history; featured my great-grandmother and her sister and how they fought the white men/Australian administration and German missionaries to settle and remain in our village. The two sisters were not prepared to give this land away because it was fertile, had clean drinking spring water and completed with two large rivers circling the entire village portion of the land. Part of this land is where Lae city sits on and part is where our village is.
The Lions Club evening was also the evening I learnt to use knife and fork at a table for the first time. Each finalist Lions youth was sat at a table consisting of dignitaries and business people. Our conversations were also marked. I sat in my ‘borrowed’ clothes, the wrap skirt feeling too tight. I struggled to keep the slightly larger sandals on my feet with my napkin still on my lap while I carried on what seemed to be a normal polite conversation with very important strangers at my table. In front of me, on the huge white dinner plate, I tried to elegantly spear my dead cooked half-chicken while it gracefully danced on this huge white plate. I remembered, how crowded the table was with no room to move. It had too many flowers, candles, cutlery, glasses and people, while the food on the huge plates were in very small neat quantities. I could not really tell you which was scarier; the conversation, avoiding the glasses on the table, using the wrong cutlery, losing my borrowed skirt or shoe or catching and eating the dead chicken on the big white plate without getting any of the sauce on my white cotton borrowed blouse from the principle’s wife. I was very hungry, but I had to keep calm and keep it all together until I told the audience my oral history about the Yam Hole.
Miss Pacific Islands – Papua New Guinea, was crowned last night in front of a packed audience at Crowne Plaza Port Moresby.
Abigail in her making a statement on how many different ways you can wear your sarong in the Pacific Islands. Frankie Frank Rocky Roe Picture.
Abigail Havora, age 24, is a Biology-Chemistry graduate from the University of Papua New Guinea. Miss Havora works for Oil Search Ltd. She is also a feminist and, an advocate for youth. Miss Havora was sponsored by the Pacific Balanced Fund. In her spare time, the bio-chemist devotes her time to The Voice Inc, a dynamic youth development organisation and the PNG Cancer Foundation.
“My intent is to bring a message that strengthens the bridge between culture and the changing times so young people, especially women, are more aware of what they are contributing to, and the type of influence they are exerting. I am passionate about making a difference, which may come across as a broad statement, but my personal motto is to – leave the place better than it was.” Miss Havora said.
Abigail wears her traditional (Cultural) inspired dress showing her heritage from Gulf and central province. There will be a story about this dress. Frankie Frank Rocky Roe Picture.
Miss Havora is from Gulf and Central parentage, She will represent PNG in the regional quest, the Miss Pacific Islands Beauty Pageant in Cook Islands later this year. Abigail was one of six entrants in the pageant this year.
The new queen Abigail Havora, poses with fellow contestants after the crowning. Frankie Frank Rocky Roe Picture.
More on Miss Pacific Islands Pageant PNG – in the next post.
November is a very busy month for our family and usually it is full of celebrations.
My niece Joycelin Kauc, (picture with my mother) celebrates her 17th today (Nov 10th) in Lae, Papua New Guinea. Happy Birthday!
Photo by Leela Rashid. Chris Harris, JK. Leahy and Nathan Harris
We celebrated Chris’s 17th birthday last Thursday, 6th of November. We will celebrate Nathan’s 20th birthday on November 16. People ask me how I have managed to have my sons in the same month and on the 6th and 16th. I used to joke that it made it easier for their father to remember their birthdays. I also had many other answers of course, but my favourite response is, they were both Valentine’s Day babies. Let’s leave it at that.
In this picture from last Friday, we did not plan to, but we all wore grey the morning of Chris’s birthday. Families do, do strange things sometimes. I enjoy most things in life and am very grateful for them, but I must say, being a mother is my ultimate achievement – especially when I see my sons grow into good people.
Chris’s girlfriend Leela Rashid (below right) joined us in a breakfast celebration before school. At birthday mornings, I rise early to cook a pancake tower and dress it with as many sweets as I can. This time, two of us were on diet so we had to settle for strawberries, blueberries and light cream.
Chris will graduate from high school next week and I have a few small projects to finish up, so I will take a short break (a week) from this blog and respond to any comments when I return next week. Thank you very much for reading Tribalmysticstories.
The only breakfast to celebrate a birthday. Rich, creamy and sweet.
These creatures are our garden visitors. Most of them are regulars, but they do change with the season. This summer, they came in all shapes, sizes and colours. Some were old friends that have never left.
Almost daily, an old friend visits. You all know Kaz, the rainbow lorikeet that used to live with us.
Mondays Finish the Storyis a flash fiction challenge by Barbara W. Beacham. The story requires 100-150 words (excluding the first sentence). Here is my short story for this week’s prompt based on the first sentence below and the picture.
The Red Tomb – short story
“Where did they go?”
The two owls following her seemingly disappeared. Together yesterday, they watched the horizon quickly swallow the sun. Now they’re gone.
The mud on her feet lifted a coat of ochre from the red track. Dusk soaked and chilled her body, while blood from cuts drawn on her bare arms and legs marked her run through the arid country in search of the Red Tomb.
Tia stopped. The wind tapped her silky hair gently against her waist. Beyond the treetops, the sun stretched the shadows of the peaks, reaching to clutch her.
At last, she had reached the Red Tomb. She must borrow from her ancestors to save her five-year-old daughter.
“Go to the Red Tomb. Collect red dust from your ancestors’ graves. Their spirits will travel with you. When I bath Luhana in that dust, she will return to us”, the witch doctor whispered, before Tia left her dying child.
……………………………
(Click on short story category to read my other stories)
Perth artist Stelarc grows ear on his arm, plans to connect it to internet.
Hear for art
Image: ABC Copyright: Can you hear what I hear? Stelarc’s implanted ear up close
ABC News Courtney Bembridge reported it has been 20 years in the making and involves the growth of a human organ, but for Perth-based artist Stelarc, it is just another project.
The Curtin University professor is growing a human ear on his arm.
“People’s reactions range from bemusement to bewilderment to curiosity, but you don’t really expect people to understand the art component of all of this,” Stelarc said.
“I guess I’ve always got something up my sleeve, but often my sleeve is rolled down.”
Stelarc first conceived the idea in 1996, but it took another decade to find the medical team willing to make it a reality. Click on ABC link to watch the video – please be warned, some images are graphic.
There are a lot of tips on what you need to do when you have a book ready to publish. Here are top five tips on publishing for children.
The man himself, Barry Cunningham, the original publisher of Harry Porter and the Publisher of Chicken House gives a little advice to aspiring writers for children’s books, ranging from age 7-18.
Personally, I think this advice is good for any aspiring author with a ready manuscript – not just children’s books. What do you think?
Image copyright: TePapa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand.
Papua New Guinea has one of the most unusual collections of bark cloth (tapa) in the world. The art of making tapa is a timeless tradition in PNG and many Pacific Island countries. A cultural heritage handed down from generation to generation, tapa making has survived western influences and is still worn by its makers.
While the tapa cloth is made in different parts of the country, the Oro Province is known world-wide for its distinctive designs and patterns. More on tapa in a future post.
Tribalmystic Stories 