One of my projects this year will be compiling a new album
I write a lot of music and it's surprising how effective it can be to remix that material, like the track above was played with guitar and then became something else when I played with it in the computer.
It was seeing these patterns in data that began giving me an insight into the disconnected attitudes that I see in people.
I hope it gives me patience by recognising that people don't have the energy and possibly are lacking in other capacities as well.
There I overheard a guy explain "I'm not here because I like reading."
I used to have a problem with my ringtone after setting it to something unobtrusive that sounded like crickets
In summer the cicadas would have me reaching for my phone to answer calls when it wasn't ringing and missing others.
I'm like Pavlov's dog salivating at the gate when I hear similar small electronic noises.
Every now and then you get a glimpse of how our Asian neighbours view our nation as a remnant of the colonial powers that have largely left the region.
The recent referendum on reconciliation, which proposed constitutional recognition for a First Nations advisory to the Federal Parliament, was thought to have been unsuccessful in part because questions remain as to whether a Treaty or a Truth-telling is first required to move forward.
Likewise it is the reconciliation of Australia's position in the Commonwealth and this legacy of colonial brutality that remains to be addressed.
Many of our country's residents, for example, do not ponder the genocide that allowed a legal term like Terra Nullius to exist until 1992.
The treatment of Tasmanian Aborigines that saw their culture almost entirely eradicated from the island state was so shocking that it inspired HG Wells to write War of the Worlds.
This is something that's been gaining discussion recently, particularly in the book Question 7 by Richard Flanagan.
For those of us on the mainland of Australia it is worth considering the question of whether smallpox was deliberately released in the late 18th Century to unleash a genocide in the fledgling colony of New South Wales.
First Fleet surgeon John White brought sealed bottles containing "variolous matter" (pus and scabs from infected individuals) with him, intending to use it for future inoculations in the new colony.
There were no recorded cases of active smallpox among the colonists or convicts during the long voyage.
Then a major smallpox epidemic broke out among the Aboriginal population of Sydney in April 1789, about 15 months after the First Fleet arrived.
This killed an estimated 50% to 90% of the Indigenous population around the Sydney area and spread inland, leaving dead bodies in campsites across the landscape.
Recently I learned that some marines in the First Fleet had served in North America where British forces had previously used smallpox-laden items against Native Americans.
The use of germ warfare was known and feared enough that George Washington sent smallpox survivors into Boston to occupy it after the city was evacuated by the British in 1776, since they were immune to reinfection and wouldn’t fall prey to smallpox-tainted items left behind.
It is this question of whether Australia waged a civil war through the early centuries of the colony that remains to be answered by the nation as it moves toward becoming an integrated society, along with many other important reforms to create equity among citizens.
Changing the date would assist in creating a new and more inclusive way to celebrate a national day.
I know the quote from Oscar Wilde has a barb in its tail, but I think that recognising one's influence is a pleasing experience.
So I share with you the haiga that my mother penned after a visit to Narrandera yesterday, where we saw my exhibition Zen Roo and looked for koalas and ate a meal at the Red Door Cafe.
It was also pleasing to have my brother and son along for the drive, as the latter asked if there was a picture of him in the exhibition and I was able to identify one and also one that I think he might've taken (which I really should've acknowledged but I guess he's still my minor).
I’m running a series of haiku workshops that will develop a collaborative project with Naviar Records and result with an exhibition in Griffith during May
The workshops begin on 27 February and we’re soliciting Japanese-style short poems (haiku, senryu, renga and tanka) to be considered for the exhibition.
See https://ree.org.au/stay-cool/ for details and links to the Facebook events.
A selection of the contributed poems will be shared with the Naviar community, who respond with music and soundscapes to haiku that are shared each week.
It’s really exciting to hear how the mood of a poem informs a piece of music and when I ran a similar project with Naviar in 2017 we ended up with over five hours of audio that became a rich soundtrack to the prose and photography.
If you feel like getting involved, join a Zoom workshop in coming weeks and we'll discuss the styles of poetry.
This project began with an exhibition that opened last weekend and I made this short video.
