in Keswick at the moment.  horrified by the Premier and his destruction of parklands for a golf course.  will head in to the protest tomorrow afternoon.

waiting for my police clearance to come through so I can join the census team to work on the ng leands during census time.

 Its taken two weeks to now for the clearance.  not sure why I would have a history so dense. 

very keen to head north so getting anxious about the time this police clearance is coming through.  Had on last June when  I wokred in the Blackstone Office for a short time.  I dont know if that took this amount of time.  ... maybe its because I spent some time overyseas in Canada.

 

 

 Wingellina (Minyma Kutjarra) art centre is quite lovely.  There are 5 or so artists coming in each day.  there is a lovely lady Lisa who comes regularly and keeps is lovely clean and tidy.

Claud the new manager should be out here next week and then I will head off.   I love being back on the lands but I am truly ready to head home to Adelaide now.

Claud has a big job ahead of her.  there is a huge amount of completed or nearly complete canvas here.  She will have a job sorting it through.  I am getting the new works off the frames and locating them earsily found as new work.  

Ihave 2 new tyres coming out from Alice and will drive out on 4 x new tyres, just old lady parenoid about having a flat on the docker road.  I hope to be in Erldunda on day one, ten Glendambo and Port Broughton.  Hopig to put the car inwith Peter Harris in port Broughton for a service and check up.

looking forward to being home in Keswick.

It is very quiet here in Wingellina, it is a well laid out community and the Art centre House is quite lovely with a good fenced yard.  Jane is enjoying it.

I am getting used to the art centre lifestyle,  the ladies like their cuppas.  I am counting the biscuites however, otherwise is would be multiple packets each day.  I purchased some good enamel cups rather than the paper ones being used but I have discovered why the paper cups, the enamel ones walk.  I am working at talking to the artists about pride in their centre and looking after the things that belong in it.

will see if I can stop the pilfering or if we have to go back to the paper cups.

 It is lovely to see the art works grow, the ladies are wonderful with their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

I am atWingellina,holding fort at the art centre  until the new manager comes in a couple of weeks.

 

ass been a busy time at Blackstone, a combination of the festival activities and my manning the community office while the CDA was away.  I was looking to head home to Keswick but there is a bit of a gap in the art centre being manned and I am now here for a few weeks til the new manager comes in a couple of weeks.  She sounds lovely and the artists will enjoy having her here and having their art marketed properly at last.

 

I am just keep the office seat warm and being friendling, making cups of tea etc.  the art centre house is lovely and there is a great year for Jane to roam around.

 

Ied to do a trip back to Blackstone to sort some of the paper stuff out.  I put it off today, it is very hot and thundery.   I will look at a quick trip on wednesday.  I will hopefully meet the new wing manager, she sounds lovely.

 

 

 relieving in the art centre blackstone.  watching my favourite oldie paint.  loving this.

also watching her daughter in law and grand sons taking advantage of her.  I guess it is her joy to be able

to be generous with them. 

getting excited as the blackstone festival time come nearer. 

 

 getting excited, working with Blackstone CDA at getting together a new Blackstone Festival.  It has been since before Covid that we have put to gether a festival.  Great Fun!

The Meltinpot and Mary G are coming up.  There will be sporting  activities, a fashion parade, some health initiatives, a community house clean up, some hair care for the oldies and ng media will bring its usual music fund.  Hopefully they will also do some filming of our activites.  really looking forward to this in October this year.

what a hoot!

 Well time flies.   Here I am in b]Blackstone holding the fort at the art centre.  I came up for my wonderful friend Freda Lanes' funeral.  As can happen, final plans have taken a while.  conveniently I am here while the new art centre manager has to be away, so I am holding the fort.  It is wonderful to see the ladies and their work.

Freda is now to be buried on Thursday 18th July.  It is really difficult to think of her ber last trip to the blackstone cemetary.  A wonderful and important friend for me during my time working up here.

As there has been quite a time in the final planning for Freday I have been supporting where I can in the art centre.  We are looking to get the paper project up and running again, so very exciting times.  BHP are looking for fund (fingers creossed) getting Erin up to train and the purchse of some of the equipment that has gone missing in the projects absense.  lucking much of the items required are still here.  

I am typing this in what used to be my office, as long ago ast 2009.  the centre has grown since then and has a lovely hisorty of art work.

The new young fella who is now working in the art centre is working well with the artists and there is a lovely atmosphere here.  He working well with the artists and getting on well in community.  He has been very positive with the paper project and we are hopeful the BHP will assist us.

I have particularly loved being in country, looking out and seeing the colour of this place, beautiful sunrise ansunset, the colour of the soil.  My friend Cliff Reid always told me this red dirt would get under my skin, how right he was.

 Well its tuesday afternoon,  It has been a difficult couple of days.  I am waiting to head to the police station to see if one of the Police officers will act as mediator between a couple of people in community.  quite a bit of bad blood and it needs to be calmed down.

We have enought to worry about at the moment with Covid on the borders of the lands.  the police are doing their best to limit travel between WA and SA.  Not easy with this mob who just cant understand the danger.

I am trying to make plans for a quick trip to Adelaide to see a surgeon.  I have had a bit of an accident and have a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder.  At time painfull, always uncomfortable, needs surgery, just wondering how and when with the current inter state border issues and having to sort my dogs while I am away.

I have a worrying leak from one of the gutters in the kitchen at keswick.  I am hoping when I am down, I can meet a plumber and see what we need to sort it.  I will be limited for time.  Probably I will need to quaranteen in Alice before being able to get over the boder to WA.

Apart from reporting for government, sorting the kitchen rules book before the food auditor arrives, updating the book of rules for community care project officers, time is busy thinking and discussing plans for when Covid arrives on Ngaanyatjarra Lands.  

A muddly and busy time.  This morning the police rang to check up on three community members who were at a nearby community and they were trying to assess whether they had crossed the border to SA.  Trouble for the is they have and management issues for us to quaranteen them and test them for Covid.

 

 

 

 

 A day, a week of mixed blessings.

As always there are difficulties with work bases and staffing.  At the moment the worst problem is the biggest community, Warburton.

I will go over next week and stay a few days to help the centre and to see what is going on, what is the problem.  I have asked to employ a cook, I think this will sort a number of issues.

I have for a while had a thought bubble about a training program run in each of the work bases with the schools.  It has not been easy to get good information or suggestions from the schools.  If I talk to the senior teacher or the head honcho in warakurna, the answer is yes we would love to participate in such a scheme but if I ask for advise or suggestions about how this would work, I get a no response, no feedback.  So, I have been doing a bit of research in to this as and when I have time. To day I actually got a call back and some positive feedback.

I have arranged to meet up with this person in august and we will thrash out a concept and see where it takes us.  I am feeling a bit more position about the idea now.

 I write so little these days.  I can hardly believe that we are well over a year into Covid.  vaccinations will roll out here soon, Ng Health has done a deal with the Flying Doctor, so I anticipate my first shot about the 28th June.  After all the fear of Covid and the possibility of it getting into the lands, I am tentatively breathing a sigh of relief,  the sooner this mob get the jab the better.

I am back in the Blackstone office after a big trip to Kiwirrkurra, firstly to hold the seat until a new employee could be found and then to meet with the manager of NRM and the Acting GM of the nealth service to look at options for the kitchen upgrade.  An upgrade much overdue.  Pretty exciting to think it will actually happen.

We are  having our first kitchen audit this week, so fingers crossed for our 4 registered kitchen, the staff work hard and hopefully the Auditor will appreciate their efforts.

Next week we start a two week training round, I will drive to Yulara to pick up Tony the traininer and we will start at Blackstone.  Due to Covid it has been a year since we had the regular training that we need to keep our staff equiped and with a good attitude towards the tasks needed to keep our service running smoothly.  It has been difficult with the isolation that Covid has foisted on us, to keep local workers engaged in the job.  Next year we hope to work with the schoold on a training program, starting with year 10 students which will grow interest and excitements regarding work programs in Ng Health.  Fingers crossed?

Here I am, sitting quietly in my office, hard to believe, I have been on the road almost constantly for the last year.

I now have a permanent staff member at Warburton, and possibly staff members for each of the other seven manned Care Centres, juggling staff for routine leave can be a problem, but not insurmountable.

Along comes Covid-19, who would believe it, makes the last 12 months of difficulty, look like a holiday.  I am frankly very scared.  The people on Ngaanyatjarra Lands are vulnerable.  The government and the Council are working hard to keep the virus out of the lands.

The roads in are closed, the police are manning the major roads,  already there have been vehicle turn arounds.

The community is working towards a cohesive plan, to educate the locals of the danger, to set up strategies of cleanliness and social isolation to assist in preventing any infection.  At this point, there does not seem to be any of the illness evident, one hopes this continues.

The community as identified possible isolation accommodation places if needed. the clinic has a designated area to assess people who display anything like a symptom that could be the virus.

Getting staff out for  due leave or back in after leave is problematic.  We will work with this as the most important thing is keeping the lands free of the virus.

We are encouraged not to travel between communities, unless absolutely necessary.  So today I am setting up my first Zoom meeting with my Care Project Officers.  A few important issues we need to cover.

Stay strong and stay safe, it is vital we all follow the recommendation of the medical professionals to avoid the spread of this dreadful Viral infection.

Here I am in sunny downtown Kiwirrkurra, it is saturday morning and I am listening to the music show on ABC radio via my phone.

It is the end of week 1 when I have been holding the fort for Bruno while he is on leave.

The first thing I need to say is that Bruno earns his pay :-)  I often report that Kiwirrkurra is one of the nicest Care Centres we have on the Lands and that is true, it is also like being in the inside of a cement mixer, People calling and wanting and there are 6 CDP participant workers that one is trying to give direction and keep focused for the service time.  I have aged 10 years this week :-)  I have also come down with a rather nasty Viral infection. It is ages since I caught anything nasty out on the lands.  When I first started working in this environment, I used to come down with all sorts of infections, I have become a manic hand washer and I believe I have developed a resistance to the kind of things that go around out here.  Non the less, this week I have fallen in a big way, I feel like shit.

I had intended to spend this weekend sorting the stores for the women's centre, working out a menu for the week, trying to make it easier to coordinate the ladies I work with.

I have tried coordinating their work start time, so I do not have  6 people with not concept of shared work, all trying to do the same thing or stop doing anything and having breakfast instead.

I want a couple to come in at 7.30 then the rest at 9.00 am.  that way I can set up and coordinate work activities in a slightly easier way.  These are lovely ladies who have never had someone coordinate their time, I am trying to set up "start a job and finish a job" concepts, a little success and a lot of failure thus far. 

I had plans of a well planned cleaning routine and of setting up some of the colour coded set up for Bruno, he is so far out of the loop, he does not get the help that he deserves.

Best thing is the electricians have some and installed a new air con for Bruno, he has had a sorry time during the very hot summer out here.

Back in Keswick, readying for my drive back to the lands. A bit of car trouble and on the way down I left my ute with Harris mechanics at Pt Broughton. Amy and I will catch the bus to Pt Broughton tomorrow, stay the night at the Sunniside motel, collect the car and head on to Pt Augusta to pick up my dogs from Roger at the Red Gum doggy holiday camp. Amy will bus back to Adelaide and I will head on, hoping to reach Glendambo thursday night. I will go back the long way, down the docker road. the corrugations on the Mulga Park road between Kalka and Piplyatjarra are shcoking and I have no doubt are the reason for the broken engine mount in my ute.

time flies

Here I am sitting on my bed with Hurley, one of the dogs, at keswick, down for Amy's 42 birthday. I am thinking of recent times at Blackstone when I was sitting in the dark, in the back yard, waiting for the big eclipse. My dogs thought I was out of my mind, it was 1 degree C, bright moonlight and I was rugged up with coffee, sitting in one of my camp chairs, looking at the moon. Mars was very bright and it seemed to be coming closer to me as I watched. I was confused about what the eclipse was, the earth blocking the sun from the moon or mars blocking the sun from the moon. slowly the shadow began to form over the moon, as predicted, it took a long time and quite a darkness fell over my back yard. the moon turned a burnt orange colour, quite dramatic. Mars still shone very bright. When talking with my son Patrick about this event, he explained that in NZ the timing was not good and they did not get this view. For me it was quite wonderful and mostly cloud free. while talking to Patrick it brought to mind the last time Mars was close to the earth, about 15 years earlier. I was working for Papulankutja Artists and had taken the ladies to Alice for a Desart Inc Meeting. We went in my old Diahatsu 1 ton van. I was on L Plates, I had never had a drivers license, I was reliant on one of my artists with a current license to supervise me for the trip. We returned from Alice via Mutitjulu, I thought the ladies would like to see their art work hanging in the culture centre at Uluru. We set up camp at a deserted "sorry" area in mutitjulu, the ladies using Christopher's huge blue Canadian tarp and I camped in the van with the wafting scent of ripe cooked kangaroo. I saw Mars rise before Uluru, stunning! very excited I pointed it out to the ladies, they could care less :-). I watched Mars rise into the sky in this amazing place, we were camped very close to the rock and it was quite overwhelming. In the morning I rose early and watched Mars set over the rock, what a site, something I will never forget. It was amazing to think that I would twice get to see such a site in such an amazing place. Life on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands is quite wonderful at times. A very special place.

time flies

Remote Life: www.perthfestival.com.au/en/What's-on/Event/Purnu,-Tjanpi,-Canvas--Art-of-the-Ngaanyatjarra

At last, the WDM book is to be launched in Perth on the 23rd February. Such a wonderful thing, it has been under developement for sooooo long and now it is printed and ready for distribution.

http://www.perthfestival.com.au/en/What's-on/Event/Purnu,-Tjanpi,-Canvas--Art-of-the-Ngaanyatjarra

Just a quick post, I am back based at Blackstone, embarking on a whole new adventure in coordinating the Home and Commuity Care program on Ngaanyatjarra Lands.

Life is hectic and there is a huge amount of work to be done. Writing about the project and the people is not so easy from this different position as I am not marketing stories for people who want to develope and sell their product. However this is both a good news story and a very difficult story, so I will try to find a way to tell it at some stage.

There are wonderful projects in planning stage at the moment and I hope as some of these come to fruition I can share them with you.

I just need to say that I am so pleased to be back on the Lands. It is like coming home.

a brief note ...... Ruby Reid died on Sunday night in her sleep. Cliff and Ruby will now be burried at the same time, some time soon. I just cannot come to terms with this, it is all too much!

Daryl Cliff Reid – in his own words

Born 1947 at Wannarn, Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia

At approximately 10 years of age, my family, Mother, father and younger sister (now deceased), moved to Warburton mission.

I attended the mission school which was run by the United Aboriginal Mission from Melbourne. There was a boy's boarding school and a girl's boarding school; my sister went to the girl's boarding school.

As the school was a boarding school for children only, Mother Kalatji Reid (from the Lewis family) and my father Tommy Reid (from the Newbury family) continued to live in the bush, coming to the mission from time to time with dingo skins which they traded for stores, such as flour, tin meat, sugar, tea and tobacco.

Life at the mission school was busy and regulated. Early in the morning the boys took it in turn to do jobs. A roster was listed and each of the groups for each of the jobs had an alphabetical letter. Cliff did jobs that were listed in the D column on any given day ….others might have jobs listed in the A or F or some other alphabetical list. The names of the people and families were given by the mission workers as they did not understand or could not cope with the Wangi or proper names of the people.

Some of the jobs were milking the goats, cutting wood, emptying the night bucket, (pot) from the boy's home, cleaning rooms and yard, washing dishes and cleaning eating area after meals. The mission had an extensive vegetable garden and orchard. Some of the vegetables that Cliff remembers are lettuce, tomatoes, peas, cabbage.

Mid morning after the chores were completed, the boys went to school to learn reading and numbers. They also had religious education and sporting activity. Life was very regimented, they formed lines and marched to each activity, they prayed before every activity, school, meals, Sunday school and so on.

They stayed with their families during the school holidays. Cliff liked life at the mission, it was ordered, a lot of company and good fun activity, playing with friends, for recess they got condensed milk to drink

Many of the families that he knows now and that live at Blackstone or nearby were at the Warburton Mission at the same time as Cliff. Some of the families came now and then but continued their life in the bush, that is how the Forbes family lived and Cliff's friend Andrew Mitchell, worked at Sheep stations down Laverton way from an early age, while Cliff was still at the boy's home at the mission.

While still living at the mission but on holiday travelling with his family, cliff remembers Len Beadell coming through and surveying the great central highway, then the big machines coming to make the road. He remembers Len's daughter travelling with him as a small girl and now she brings tourists up this way to visit, she will be coming through in August.

In the mid to late 50s cliff remembers the bomb testing at Maralinga and he tells of the clouds of bad stuff that come over Warburton.

When the mission closed in or around 1960, there was little to keep Cliff at Warburton and he wandered off, down Laverton way where he found employment with various sheep stations. He worked as a drover, a yard hand and he was involved with the stacking and pressing of wool bales. At Banya Station he dug a large drenching trench for the sheep.

In 1966, 14^th February the new Aussie Dollar became currency. Cliff earned enough money in the new currency to buy his first car which was a Ford Custom Line. He was working at Sturt Meadow Station as a sheep drover at the time.

In the 1960s we formed an indigenous football team with people from Laverton and Warburton … we were called the Desert Warriors and we played against the employees of the mining companies based at Laverton and Leonora.

In 1970 I returned to Warburton where I married and lived for a while. The children from that marriage live in the Wannarn area now. My sister is now dead and her son Robert comes to live with me at Blackstone regularly.

I was born at Warnnan and the Seven Sisters Story is strong for me on my mother's side. There is important country and Secret Men's tjurkurrpa at Wannarn but I am not free to talk about that one.

I have lived a long time at Blackstone with my second wife and children, my wife's father founded this community when he brought his family back here to live in the early 70s. He never made his home in the mission; he always lived the traditional life in country. The first time he settled down was when he brought his family back to this country where he was custodian of many important dreaming stories. This land is very sacred and that is why we live here to look after it. Through my wife and her family I feel a strong link to this place and through my birth place and my father I have a strong continuing link to the country at Wannarn. My mother being linked to the Lewis family belonged to the area immediately north of Blackstone. This is now my country also.

At Blackstone I helped to build the original airstrip, we had no big machines; we built the air strip with pick and shovel, by hand. You can still see the remains of that airstrip to the west of the community as you drive out on the Jameson Road.

In 2003 Kumanarra Isgar came to Blackstone and I started to paint for her. I feel that I have set a good example to the other people in Blackstone and hopefully to the younger people as well. I have been a leader in the art work. We will soon have a new art centre and I think that I have been a good influence for that to happen. The Papulankutja artists is a strong organization and very important for the future of Blackstone.

I worry for the future. When I was a boy, there were strong rules, good policemen who ensured that you obeyed those rules. Back then you could be arrested and put in gaol for 6 months for being lazy … not employed a vagrant. I went out and got work, I kept busy and I learned things. Today there is not good policing to make people work. The rules are too soft, children do not obey their parents and do not understand that they must work to earn money and to stay healthy.

I would like to see a police station at Blackstone, where the police kept law and order.

I do not like the idea of the intervention and the government taking control of the tjitji money. I think this will make things worse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking to Mr. Reid's wife Ruby today, she asked me to talk about happy times, that it is too difficult to talk about the sorrow of now. I went looking for some of our happy memories and found these pictures of when we went to Hobart for an exhibition at Art Mob with Euan Hills.



Our trip to Peppermint Bay, Mr. Reid wanted to travel on the coast and see where Truganini had lived and where she swam in the ocean. He was just stunned that anyone would swim in the ocean here, far too cold he thought, I just cant believe that she swam here, he said again and again. We talked of how people might grease themselves with seal fat or something similar and that would act as an insulation against the cold. A friend Warren Boyles drove us up to Mt. Wellington and it snowed only very small amount but my guys, Ruby and Mr. Reid would not get out of the car ..... no way they said.



Mr. Reid was not only the best painter of stories, he was the best story teller ... his audience would gather around him enthralled by his personal magic, his enthusiasm and and joy in his stories and culture, his eagerness to know about the rest of the world.

Deep sadness! ..... Cliff Reid died quietly in his sleep last night. A beautiful Man of great intellect and understanding. For the moment I am beyond saying anything more.