Internet cafe - 633 Rathdowne Street, N Carlton, Melbourne

It's around 12.10 p.m. on Monday - ignore the date above this - I think that's USA EST and there seems no way of altering it!

 

I had the bright idea of ringing the library this morning and trying to book some time on the computer, but the library doesn't open until 1.00 p.m. so that was out.  I am leaving around 2.00 p.m. to get a flight to Sydney (1 hour 20 minutes away).  I looked in Yellow Pages and found this place, just down the road from the library and only about 15 minutes walk from the house on Amess Street, where I've been staying with Kim and Mark (and Sam, Jack, Lucy and Emma). 

 

It's about $5 an hour for internet access here (approx 2 pounds).  I was going to start writing this blog in Word, saving it to my USB key and spell checking it before loading onto Blogger, but I've still not found a computer with an accessible USB port.  I then realised that I can email to the blog.  This is useful because some places (airports for example) offer free email facilities, but not free internet access.  The added bonus is that Yahoo emails are a lot more user-friendly than Blogger.  For some reason the spell-check on Blogger won't work and the font keeps changing, so that I end up with about 3 different fonts in an entry.

 

On Thursday I got the tram into the city - but I've already said something about this (last entry).  On Friday I walked along Rathdowne Street to the Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens and spent the afternoon in the Museum.  There was so much to see that I never got around to going to the Exhibition Centre (adjacent) which was at one time the seat of Victorian Government or walking around the Gardens.  I will go back there when I'm in Melbourne again at the end of next month.  The Melbourne Museum also has an Imax - which is (of course) showing some of the same films as the Imax in Bradford - for example 'Sharks' and the 3D moon one.

 

The Forest Garden at the museum is like a large greenhouse, with tropical plants, water and woodland.  It was restful wandering around there - especially the woodland bit with plaques and displays of how burning regenerates the forest - but also how this impacts on people (e.g. Ash Wednesday).

 

My favourite bit of the Melbourne Museum was the Bunjilaka Gallery, which has displays of Aboriginal history and art.  The displays use a range of media, including video and photography as well as the more traditional museum displays of artefacts - possum skin cloaks, basketwear, spears, boomerangs, shields - and of course didgeridoos.  Apparently didgeridoos were so named by a white man, referring to the sound produced.  They were called 'yidaki' in north-eastern Arnhemland and were used by the Yolugu people.  Their origins are said to be 'sacred and secret to Yolugu men' (sic.)

 

A story which stuck in my mind from the Bunjilaka Gallery was a videoed reminiscence of an incident relating to 'Aunt Lillian'.  Aunt Lillian had been taken away to camp miles away from her family settlement.  Probably one of the 'stolen generation' of children.  At some point the family were told that Lillian could visit and that she would be arriving on a particular train.  They went to meet the train, but there was no Lillian.  Her bags were deposited on the platform however.  On enquiry the family found that Lillian had died during the train journey and her body had been left in Sydney whilst her bags were sent on to the destination.  No-one had deemed it necessary to tell the family.

 

Another video was made by Ken Thaiday Snr a Torres Strait Islander from Darnley.  I was struck by how he described Christianity coming to Darnely - saying that with the gospel 'light came'.  The islanders are now apparently Christian, but still perform the traditional ceremonies and dances.  To me of course this seems odd - this acceptance of the religion brought by outsiders.  Although it is in no way unusual for indigenous peoples - all over r the world - to incorporate religious practices into traditional rituals, or vice versa.

 

Between the Forest Garden and the Bunjilaka Gallery were exhibitions of paintings by Lin Onus and Ray Thomas - both Aboriginal artists.  My favourite Lin Onus painting was of Butterflies in Sherbrooke Forest, 1993.  I could feel the light and humidity.  Oddly enough, Mark mentioned Lin Onus later on in the day when talking about something else - he knew him.  Ray Thomas is another Melbourne artist (born 1960).  I loved his style, which was a mixture of English landscape painting and indigenous patterns and symbols.  Of his work he said: 'I have now developed a more personalised signature style with peeled back corners and floating objects overlayed with traditional markings and patterning from my Gunnai heritage.'  This description reminded me of how Milan Kundera describes the technique of the artist in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (which I adored when I read it in the early '90s).  He uses it as an analogy for the magic realist style of writing - rips in the canvas showing something behind, underneath.  The Ray Thomas exhibition was called Gunnai Yukai [mother] Stories.  My favourite picture was the one of Bataluks [lizards] Coming and Going - loved the patterns and movement.  I think I took a photo of this.  I liked the series of paintings of Whale Rock at Wilson's Promontory too - light and water.

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