Desert Women's Business @ Umutja 25 to 29 March 2011 #Aboriginal #Indigenous #Spirituality #Desert #Women

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INVITATION TO 

DESERT WOMEN'S BUSINESS UMUTJA

25-29 March 2011

Nellie Patterson and the Pitjantjatjara elders 

in Central Australia 

invite you to share in Women's Business 

at a very sacred healing area 

approximately 150 kms from Uluru. 

(This is a long drive on a desert track).

Cost:    $1500.00

Pickup:  The Outback Pioneer Motel, Yulara.  Tel:  (08) 8957 7888

Deposit:   $500 by 31st January, 2011  

Balance:  $1000 by 28^th February, 2011

SORRY NO REFUNDS AFTER 28^th FEBRUARY

 Fee covers transport to and from Yulara 

(also there is a free shuttle bus from Yulara Airport to the Outback Pioneer), 

all meals, swag and cultural fees.

  

DETAILS:

We are travelling to very powerful land and we are asked to come with deep respect for the law and culture of this area bringing only an open attitude and willingness to be guided by the elders.

• We meet at the Outback Pioneer at around 12 noon on 25 March. Please be ready to load up into the Troopies by then so that we can reach our destination early. We will return to the Yulara Ceremonial site as usual for rest and integration of our experience at Umutja and then return to the Outback Pioneer around Noon on 29 March but earlier times can be arranged for flights if necessary.
• We travel in 4x4 Troopies. Space is very limited so luggage must be kept to an absolute minimum (additional items for before and after the event can be stored at the Outback)
• You will need to bring 10 litres water for personal use - can be purchased at Yulara when you arrive.
• We provide swags but please let us know if you are bringing your own so that we do not double up.

WHAT TO BRING:

• warm sleeping bag, small pillow and sheet
• large tarp for over and under swag – approx 3 metre x 4 metre
• soft bag for clothes etc - keep it very small for transport
• water and drinking bottle
• torch – headlights are easier and best
• black skirt, knee length or longer. You will spend most of your time in this and will need very little additional clothing for the site other than some warm covering clothes for the evenings and early mornings and maybe socks and beanie for bed if nights get cool.  A sarong or two comes in handy too.
• wipes like wet-ones, for washing
• toilet paper and small trowel
• zip lock bags for your own rubbish (incl. used toilet paper!!)
• small towel
• sunscreen and hat
• insect repellent
• Gastrolyte or other electrolyte drink
• additional food for snacking on if you need it.  MEALS ARE SIMPLE, VEGETARIAN, AND NUTRICIOUS.  (Let us know if you have special dietary needs and we will see what we can do, e.g. gluten free).
• willingness to assist in the kitchen for preparation & clean-up at meal times (a roster will be available for you to sign up on)
• willingness to assist with serving our Aboriginal sisters at meal times.
• we are asked not to bring any recreational drugs, alcohol, drums and other instruments, jewellery, healing items like crystals, etc. as they interfere with the way the women work with the land in ceremony.  Photography is not allowed and we are asked to keep our writing, artwork for later. 
• it is important for you to know that you will be responsible for yourself and your experience at this event as it is not covered by insurance.

ADDITIONAL ITEMS AS GIVE-AWAYS IF YOU WANT:

• the ladies love and need black skirts - mostly large size
• wool - red, white, black and yellow
• white feathers
• paints, brushes
• canvas

Please email Lorraine at lorrainemoses1(at)bigpond(dot)com to book, also for more information.

Please send deposit or full fee to:

 St George Bank

Account Name:  Lorraine Moses

BSB:                112-879

Acct No.          473807023

Or:  Mail a cheque/money order to:

Lorraine Moses

PO Box 88,

Alice Springs NT 0871

VERY IMPORTANT 

PLEASE BE SURE TO ADD YOUR NAME WITH YOUR DEPOSIT 

AND LET ME KNOW BY EMAIL WHEN YOU DO THAT, 

OTHERWISE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL 

WHO HAS PAID WHAT -  MAMMOTH TASK! 

THANKS.

Please feel free to phone me if you have any questions 0428 406009.

Love and blessings,  Lorraine

www.desertwomensbusiness.com

Further reading:

Liminal songlines 

Stop the Muckaty nuclear waste dump : Get Martin Ferguson to listen to TOs :Rally Monday 17 January #protest #nuclear #indigenous #Aboriginal

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Give Minister Ferguson 

the thumbs down on Muckaty Bill

WHAT: 

Peaceful protest / action

WHERE:  

Minister Ferguson's Office - 159 High Street , Preston . Melbourne, VIC.

WHEN:

Mon January 17th, 2011. 9am - 11am

Three days before Christmas the government concluded 

a sham committee inquiry endorsing 

Martin Ferguson's plans to dump nuclear waste at Muckaty in the NT. 

Traditional Owners were not given the opportunity

 to speak to the committee or even to lodge a submission. 

Ferguson continues to refuse requests to meet with Traditional Owners opposed to the dump. Traditional Owners have initiated legal action in the Federal Court yet it seems likely that Ferguson will push ahead with his Radioactive Waste Management Bill early in 2011. The Bill overides state and territory laws, it overrides important federal Aboriginal heritage and environmental legislation, and it enshrines Muckaty as the only site under consideration despite the opposition of many Traditional Owners, the NT Government and many others.

Muckaty Traditional Owners are calling for our support to stop the dump. 

Now is the time to act. 

Please come to the protest on January 17 

and contact Friends of the Earth

 if you can support the campaign in other ways.

Contact: Jim Green, 

Friends of the Earth national nuclear campaigner, 

0417 318368, 

jim.green@foe.org.au

Further  reading:

Map showing location of Muckaty  (you may need to zoom out)

Muckaty Station on Facebook

Muckaty at The Eagle's Nest

Muckaty Station 
Tim Bonham's slide show  - Dianne Stokes and Muckaty

Muckaty 'preferred site' for   nuke dump
Muckaty Station nuclear waste site
Muckaty nuclear waste dump threatens groundwater
Labor renegs on nuclear waste policy
PM Gillard: no change on Muckaty nuclear waste dump
Muckaty Station at New Matilda
Go here to see  Amy Lauder's view & the money involved
Big turn out expected for Muckaty Rally - Tennant & District Times
Yellowcake shipment bogged on the side of the road - Tennant & District Times
Muckaty nuclear waste dump protested by traditional owners in Tennant Creek
Muckaty clans challenge plans for nuclear waste dump on their land

Morality and Solomon Lew and the Australian consumer #GST #consumerism

Click to enlarge

Solly Lew says in this article there is "a moral principle at stake here". Y'know I would never have thought of this phrase in connection with Sol. I wonder what was at stake when Solly was involved with Coles Myer. Go to this link and you will see what I mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Lew And Solly Lew thinks he can lecture Australian consumers. I mean to say....

Amplify’d from www.news.com.au

Mr Lew is chairman of Premier Investments, owner of seven of the 21 retail chains behind this week's advertising campaign calling for an end to tax exemptions for purchases from foreign websites worth less than $1000. Mr Lew said the focus on local versus online prices was beside the point. "Even if they charge the GST and duty, goods may come in cheaper from overseas, but there's a moral principle at stake here, and at the end of the day it will cost jobs," he told The Australian. Read more at www.news.com.au

If you want to vote in a poll

on what you think of the billionaire's GST idea,

then go to the following link before 12 midnight to-day

Big Retail to expand tax crusade 


Currently on Twitter
Dear Gerry Harvey is trending up near to the top in Australia
If you are a Tweep, please feel free to tweet your message to
Dear Gerry Harvey

Click on the above picture to enlarge

2011-12-05: And BTW, Networkers, Solly Lew - ever a law unto himself, methinks - has been in trouble for building an unauthorised swimming pool and doing it on public land, no less.  The land adjoins his property. Locals have been outraged, conservative Member of Parliament outraged, local council threatening legal action. At last, it appears that Solomon Lew has caved. Much schadenfreude abroad in the general populace.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bknvx

Further Reading:
Myer and Harvey Norman plot China-based websites

Premier  cashed-up and read to buy

Premier Investments posts profit fall

Retailer Solomon Lew fights back
No. 11 of Australia's 40 richest people - Gerry Harvey

No. 13 of Australia's 40 richest people - Solomon Lew
Billionaires take a turn at initiating 'brand' damage
Gerry Harvey takes a pay cut
Shortens online stoush with Gerry Harvey 

Related articles

• Solly Lew adds voice to online GST call (news.theage.com.au)
• Australia Won't Be 'Stampeded' by Retailers Over Online Sales (businessweek.com)
• Put GST on foreign online sales, Harvey (news.theage.com.au)
• GST break to stay (theage.com.au)

Vox pop on Income Management in the Northern Territory #TheIntervention #badpolicy

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.... and so on the Facebook conversation goes.

Please click to enlarge to read it.

Further reading:

Centrelink - Income Management

Macklin twists truth on income management

Children still at risk  despite income management

Business as usual under Labor's  'new' income management

Will Caucus allow unproven, dangerous changes to income management?

Picture from here

Move it for Muckaty : Stop the NT nuclear dump : Rally at Martin Ferguson's office #moveitformuckaty

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Give Minister Ferguson the thumbs down on Muckaty Bill

Peaceful Protest

Minister Ferguson's Office

159 High Street, Preston. Melbourne, VIC.

Monday January 17th, 2011. 9am - 11am

Come along in January to help ensure Muckaty in the NT a Happy New Year without a waste dump.

Bring along banners, placards, music, your friends and family. This is a really important time for the Muckaty Campaign.

Three days before Christmas the government concluded a sham committee inquiry endorsing Martin Ferguson's plans to dump nuclear waste at Muckaty in the NT Traditional Owners were not given the opportunity to speak to the committee or even to lodge a submission. Ferguson continues to refuse requests to meet with Traditional Owners opposed to the dump.

Short Video - July 2010

Traditional Owners have initiated legal action in the Federal Court yet it seems likely that Ferguson will push ahead with his Radioactive Waste Management Bill early in 2011. The Bill overrides state and territory laws, it overrides important federal Aboriginal heritage and environmental legislation, and it enshrines Muckaty as the only site under consideration despite the opposition of many Traditional Owners, the NT Government and many others.

Muckaty Traditional Owners are calling for our support to stop the dump. Now is the time to act. Please come to the protest on January 17 and contact Friends of the Earth if you can support the campaign in other ways.

Contact: Jim Green, Friends of the Earth national nuclear campaigner, 0417 318368, jim.green@foe.org.au

Organised by the 'ACE Collective'

This post from Treaty Republic

MIKE STUCHBERY NEEDS A JOB - GIVE IT TO HIM PLEASE @mikestuchbery #employment #misery

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Picture from here

Some weeks ago on Twitter, I discovered @mikestuchbery.  @mikestuchbery is a relentless Twitterer of tweets.  I wish I could show you the picture that first graced his tweets when I discovered him.  It was akin to the picture below from his blog - but it was a grouchy, pugnacious version with chin thrust forward and scowling eyebrows. The tone of the twits was similar - grouching at and lambasting the outside world - in a most amusing way.

http://mike-stuchbery.com/

We have heard about his job searches and all that is involved in that. We have heard the groans - but I didn't find them amusing, more heart-wrenching.

You see here we have an intelligent, articulate man with youth on his side; he is a trained teacher; an excellent modern communicator; confident user of modern media; and he displays a willingness to get in and mix it with anyone verbally or socially.

Of course, all that could be a bit much for some. And that makes one wonder about George Bernard Shaw's immortal words: Those that can do and those who can't teach.

I then wonder if @mikestuchbery might not be one destined to do rather than teach.  Even so, can't someone give this man a job.  Even if he develops into a great Australian writer and commentator, he will never become really great unless he has money to keep body and soul together and a working life to become the stuff of life experience and grist to his mill.  And what is all that guff that Julia Gillard sprouts about attracting the best graduates into teaching. This is cloud cuckoo-land stuff if the rest of the teaching graduates are going to be treated as so many casual bar attendants.  

So let's put @mikestuchbery out of his misery 

and the sympathetic misery of his twittering followers.

GIVE MIKE 

A JOB

PLEASE!

Moving right along from New Year to Oz Day/Survival Day, Tony Abbott & what about the flag #dinki-di-ness #ausflag

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Picture is from here

It is an unarguable fact that Aussies love public holidays.  Here we are on the first proper working day after New Year and our minds have just shifted to the next one. Australia Day. This comes from the site of the mob who think Tony Abbott Will Never Be Prime Minister. For people from overseas who don't know who Tony Abbot is -

• Here's what Tony sez
• Here's what Wikipedia sez
• Here's what Crikey sez
• Here's what the Sydney Morning Herald sez

Oh, and by the way, that is not the REAL Australian flag but it looks like something a lot of us wouldn't mind having for our flag.  A simple version would be to remove the Union Jack from the corner.  But some of us would like some good clear design as well. I figure that this one qualifies. To support the idea of a new flag, you might like to pop over and join the conversation with the good folk of AUSFLAG.

Image via Wikipedia

Some other ideas

And while we speak of Australia Day, 

please remember that not everyone sees it as a great cause for celebration

Picture from here

There are many commemorations of 26 January as survival day across Australia. One commemoration that has grown to be of significance is the Survival Day event at Belgrave in the Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, Victoria. The organising committee has already kicked things off with the event below. It was very well attended. And a shout-out for work well done to Jane and Davey and the crew up at Belgrave. And thank you for inviting me to speak at this event about The Intervention. So, Melbourne folks, mark your diary to be at Belgrave on 26 January. See you there!

Qld Floods : RED rain : refugee chooks #qldfloods #animals

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Picture from here

I have a friend living at Theodore in Queensland. She is back in touch and I sense that we are going to get daily chook reports.  As you will see from the latest messages. However, in one interchange I had to ask her to explain what RED rain was, which she had mentioned, is. Here is her reply. BOM is the Bureau of Meterology.

In terms of colours the BOM uses, RED is the third heaviest of Rain. If someone says to you Red rain, that means very heavy rain.

Have checked her Facebook photos. No chooks in sight ... yet

Postscript 9.45am 4/1/11
Friend has just been in contact as follows:

should be up 2morrow. hear cackling so should be some eggs. G is fascinated with his "girls". I keep reminding him when they eventually go, we will not be getting any of our own. Not now or ever! Chook feed brings mice and snakes love choo...k eggs. We were on the verandah a couple of nights ago, I thought we were storm watching, I said have a shower and let's do tea early. No G wanted to stay, I said watching a storm? No, I want to watch the chooks! The rain has definately entered his brain. Thank goodness work has resumed for him today and I am having a person free day.


More about the chooks

fancy the chooks coming by boat, then off loaded to a ute for the drive further up to Malakoff. I can see below where the chooks used to live, it is like Sydney Harbour. They were found on a header (grain harvester). They came in a big cage.... One got out first day and Dakota had to involve himself and managed to pull out a few feathers before chook escaped. G went searching, "oh the chook will be sick" he says, could not find chook, then he looked into Lavender bush, there is Chook hiding, nothing wrong except scared of Dakota.

A flood in a mine in a lake with cyanide. #ecological #disaster ?

Good on you Uncle Chappy! Faithful to the task

Amplify’d from www.indymedia.org.au

Wiradjuri elder warns of risk of groundwater poisoning from gold mine at Lake Cowal Sat 25 Dec 2010 By takver New South Wales arsenic Barrick Gold cyanide flood plain gold mine Lake Cowal Wiradjuri Wiradjuri Traditional Owner Neville 'Chappy' Williams continues to warn of the dangers arising from the Barrick Gold mine at Lake Cowal. With water filling Lake Cowal for the first time in 10 years, the dangers of having an open pit gold mine in a lake bed in a flood plain are becoming evident. Read more at www.indymedia.org.au

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ka0m

Abundance, scarcity, and distributive justice. Let's come to grips with a new #economics.

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Picture from here

I am grateful to Liz McLellan of Hyperlocavore for drawing my attention to this post.

I have long complained about the emphasis of Economics on scarcity. I have never turned my head in the same way as Roberto Verzola to thoughts about abundance, its meaning, its impact, its consequences. From hereon, however, I will set about doing so.

The first thing one learns when studying Economics is that it is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources.  I prefer to ask what would have happened to Economics as a science and (as it is said) a dismal one if it had been based on the premise that there is sufficient on the planet for our need but not for our greed.  My view is that this would have/could have opened up a wholly different sets of questions and discussions from those that have given us our modern knowledge together with the current Global Financial Crisis (GFC).  I said a lot in a comment on Liz's Amplify post which you can find here.

I am not denying that scarcity does exist - but it usually does not exist across the whole planet at the same point in time.  This means that in times of scarcity - and in times of abundance, too - distribution comes to the forefront.

My view is that there has been too little attention given to distribution as an integral economic factor and a vital factor when it comes to human life and well-being.

I want to keep this simple so I will start close to home.  In Australia, there are two major food distributors in Australia: Coles and Woolworths.  I said I was trying to keep this simple so I have omitted IAG, Aldi, and the up and coming Costco.  Most Australians would think of Coles and Woolworths as retailers, predominantly of food but also of other necessities of daily life.

Coles and Woolworths have a greater role than merely making their shelves available to us for selection of goods and trolley-ing them through the check-out.  They are logistics operators.

They are a vital link in Australia's trade - from grower, manufacturer, wholesaler - whether these are nationally or internationally based - through their logistics operations into Coles and Woolworths stores to the families in your street. If you live in Queensland at the moment where the floodwaters are  the size of New South Wales, you might have an understanding of the vital logistical role that the major duopoly of Australian retailing has.

This huge logistical enterprise is central to food security and food quality in this country.  I once lived in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland at a time when the roads in and out were closed by floods for six weeks.  Milk and bread could be air-freighted in and out.  Everything that modern people and families need could not be - and, even if it could be, the price to the consumer would be prohibitive. It was interesting to watch the cabbages - which have a rather long shelf life when need be - growing smaller each day. Why? As the external leaves of  these long lasting cabbages turned brown and unattractive, staff would remove them. Thus the ever-smaller cabbage.

I was at at this conference in Gippsland last year. At a workshop, a speaker got up to spruik his recently formed company specialising in logistics.  He was telling of all the clever things his company could do.  I told him the story of Mount Isa, the floods, being cut-off, and the cabbages and asked what his company could have done in such circumstances.  The answer was that his company could not have done anything either. In short, they would not have got through.

That is food security in Australia at its most basic.  It was not that there was insufficient food in Australia for us.  It just could not reach us in any practical way.  In other parts of the world, food security is challenged by famine. There is no food to be had.  Right across the world, even in the rich developed world, food security can be challenged by personal poverty.  Food is available but it is out of reach because of high prices or low or nil incomes.

Food quality is a matter of logistics too.  Why is there not more organic food in Coles and Woolworths? Why is organic food not priced more reasonably so that if I have a household with six children, I can still include organic food in my shopping list?  There can be a few reasons for this.

First: Availability and dependability of supply and quality. Food farming is a huge enterprise. Broadscale food farming sustains the major distributors of food.  Organic food production is still, more or less, in its infancy.  A lot of organic food growers can not guarantee availability of sufficiently large quantities even if they can guarantee quality.

Second: A lot of organic farmers can not guarantee quantity with any sort of dependability.  Large logistical operations demand reasonable continuity of supply.  The advent of Farmers Markets is good for smaller farmers and consumers demanding quality products at affordable prices.  This avenue is where smaller producers can begin their journey.  However, as a national food distribution mechanism, Farmers Markets just don't cut it.

Third: Quality.  These days we are asking ourselves in respect of our food - What is Quality?  In an age of terminator seeds; genetic modification; pesticides; growth hormones and so on and so on, what is quality? And what about the visual? A blemish on a banana or a spot of fungus on the fuji and the consumer is likely to turn up his or her nose.  Why are capsicums so huge these days? Why is it a red-letter day for me to discover my favourite Ellendale mandarines in store?  Woolworths and Coles are not fools.  They have come to know what consumer preferences are and they trade accordingly.

Fourth: Price.  I reckon that Woolworths and Coles know precisely what the consumer is prepared to pay for what at any given time.  So if our duopoly knows we will only purchase organic food if it is competitive with mainstream chemically produced food, this is going to make it difficult to get organic food on the shelf in any sort of reliability, availability, etc.

If you go here, you will find some of my posts connected to the matters under discussion here. You will also find that I have written from time to time about Roger Corbett, the person I consider to be most influential in Australian public life; more even than the Prime Minister, the Governor-General  or the Governor of the Reserve Bank. If you read the posts, you will understand my reasoning.

So while the bankers are getting boosted by governments and making glittering prizes profits, let's turn away from their sort of economics to considering the subject of distribution: how it is done, what are its outcomes, how can it be done better, how can it be done to benefit the whole population of the planet, how can we distribute the sufficiency efficiently to all instead of allowing a few aggressive and self-centred people to indulge and support a system which can leave significant proportions of the planet's people to die or survive in inequitable, personality-stunting, health-denying circumstances.

Except for a few landmark examples, Economics has not acquitted itself well in the service of humanity and the service of the environmental circumstances of the planet. In fact, one is able to see frequently that it is not merely the dismal science. It is, in its mainstream form, the science of death and destruction.

So why don't we turn our heads around. Let's think deeply and broadly about our human and environmental circumstances and the needs that abound them.  If we can do this in the knowledge that the planet has sufficient to supply the needy but not the greedy, who knows what ideas might not become abundant.

The 1999 GE Food Debates: The Turning Point.(genetically engineered food): An article from: Synthesis/Regeneration - Roberto Verzola

Related articles

• Trade secrets of 'fresh' food (heraldsun.com.au)
• Govt seeks farms audit (news.theage.com.au)

Ruins of post-industrialisation - a sign of our times? #ruins #urbandecay #photography

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East Side Public Library, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

After just posting the cheerful repurposing of the chest of drawers below, I came across here a series of wonderful photographs depicting what appears to be a whole city in need, desperate need, of repurposing and rejigging. This is not just one photo essay. Here is another by a different photographer. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino hints at the urban decay facing Detroit. But we see nothing like this.

For me, the scariest picture of all was the one above. As a book-lover, knowledge gnome, information junkie and former librarian, I wondered why - even if the building was vacated - why no one packed up the books and put them into appropriate storage.

Clearly, Detroit is still there. It is not the end of the world - but (as the saying goes) you sure can see it from here.

Is this the fate of globalised, post-industrialised economies? 

Repurpose, recycle, rejig #environment #recycling

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Picture from here

via @hyperlocavore