New york

I Have not had much time to update MY BLOG and some problems downloading the pics. I have some great ones , so will try again soon. I have been as usual very busy with lectures and meetings. Anna Cadden ( My dear friend ),who works for Warlpiri Indigenous Australian media and wo has just finished shooting" Aboriginal Rules" , a new doco drama you can look for on ABC tv In the future. ( you can google and have a look ), was here and we gave a presentation together to NYU.
The presentation was called " shifting the focus "( New perspectives in Indigenous Australian media). It went very well and it was interesting to look at issues and compare with desert and remote communities and east coast communities in Australia and from our perspectives. We looked specifically at the use of media in a health context and I spoke about using digital stories as a more accessible and empowering process for people to tell stories in first person. Anna shared about the work of Warlpiri and future directions.

I am now preparing for another presentation for NYU on 'Human Rights , health and community "on the 7th November. I am looking forward to this and the discussion after.
I Have met many people here and attended a number of events. The national Museum of American Indians in NYC, is wonderful and met some great folks there. They are busy preparing for the "Native American Film festival ",( Also worth a Google), it happens every 3 years. Unfortunately I will miss it , but have the inside on a lot of great films now to try find and watch later. I was interested to hear that Australian Indigenous film is considered very highly and as being very advanced. We can be proud!!! thanks to a lot of hard work by many before us.

We had lunch with a woman from Chile , Amalia , who works with the spanish speaking indigenous films and we spoke about touring some in Australia. Again we found that issues are similar for Indigenous people the world over in terms of health , governance , borders , power , identity and impacts of colonisation. ( so it seems and not a surprise )....It is inspiring to meet so many passionate and creative people trying to bring change .
Getting stories out there is part of the solution, in our voices, the other part is connecting and sharing and being allies for each other.

Had a tour of the metro art gallery and met a wonderful woman, lesley who works with Indigenous Art there. There is a real community of people here interested and connected to home. AMAZING ! but then everything is in NEW YORK.

I have just come back now from the VA film festival in Charlottesville Virginia . The festival theme , was " Radiance , God at the Movies ". I was invited to LAUNCH the Wonderful film " Ten Canoes" courtesy of the University and the " Kluge Ruhe" ( www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe) collections that are housed there.
This is one of the largest and most significant collections of Central desert and northern Australian art in the world( outside of Australia) and it was amazing to be there. Margo Smith our host was so kind and we were looked after with great care.
' Ten Canoes " is shot in remote northern Australia in central Arnhem land.You can have a look at the web site on this to find out more . It is a wonderful film again google "Ten Canoes " and go see it of it comes your way. Alos the new " making of Ten canoes".
I was honored to be asked to be there, to do this . The film is rare film, in that it was made very collectively and with much respect to culture and kinship and with an all Aboriginal cast .

The response was a full house and people LOVED IT. I sat on a panel afterwards and did my best to answer questions and try give the feeling of issues at home and life and the importance of community healing and film/. I was asked about how I found coming to the USA in regards to how I see things here for American Indian people. I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this. I do feel that we have so much in common , the good and the hard . The issues are so similar and so I shared some observations and stories. one thing I shared was how in coming to the east coast here , people kept asking me " why ?" as " there are NO indians there "!!! which is not true at all and I was so shocked to hear .The truth is that just like the East coast at home , this coast was also colonised first and so the impact of settlement and the resultant policies of removal etc, have led to Indians here being invisible and not counted by a lot of people as they may not match the John wayne , buffalo bill idea of an Indian.

I have also made some wonderful connections with other academics and Indian( I am saying Indian , as here people seem to prefer this term and not the more used reference as ' native american).
I have met many wonderful local Indian Film makers and met with people working also in the area of trying to address " historical Trauma " . It is a rich conversation and my work is developing well. I will have much to share and write up once home.

ok , that is a bit of news , there is so much more, Ican only give a brief outline here , but enough so you can feel what I am up to. Now I will go try load some pics in the next blog.
take care.