Travelling North

We're travelling North. First stop was Sandy Beach on the Coff's Coast for some three sisters' time (aren't we lucky!!). Just two nights for now, but enough time for lots of laughs & family talk, beach walks, a couple of whale sightings and some dolphins, lunch at the Park Beach SLSC and time to enjoy Ros & Pete's beautiful home and living environment.

We all drove up to the Yurrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Corindi Beach, about 20minutes North of Sandy Beach yesterday. We were lucky enough to meet and talk to Alison Williams (a local Aboriginal artist) and three wonderful women artists from the Tiwi Islands on a two week workshop tour of this part of NSW, to coincide with the opening of their print exhibition at the Grafton Art Gallery.

Those are not mobile phones that Alison and the Tiwi artists might look like they're holding in the photo above. They are actually clever tools made out of iron wood for stamping beautiful dot patterns on the women's paintings.

Alison's great grandfather was a very significant elder in the local community about 80 years ago when the remaining Aboriginal people in the area were forced to live in an enclosed reserve (in the forest just opposite the cultural centre). The area has a very brutal history obviously including a tragic massacre affecting a large number of local Aboriginal families late in the nineteenth century.

We loved Alison's art work in the exhibition at the cultural centre's gallery. We have bought this wonderful monoprint/drawing that tells some of Alison's peoples' story.