TASHY TRAVELS

Every Sunday, I am going to upload a post about the different countries I have visited and/or lived in since 2002.

I can assure you of some interesting stories.

AUSTRALIA 2 - PART FIVE

While we were in Freo we were asked to do a daily update about the Fremantle Festival. This was in 2004. I really felt it was an honour to be asked to do these updates. The Festival website had a link to ours and we knew that, besides describing the events on the Festival, we would also be gaining a bigger audience for what we were doing. Like many festivals, although it lasted ten days, from Friday to Sunday, there wasn’t something happening every day.

The Festival allowed people to enjoy themselves, get in touch with culture and art, and become involved in various activities. There were a lot of free events; concerts, exhibitions and some other events in a couple of clubs. It was fascinating to watch how the city changed. It now took on its weekend vibrancy for a whole week. The Festival was a celebration of diversity, with the events bringing together different cultures and ages. You would also have a very different audience for different events. But let’s go back to the first event.

The weekend starts here. So ran the opening credits for a 1960’s TV programme on British television called Ready, Steady, Go. At 6.30pm every Friday you could see the first, or nearly first, performance on television of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Donovan and many more. So, having been brought up on this, I didn’t want to change tradition and at 6.30pm on Friday, the weekend duly started. However, this time, I was able to see the first, maybe, performances by artists of the Kidogo Art School in Fremantle.

The Kidogo Arthouse was situated right on the edge of The Indian Ocean at Bathers Beach in Fremantle. You can see the Arthouse from the picture but what you can’t see is that, at the back of the building, which directly faces the sea, they have their studio. So you can open the shutters and paint, looking out on to the clear blue waters of the ocean. The exhibition was in two rooms, with a rather novel, and arty, way of getting from one to the other. You could actually be more conventional and go out one door and in another but, hey, who wants convention at an art show. We certainly didn’t so, remembering a pub I used to go to when I worked in London, we went through “The Hole in the Wall”.

My art ability is somewhat limited. OK, somewhat just seemed a nice word to fit in there. But, knowing this, the organisers had laid on food, a messy hobby, and there was also a Hawaiian band. Is Hawaiian the only word in the English language that can see properly. I mean it has two i’s next to each other. We were lucky enough to meet two of the younger artists while we there and we had a chat to them about their work and their background. The actual age range of the people who painted at The Arthouse or attended courses was from 9 to 80. I note we met a Betty Poulsen who was seventeen and had been painting for 7 years. It says she originally came from Manchester but she seemed to be over that.

Thomas More, who you can see me talking to, was obviously A Man for all Seasons and found his Utopia, sometimes I am so good, in painting. He was 15 and had been coming to Kidogo for over five years. He had two totally different works on show. The first one was, for me, a fairly normal painting with a Greek god-like bust, framed in a stone opening. With my limited (no somewhat, OK) ability and knowledge, he had created a deep and almost 3D perspective (good art word to throw in) and I really liked the piece.

But with his second piece he suddenly made me realise something, just to prove that you are never too old to learn. When he was talking to me he said that when he set out on this other picture, he had a blank piece of canvas and no idea what he would paint. For some reason, I had always thought artists did know what would be the final result and maybe this was why I lacked the ability to appreciate their work. I mean if you are drawing a figure, an object, a landscape, you can see it so you know what it will look like, or if it was me doing it, what it should look like and it wouldn’t, so I would give up. Now I realised that art can be like song writing or even poetry. You can start out with nothing, try a few lines, with pen or paintbrush, and see what takes shape. Tom said he started with just drawing the arm and I think he said in black and then he changed it, developed it and eventually ended up with what we, and you, can see. I asked him whether it was finished and he said maybe.

I know that feeling because I can write something, read it again and immediately change bits which I now think about differently. I always want things to be perfect so you are lucky, yes, lucky, you are actually reading this. We spent some more time looking at the pictures, talking to people, enjoying the food and drink and listening to the band. The evening ended about 9.00 and we took one last look at the ocean before heading home. So that was a good way to end Friday, which is exactly what we did

Saturday started as Saturday’s always do; immediately Friday had finished. However the main event on Saturday, at the Freo Festival, didn’t start till 1.00pm. It is important to remember that Australia belongs, and belonged, to the Aboriginal people long before Europeans and others began to settle here. I told you elsewhere that this year is the 175th anniversary of the settlement of Western Australia by the British but that time span pales into insignificance against the 40,000 years that the Aboriginals had been here. For them, the last 175 years had been the worst period in their existence as the settlers, initially, took their land, then made use of them and finally tried to take away their very existence, their inheritance, their culture. Progress happens, and it is unlikely that even without the white invasion their way of life, as it was, would still exist today. But progress does not mean all old ways must be destroyed. While we were in Australia there was much talk of reconciliation between the original landowners and the newcomers. Reconciliation; that should mean trying to mend the wrongs of before, actually accepting that they happened, apologising for them and looking to the future. Both sides will find it hard and both have much to learn but a start is being made.

Saturday’s event was, so it says, The Wardarnji Aboriginal Cultural Celebration. It was held in Esplanade Park near the old harbour. During the afternoon there was a presentation made regarding the PALS programme. This was an awards programme designed to encourage WA school students to create projects that promote understanding and awareness of the State’s rich indigenous heritage and culture and, with this, advance further toward reconciliation. PALS stands for Partnership, Acceptance, Learning and Sharing.

The two main indigenous performers were Kerrianne Cox, one of Australia’s leading indigenous artists and Mary G one of Australia’s leading iconic treasures. Kerrianne came from a remote community in the North West region of WA called Beagle Bay and it is obvious that she has a deep love for her home and family. In fact her signature song, called Beagle Bay Dreaming, had made this remote part of her country well-known all over the world. During her performance she told us about the Aboriginal Corroboree and how the government had banned them when her grandfather was 21 and last year, at the age of 75, he had danced his way once again into the traditional corroboree. She had travelled widely, having spent several years touring the United States and, more recently, South Africa. However in October 2004 her people had elected her Chairperson of Beagle Bay Community. This obviously meant a great deal to her and although she said she would continue to travel and perform, home is more than just a base now.

Mary G was very different but, in a way, had the same message. She came about by accident and is to the indigenous people what Dame Edna Everage is to the white man. Instead of Madge Allsop and a now deceased husband called Norm, Mary has her boyfriend Baamba. The whole show we saw was full of music, humour but, hidden in there, was an important message. Mary can make fun of things, the “black fellas” situation, relationships, the Prime Minister, but still get across the importance of reconciliation, of building bridges and again to show what can be achieved. The day finished as the sun set and people sat around listening to beautiful music. What more could you ask for?

Sunday started as Sunday’s always do but then you know that by now. The big event that day was the kite flying extravaganza down on South Beach. South Beach is just, wait for it, south of Fremantle. Right above the beach is a green area and it was here that the kite extravaganza was set up. As you can see from the photos below, there were all shapes of kites and different generations involved in trying to get them airborne. The beautiful thing was that, just over the sand dunes, there was the inviting waters of the Indian Ocean in case you got too hot flying the kite.

Monday seems to have been a day off or my pencil broke and on Tuesday we visited the galleries of various artists but I don’t think I was the one taking the notes, unless my pencil was of inferior quality.

The Freo Festival is not only about what adults can do. Young people are given their chance to shine too. In 2004 there were some performances by the City Beach Youth Theatre, which is the name taken by the drama group at City Beach High School. The school is a middle school with about 110 pupils and offers a full range of core subjects but students can also study Visual Arts, Music, Media, Photography, Drama, Computing, Home Economics, Design & Technology and Dance. Their performance was called Batavia’s children and was developed in 2003 by the House Drama group. It was performed in the highly evocative setting of the Shipwreck Galleries of the Maritime Museum.

So what was the Batavia and its particular significance to Western Australia? In 1628 a ship called the Batavia set sail from Holland on her maiden journey to Batavia, which was the name given then to modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia. At that time The Dutch were carrying out a great deal of trade with the so-called Spice Islands of the East Indies. In command of the ship was a merchantman called Francesco Pelsaert. However the skipper of the ship was Ariaen Jacobsz, a sailor not a merchant. The two men were not good friends. Going well so far you would think. There were seven other ships in the convoy but bad weather split them up and only three, the Batavia included, reached the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa by April 1629. Apparently the skipper had a few drinks there (for English students this is called litotes) and was severely rebuked by the commander. Looking even better now isn’t it. Remember these two men have just spent six months cooped up on a small ship. Shortly after this, the skipper’s best friend, Cornelius, may have suggested a mutiny. The idea was to take over the ship, kill the soldiers on board, throw Pelsaert overboard and take the treasure. However before the plan could be put into effect, the ship ran aground on the Abrolhos Islands, 40 miles off the coast of Western Australia. Most of the passengers were put on shore on the nearby island now known as Batavia’s graveyard while the commander, skipper and about 25 others, mostly sailors, landed on a nearby but smaller island.

The commander and skipper then loaded the two boats and set out for Batavia. The people left behind had to find water and some died of thirst in the first week but there was to be an even greater disaster soon. Cornelius, the most senior man left behind, turned out to be a psychotic killer. Taking control he sent some soldiers to one other island hoping they would die of thirst. He then split other survivors between smaller islands. Then, with a loyal band of mainly young men including junior officers and soldiers and cabin boys he began his murderous spree. Survivors sent to other islands were hunted down and killed if they hadn’t died of thirst. But one group of soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes had survived. The island they had been sent to, and a nearby one that you could walk to, contained fresh water plus animals that could be killed for food. At the end of July, Hayes had about 45 people on his island and Cornelius had 36 under his control. Attacks were made during August and on the 20th August the mutineers all signed an oath of allegiance which later condemned them all. I haven’t space to tell you all the rest here except to say that in mid-September a rescue boat, commanded by Pelsaert arrived. Mutineers were soon captured and then, in most cases, taken back to Batavia and hanged. Cornelius was hanged on one of the islands and two mutineers were left on the coast of Western Australia.

The performance concentrated on the effect of all this on the children. It was successfully presented at the 2003 Fremantle Festival and they were invited back this year. Seven of last year’s cast returned, but only one in the same role. The whole show was very well acted and, although the dark setting in the gallery made photographs quite difficult, it created a superb atmosphere for the whole piece. In fact, part of the play was performed under the rescued hull of the actual ship. Spooky.

Our next stop was for a sponsored lunch at the Norfolk Hotel. The Norfolk was built in 1870, the outside area added before the America’s Cup defence in 1987 and then extended in 2000. As well as the restaurant, there was a club downstairs also opened in 2000. We went bush that day, I know all the lingo. The Aussie Bush Plate was Kangaroo fillets, duck shanks and emu sausages, just for Michael Parkinson, and it was great. I noted that one of the other choices on the menu was a beautiful demonstration of the English language. It was shown as Handmade Rabbit and Forest Mushroom Agnoltotti. It was, of course, handmade agnolotti filled with these things but I had a vision of lots of little grandmothers knitting handmade rabbits. But then I have these moments sometimes and still do. I note that we finished the evening with another sponsored meal at The Mussel Bar. Like so many places in Freo, it was built-in the time leading up to the America’s Cup defence in 1987. It re-opened, as it now is, in 2000. It actually maintains a sporting link, as two of the owners are, I believe, Aussie Rules Footballers. One plays for the local team, Fremantle Dockers,

The following day, Thursday, seems to have been quiet but we popped into the Red Cross to see their contribution to the Festival. They were offering a hand and arm massage as a way of promoting all the work they do. As I needed my hand and arm to take the photos, my girlfriend steeped in with hers. They were just hanging around, connected to her shoulders and not doing too much at that time. Perhaps you, like me, thought the Red Cross only got involved in war-torn countries or other emergency situations. It, evidently, is not true and in Western Australia they offer a lot of other services including forms of counselling, carer support and even helping indigenous high school pupils by finding them work placements to build confidence and experience.

In the evening our dinner was thanks to the Sandcastle organic restaurant on South Terrace. They told us they were the only organic restaurant in Western Australia. They had set up three years ago and aimed to have a high quality menu, but sticking to the principles of organic ingredients. They even had a selection of organic wines and beers on their wine list. They pointed out that the main problem with such a restaurant was that organic food cost more and so, to allow them to remain competitive with their rivals, they had a very small profit margin. The atmosphere in the restaurant was great and the food excellent. We selected a dish of Beef served on roast potatoes with mushrooms, chicken breast salad and, for the guy who has been helping us out this week, Red Emperor fish topped with smoked salmon, green beans, avocado, spinach, salad and kiwi fruit vinegar. Each of us enjoyed the meal and even had room for a dessert, selecting elderflower creme brulee, ginger pudding in butterscotch sauce and a kakao chocolate parfait with a crispy wanton. Hungry?

Friday night we made our way to the Kulcha Club on Cappuccino Strip. Kulcha Multicultural Arts of Western Australia was established in 1983 as the Ethnic Music Centre and is today the state’s peak presenter of multicultural arts and Australia’s leading world music venue. Western Australia’s population has the highest percentage of overseas born residents in Australia (27.7%) with a massive 186 countries of origin represented. The Perth metropolitan area has a greater percentage of overseas-born residents (32.5%) than the State as a whole and is Australia’s most multicultural city. Originally based in Perth, Kulcha moved to its present location in Freo in 1997. The venue had a professional sound, lighting and stage system, capacity for 200 people, seating and a licensed bar. We were there to hear an evening featuring choirs from around the world.

And guess what; as a week comes to a close, yet another weekend appears. Nothing like familiarity to soothe the troubled brain. This time the weekend started at noon. There was a Reggae Beach Party and everyone decided to get up and stand up. I know it all. The event was held at the same place as the kite extravaganza last week and I will make no comment about the people trying to get higher than the kites, except I just did. Less stalls this time but more music and that is what you would expect. The Beach Party was in its sixth year and, of course, the music had a distinctly Reggae feel to it.

It says in the notes I made over ten years ago that we left the Reggae party a bit early, went home, had a wash and then set off for the Arts Centre where there was a Community Concert. I guess we did. Like most events that week, it catered for all and bubble blowing was a great attraction for the younger concert-goers. In fact there was so much bursting detergent about, I felt I had wasted time having a wash. If you remember, when you were young, assuming you are old now, the old tubes filled with soapy stuff and a small stick with a circular ring. Question; aren’t all rings circular?

Anyhow, this is progress. They had two long sticks with two pieces of cord, string, whatever, tied between, so that it looks a bit like a catapult. You dipped your stringy bit in the fluid and then pull it out. Particularly good for those of a Catholic persuasion and, if I got away with that, the string stretches across the top and loops down at the bottom and you have a non-circular, question answered, ring. Gently pull this through the air and a bubble emerges and eventually leaves your ring and floats off into the air.

We played there for a while and then went and joined lots of other people sitting on the grassy banks within the Arts Centre grounds. The notes say this is the most haunted house in Western Australia so maybe one of the little ghosties was actually bursting all the bubbles because we were disturbing their sleep. Perhaps that face in the bubble is not a real person, sorry if that is you, but a haunted figure joining in the fun. We sat down on the grassy banks and opened up our picnic, listened to the music and watched the many acts perform. All of them had a musical base, whether it was folk songs accompanied on an acoustic guitar or comedic music style. It was great to see all these families, groups, couples and even individuals sitting around and enjoying the entertainment. It is when you experience this feeling that you can really appreciate how pleasurable some things in life can be.

The other notable thing was that, as with quite a few events in WA, it was a Smoke-free event and as far as I could see nearly everyone was complying. As the sun went down, and the trees turned a picturesque shade of brown and orange, the whole area was full of lovely sounds both from the stage and within the audience. The Scared Little Weird Guys sang a song about the “wonderful” creatures in Australia, namely those that can kill you. I moved more to the middle of the blanket and brushed a few things off my legs.

Sunday began watching the gymfest. Following on from the Smoke-free concert last night, this display also helped to promote a healthy lifestyle. There were all forms of gymnastics on show, some of which I’d never heard about, including one group who used an inflatable floor to perform on. It certainly gave them plenty of bounce. I also learned that ‘cheerleading’ was now a gymnastic pursuit. Not sure I agree but it is exercise.

One group, as you can see, used a see-saw to perform. Yet another group did a very different display, with part of the group underneath a large cloth. It reminded, a little, of the nude scene from “Hair”, if you remember that. They used balls, which reminded me of the….no, don’t go there. It was very well done. The main point was to encourage people, in particularly young people, to take up some form of exercise. The point was well-made, that not all exercise has to be competitive or lead to a competitive situation. Some of us may like that; others can just exercise for fun.

The next event involved the 13th Combat Service Support Battalion marching through the City to exercise the right of freedom to entry. This ceremony, stemming from medieval times back in England, no I wasn’t there, is granted by a city wishing to honour a group or body of soldiers. The soldiers duly marched with swords drawn, bayonets fixed and banner flying to the sound of drums and pipes and with, I see from my notes, one young lady lying down in front of them. I think this may have been some sort of protest but the soldiers just marched around her.

Finally, came the main parade. The Parade comprised groups, individuals, clubs and many others, dressing up and walking or riding on a float (should this be known as floating) around the city. No need for any more words here, just look at the pictures.

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