Crocs and Cave Paintings

After a very busy three days in Darwin I'm back in Sydney for the night, just long enough to wash some clothes, repack my bags and head back to the airport after a short night's sleep. The 'Top End' was fascinating, and there is so very much to see in the Northern Territories. It has been amazing to spend the last week exploring aboriginal art and culture with Moira and Elizabeth - we've had so many great conversations to try and put the pieces together, and begin to see into the history of these extraordinary people. The art styles of the north are different from those in the center of the country, more linear and figurative than the abstract dots and marks of Alice Springs. All the work tells stories tho, deeply grounded stories of aboriginal life, and there is SO much of it. We've talked often about the sheer size of the market, and how rapidly it developed. While the bark paintings and the batiks began to be produced and sold beginning in the 1950s, it was the start of acrylic painting on canvas in 1971 that launched a true explosion of creativity and marketing. I bought two wood and fiber sculptures in a wonderful Darwin gallery that is owned and run by an aboriginal art center, one of the many, many groups working in the north. The Museum of the Northern Territories was also excellent, beautiful bark paintings and log coffins and baskets and carvings and amazing contemporary canvases. After immersing ourselves in art on Saturday, Moira and I took a day trip to Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage Site. We were able to hike into a cliff face with beautiful rock paintings, which are the historical source for today's canvases. Then we visited a terrific cultural center on aboriginal life, and then a boat ride in a wetlands that was surprisingly similar to the Everglades except that it was crocodiles everywhere instead of alligators. A very long, but very interesting day. Today I made my way to Sydney via Adelaide, and here I am packing my turlenecks and wool coat. I'm off to see the snowy mountains - next stop Christchurch !