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Category Archives: culture

A different Now …

This is an impression of Jack and Ella Thomas’s yard, Lancelot Terrace, Moonta Mines, drawn in the 1980s. Jack (known as Janna) bred and raced champion pigeons. Ella raised goats. She was very cluey. Both were so Cornish.

Jack could just remember the end of the mines 60 years earlier. The mine owners blew up many of the mine buildings, he said, so the now-jobless families wouldn’t be able to use them.

At election times the Moonta Mines polling booth would be the only Labor booth on the Yorke Peninsula. Ella Thomas handed out the Labor ‘How To Vote’ cards and made sure you knew how to make your vote count.

The remains of a structure on the left in the picture once supported a wind generator that charged batteries which powered the lights in the house. When mains electricity reached Moonta Mines residents were not able to connect to the power until they had dismantled their wind generators.

Photographer Peter Richards lived next door and here are two of his beautiful photos of Jack and Ella, taken back then.

Alright! …

Some of the illustrations for Simon Betts/Soul Trader’s new songs. The first song Alright in the end has been released with more to follow. Eventual ly the illustrations will be used on the album cover.

Recoil …

Adelaide’s Writers’ Week has been cancelled after political and lobby group pressure. More than 180 authors have pulled out. Director Louise Adler has resigned accusing government and lobby groups of censorship. The event is a great loss.

Trashing the neighbourhood …

Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk once said, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage.” He preferred the word ‘sympathy’. That is an insight.

At the moment, globally , empathy doesn’t rate highly.

Empathy isn’t to be trashed. It is a skill. It helps find that small piece of common ground between widely divergent stands, a starting point …

MEGA mania…

Sámi hearders’ LEGAL rights …

Concluding the previous post, it’s the legal obligations to the Sámi people that are being conveniently overlooked. The full report – in Swedish – with all of the illustrations can be seen here.

Sámi hearders’ rights …

Hearders’ rights? The Sámi have been using these migration routes for hundreds of years.

Hydropo’wer development is disrupting the traditional migration routes of the reindeer hearding Sámi people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula. These are some of the illustrations created for a report by Katarina Inga, the Stockholm Environment Institute. –

The impact of hydropower development
…from the Sámi hearders’ perspective

The impact …

Earlier posts on the Sámi: Sami impact, Sami reindeer hearding, Sami ‘development’

Trumped …?

Not that it’s been brought up yet…

And out of exasperation, what is the explanation for this world-wide-throughout-history-but-more-and-more-these-days phenomenon?

Sami ‘development’ …

Illustrations for Professor Ninis Gunhild Rosquist, Stockholm University, Department of Physical Geography:
‘I have collaborated with Sami reindeer herders during the past 10 years with focus on climate impacts and as their adaptation to the effects of climate change is hampered by the cumulative effects of land exploitation it’s a challenge to communicate/illustrate the full impact.’ These two illustrations contrast the present developing situation (above) and the same scene pre-‘development’ and before increasing impacts from climate change (below).

An earlier post on the Sami is here.

‘We know what we want …’

Cartoons from the Alliance Building Day – Climate Impacted Communities Canberra Delegation – 25th March 2024, ‘For too long others have spoken on our behalf, or assumed what communities want and need.’ Preparation for the Advocacy Day on the 26th, ‘advocating in Parliament House for key asks that would improve the outcomes for climate impacted communities‘.

An alliance of: Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA), Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), The Sunrise Project, The Grata Fund (re The Australian Climate Case), Sweltering Cities, Plan C, Reclaim Our Recovery and more!