Juniper’s World Journal – Page 19

Eternal Spirit on Mortal Paper

eternal spiritmortalpaper — Eternal Spirit on Mortal Paper – By June Perkins

A house full of sick kids and constant calls for Mum to please by nearby, snatched moments to rest and build energy for another round of vomiting from youngest and a complete ignoring of deadlines – that’s been my week.

Now any dedicated parent will tell you in a house full of illness you need to take care of everyone and build a road to recovery. There’s not much else you can do when your kids are sick. Luckily for us one parent is still flexible enough to be at home when needed, unluckily for us all our extended family live thousands of kilometres away and can only send virtual foot rubs to their grandkids.

I work from home so you’ve probably guessed it’s me that’s been the carer of the week. This week I have been giving foot rubs, telling stories, saying prayers and tending to tired and ill children. Now Saturday is here things are looking up, and youngest is able to eat again. This is such a relief after dealing with him having cramped crab hands, which needed lots of massaging to make normal again. Poor little mite.

In the midst of this my dear hubby is in marking chaos, and in our very tiny house for five people has taken over the living room with piles of marking. It is like negotiating a minefield. I will not touch anything as it’s all just the way he needs it to be. I dream of a day when the poor man can have an office, and me a studio. A few weeks ago it was me with art materials everywhere just before my exhibition so really it’s a matter of needing to one day have a bigger space for us.

Last week I went to look after an Exhibition – of the Hinchenbrook Regional Art Prize, that my daughter, son and I had all put work into. We went to the launch. My daughter received a highly commended for her guinea pig painting, complete with collaged straw. It was titled ‘All Together 1.’ She explained to me that she paints and draws the pets all together, as it brings her happiness, even the ones that are gone, get painted with the living ones so that their memory lives on. She painted a bird picture with both our alive birds and our lost quails and also entered it too.

I took some photographs of the artists with their works. It was a vibrant exhibition, with hints of memories of the looming cyclone in the clouds and a few broken trees but also green horses, birds made by geometic shapes, moons over mountains and people -including the snake catcher Les, captured on canvas. There were sculptures of cassowaries, and dear little pots with feathers, photographs of rocks, culture and natures, abstract paintings of cane burning, a coach without horses, and my dragonfly as well.

Now weeks like this are hard to set goals in, as you are driven from moment to moment by the needs of the family and they have to be the priority, so instead when I have a moment to myself I’ve been doing some digital play with my photographs and remembering Nell Arnold, whose funeral is this weekend. During this week a few pieces on mortality and eternity have come into being in my arty breaks from the caring for kids.

Nell was such a mentor with my digital art photography and it was startling to hear of her sudden passing, although I knew she had not been well for a while. I wonder if she can see these works from wherever she is in the next worlds beyond this one.

I wonder what Nell would say to me right now about setting goals for the future. She would probably say believe in your work, move forward and realize you can do anything you set your mind to, and then she would send me some emails of people to get in touch with and make some practical suggestions. Her emails are very precious and yet I never met her in person. I would have loved to tell her about my daughter and the art entry as she mentored her with creativity as well.

I think of Nell especially today, but have two other friends who are farewelling brothers at funerals this weekend. I know this feeling too, having been to my brother’s funeral when he was only young.

Life is short, and there is little time to write the eternal spirit on mortal paper. It is probably little wonder that this week I created several art pieces all to do with the fleeting nature of life, words, stories, and belongings.

(c) June Perkins, all rights, reserved.

Photographing Tully

I’ve been out and about photographing Tully events again. To see pictures of the Tully Biggest Morning Tea Event at the library you can visit. Tully’s Biggest Morning Tea.

This is one of my favourites of the day. It’s of one of our wonderful local library staff and a dear friend making sure the tea and cake are ready for a fundraiser for cancer. I now take my card with me to give to people to get in touch about the photographs. If you have one of my cards, why not leave your comment about the event and if you like request a copy of your photograph. All I ask is a donation to the Smile Within Project, which is now entering book production phase, with the possibility of a tour of the exhibition to Cairns.

I went and made a tribute video to Food, family and fundraising, which you can see at my vimeo link HERE. Love making these photostories and will be making some more involved videos in the upcoming months so look out for them. I have to get started on some poetry films soon too.

Thanks to everyone who visited the Smile Within. You will be able to order photographs and a book soon. Watch this space! Thanks also to those who purchased photographs, you made me feel great!

Until next time, your roving Cassowary Coastal photographer and blogger.

June

The truth of the sacred plant…

butterfly_folio — Butterfly near the Sacred Plant – June Perkins

The other day my Mum told me the above plant near the butterfly is ‘sacred’ and wards off bad spirits. I have lots of them outside my house, so this is a kind of cool thing to know if you believe bad spirits need to be warded off.

Sharing stories and photos on facebook has lead to interesting discoveries such as this, and more, as my Mum comments on my status statements about a memoir I am writing.

It reminds me of my childhood when she would tell me stories about bush fairies, and how they would look out for me when I walked to school. I wanted to believe her, but I wasn’t always sure, and so I took what I needed from her stories and thought of strength surrounding me if I needed it.

Now we are separated by thousands of miles and I live on what Tasmanians call the ‘mainland’, or did when I was a kid.

I love how my Mum remembers all the stories from her mother and father. My PNG grandfather was a medicine man, who also had a sideline of spells, so it doesn’t surprise me she talks about plants this way. My grandmother is a mystery whose voice I have heard and face never seen to remember although I touched it as a tiny baby as she rocked me when I had a bad ear ache. She called for her daughter, and grand daughter across a vast ocean. I wish I had a real memory of her, but I only have imagined ones.

The other day Mum and I were discussing our vegie patch – that supplied the family when we were kids. Sometimes we remember the same things, and other times our recollections are different. Families, communities, towns, there can be so many perspectives on the same events.

I love it when all the versions of a story breathe into the same space and say listen to me. Somewhere between all the stories are shared memories and each account enriches the other. However, there are times when truth is so important, when someone’s life and freedom is at stake. There can truer and clearer versions of a story. The challenges being rose coloured glasses, and glasses without any glass at all (needed for someone with poor vision).

Not all truth can be relative as otherwise where would ethics and principle reside. Funny how a picture of a butterfly and a plant can lead to a meditation on truth, justice, and ethics, and a memory of childhood lead to a thought on how to make the world a better place.

Today a friend and I discussed how do we uplift children and youth to break cycles, to make a new story for themselves and their future children. I realise that in many ways my mother and father rewrote their stories – and they married across cultures, geography and did not confine themselves to preset cycles.

How then do we let go of the things in the past and present that hold us back? What do you think?

(c) June Perkins

Trip into the Misty Mountains

On Mother’s Day we went for a mystery drive into the Misty Mountains.

We hadn’t been there before because it’s 4wd country and we haven’t owned a 4wd before this year.

So the kids were excited at what we might find.

Every now and then we stopped for a look into the valleys and the light shone on us and guided us on our way.

mistymountainrd8

We passed many streams of chuckling water and oodles of green, and even saw a young cassowary, he was too fast for my camera.

We saw one of my hubby’s old students stopped by the side of the road, I think with his grandfather.

We met another adventurer on our way back who asked us how far we had gone.

He had been on the road before but wanted to make sure it still went all the way.

We weren’t sure as we had turned back due to not enough petrol and to get to the Tully Gorge.

We ended up near the Tully gorge, and the kids skipped pebbles in the water with their Dad.

We saw flocks of butterflies eating some of their favourite food.

It was an amazing day, which ended with us all wanting to go back there with more time and a picnic lunch.

Maybe we’ll even head further along that misty mountain trail and do a few walks.

(c) June Perkins.

Dream Box at Murray Upper

Me with Students at Murray Upper – Taken by ABC Open

A day for dreaming, big, small, surreal and real. I had a brilliant time helping out and gaining some audio sound training with ABC Open producer Michael Bromage. Mini interviews with all the kids and some of the staff at Murray Upper were so much fun.

We asked all the kids to share their dreams, what they want to do in the future, or what they want to see in the world. They promptly wrote them out on a chalk board, and if they felt inspired to draw, illustrated them.

Can’t wait to see those photo sets on-line. The hard-working Michael will have them up as quick as he can. Some of the previews I saw were looking so cool. Jumping kids in shoelaces, cute kids with smiles sharing dreams of ‘snake training’, motorbikes, horse riding, zoo keeping, saving the trees, and world peace – this is what happens when you ask kids to dream.

A long with Dream Box, the Murray Upper kids of all backgrounds, shared their dreams – you could call it a ‘Murray Upper Dream Box.’ What an inspiration those kids are with the coloured chalk of the world at their finger tips.

Tennis racquets, forests, jungles, adventurers, working for world peace, netballers, soccer players, there are so many dreams and so many people. Perhaps the most brilliant dream of all is that everyone has the chance to achieve their dreams and the tools to make them possible. As for me I even had a chance to share my dream – it might involve something to do with the whole world Smiling…

Thanks to the Murray Upper School, the Principal Kayte Gillinder, and all the staff who took a bit of time to dream, and a big thankyou to Amber, a brilliant assistant who called in each dreamer to take their place in front of the spotlight.

Michael with awesome assistant! – By June Perkins

Will let you know when those links are up ! Looking forward to seeing some sound mixed with the photographs. Looking forward to some of those dreams coming true.

(c) June Perkins