Alice is Wonderland.

We arrived at Alice Springs in the heat of the day. The heat was in the high 30s. After viewing a beautiful fire painting by Tim Storrier in the foyer of the airport we jumped into our hire car, more like a minivan, and drove the 10 miles to town. This must be one of the more peculiar corners of the planet. It is mostly a covered mall that winds through concrete buidings. The usual American Imperial Bastions are here; KFC, McDonalds etc. Amongst these are galleries selling indigenous Art and some rundown housing which is the town home of these artists. There is a definite feeling of tension between the two communities. We were sorry to see the signs of alcoholism amongst the aboriginal residents. This was later emeliorated by some inside knowledge from one of the gallery workers. She explained that the impression we might get from the towndwellers should not be a reflection on these the owners of the land for tens of thousands of years. She explained how she would go into the bush nearly every week and hang out with the communities there. She said these were people of a gentle and very humble nature. She further explained that the people we might see on the streets were those who had been affected by the white man's poison. The other poison for these people was the sugar diet of the West. She remarked on the prevalence of diabetes amongst them and that many were on dialysis because of the over consumption of "lollies". I noticed that in pictures of the artists there was nearly always a coke bottle or two. When we saw a lady painting in the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Uluru she had chocolate beside her and the coke bottle. These foods 'may' be ok for Mr Poodle, a well known sugar addict, but how could they be ok for people whose diet for thousands of years has been ' Bush Tucker' consisting of kangaroo, goanna (tinka), grubs, ants and bush herbs etc

Georgie and I spent a wonderful couple of hours in the Mbanta Gallery which is one of the two main galleries showing the work of the Utopian Artists who live North of Alice Springs. There we saw the work of Barbara Weir who paints large paintings on black grounds. They appear to be thickets of grass and are symbolic of motherland. She actually appeared in the gallery when we were there and only shyness held us back from communicating after eyecontact. We found out that she had an Irish father and Aboriginal mother. Her mother, Minnie Pwerle, is still painting large works, 72 X 48 ins for instance, at the age of 91. The family name Weir is well known in Ireland especially as the name of one of the top Dublin jewellers. Georgie struck up conversation with Trevor, the wholesale manager of the gallery, who turns out to be from Belfast. He told us that Barbara is planning to go to Ireland next year and they are planning to have an exhibition of Aboriginal paintings both North and South. I hope I can be involved in expediting this.

Oh Yes, 'Alice is Wonderland' is the forthcoming festival this month in Alice Springs. It is the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras.