Author: Austral-Indonesian Tujuhbelasan

VICTORY FOR ALL

For the past ten years, my life has been focussed on trying to learn and share the lessons of World War Two.

This was a major theme of art displays I created at both a national heritage water source important to the memory of General Douglas MacArthur in Morotai, Indonesia, and also at Barak Obama’s first school in Jakarta.

During this decade, the people I have conversed with on matters relevant to this endeavour included Prime Ministers Gillard, Rudd and Turnbull of Australia and Presidents Jokowi and Yudhoyono of Indonesia.

This morning, the people who inspire me the most by showing the spirit of WW2 are the Sons Of The West (people from the Western Bulldogs football club) who are headquartered down the road from my place.

As I understand it, this season, Coach Luke Beveridge has shared the work load of playing among a large number of players. This is a strategy which will keep the team fresh for the finals.

This reminds me of the spirit and wisdom of General Douglas MacArthur.

The simple piece of word art above is for all sons and daughters of the west and of the whole world.

May we all learn from our past and work effectively together now and well into the future.

Geoff Fox, 5th August, 2021, Footscray, Australia

KARTINIISM # 1 Vulnerability In A Dark World

Sadly. so sadly, the softest women’s voices hide themselves in quieteness in this shouting world.

I was a midwife for 32 years. I cannot understand why mothering gentleness is so widely scorned.

Kartini knew that the tender love of mothers is the heart of our world.

Geoff Fox, Hari Kartini, 2021, Terra Nullius

Pepohonan #4 Jaya Tree Poetry

When poetry goes from one language to anohter it has to change to remain poetry.

I call this transcreation,

Dwijaya Saifil Munir sent me a wonderful spontaneous poem about the holiness of trees.

I transcreated it into English.

Then in performance I transcreated those lines into a homage to a big city garden tree.

I then transcreated that into a partial reconstruction of the original Indonesian poem in the subtitles.

As Paul McCartney wrote about his landmark indie album, Wings’ Wild Life, “Can you dig it?”

Geoff Fox, 17th February, 2021 Terra Nullius