Blue Mountains and Three Sisters

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Scenic Three Sisters

Coucou !

Exceptionnellement, je vais écrire cet article en français. Parce que je viens de terminer mes examens, mon semestre, mon année, mon bachelor (hallelujah) et aussi parce que je n’ai pas beaucoup de temps et que honnêtement j’ai la grosse flemme là. 😀

et puis zut à la fin, je n’ai pas besoin de me justifier, ici, ça reste mon blog tout de même.

Or… I could make a mix between French and English (le truc trop chiant à lire haha).
Anyway (bon j’arrête mes blagues), février dernier, je vous parlais d’un petit voyage que je venais de faire au Blue Mountains. J’avais promis d’écrire un article à ce sujet et bien sûr, je n’en ai pas eu le temps. Mais c’est parce que qu’il y a tellement de choses à dire là dessus (et parce que comme vous le savez, je me suis fait matraquer par l’Uni) (olala c’est fou qu’à chaque fois que j’écris en français, j’ai direct envie d’écrire en langue verte, à savoir de dire tout plein de gros mots. C’est mal. I will work on it. But not today).

Allez, je vous préviens, ce sera un post patchwork. Mais puisqu’il faut bien commencer quelque part, commençons par une petite explication du nom des blues mountains. Pour cela, je vais citer Kat qui a su être simple mais efficace:

“Nature is cool! Oil droplets released by the eucalyptus trees scatter short wavelengths of light creating that beauteous blue haze” Kat S, 34 weeks ago

Voilà pour l’explication biologique qui nous éclaire sur étymologie du lieu.
Moi quand j’entendais parler des montagnes bleues (montagnes bleues ça sonne un peu moins bien en français, mais bon, il faut savoir être consistant parfois….) je m’imaginais un truc comme ça :

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Lettre à Grand-Mère, semaine inconnue, j’ai perdu le compte.

Alors qu’en fait, c’est plutôt comme ça (je n’ai toujours pas d’appareil photo du coup navrée pour la qualité hs):

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Bon on comprend quand même d’où vient toute cette histoire de bleu (« and stuff »).

Et du coup, allez savoir comment mais ça m’avait fait pensé aux esprits de la montagne du film “Princesse Mononoké” réalisé par mon très cher and beloved Hayao Miyazaki.

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Soul of the blue mountains

 

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Ouais, je sais que je pars en live là, mais.. restons concentrés, et puis restez avec moi j’ai encore plein de trucs à raconter 😀

Toujours dans les montagnes bleues, une des plus grosses attractions du coin et je dirais même de l’Australie est la vue panoramique des trois sœurs or Three Sisters.

Voir photo ci-dessous ou voir le dessin du début de l’article.

Faut dire que c’est joli ♥

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Et la pluie et le vent et le temps ont érodé un même grès (roche détritique de la catégorie des roches sédimentaires, traumas de mes cours de géomorphologie).

Allez, une petite photo vintage pour la route:

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J’avais entendu parlé d’une légende aborigène qui expliquait la formation particulière de ce rocher mais j’ai lu ensuite que cette légende avait été construite de toute pièce par des non-indigènes pour attirer les touristes. *soupir*

Bon apparemment ce lieu a tout de même une signification spirituelle et culturelle pour certaines tribus mais je ne connais pas les détails.

Enfin ce qui était aussi hyper cool, c’était « The Giant Stairway » de 800 marches, qui part de l’Echo Point et qui va jusqu’au fameux rocher. Enfin c’est plus cool à descendre qu’à remonter surtout sous un soleil de plomb mais c’était une marche impressionnante.

Et puis j’ai bien sûr été touchée par ce rocher (ça se dit ? Peut-on être émue par un rocher grammaticalement parlant?) parce que nous somme trois sœurs et que du coup à chaque fois que je voyais « Three Sisters » écrit quelque part (c’est-à-dire à peu près partout) je pensais à mes deux sœurs et à nous trois (c’est à dire à peu près tout le temps).

Comme en voyant cet hôtel par exemple.

Comme en voyant cet hôtel par exemple.

Dans ma lancée des trois sœurs, j’aimerais aussi partager des tableaux que j’adore peints par Colleen Wallace Nungari, une prolifique et talentueuse artiste aborigène :

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Dreamtime Sisters, 2010

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Dreamtime Sisters

Dreamtime Sisters

Bon je me suis limitée à trois (parce qu’on est trois) mais en vrai j’aurais pu vous en montrer mille. C’était dur de se restreindre 🙂

Encore trois sœurs! Décidément! Et puis “Three” ça ressemble à “Tree” et dans la famille on aime bien les arbres. Et on dit toujours qu’on est les cinq arbores. Etrange… Surtout qu’il paraît qu’il n’y a pas de coïncidences dans la vie \0/

Purée, je pensais que ça allait être plus facile d’écrire en français, mais je galère aussi.. (la meuf)

Ce n’est pas tout mais je dois vous laisser, il faut que je fasse mes bagages, je pars demain pour les territoires du nord et Uluru (hiii)

En tout cas vous avez dû remarquer que je parle souvent de montagnes dernièrement. C’est vrai que les Alpes me manquent (et le fromage aussi mais c’est une autre histoire) alors du coup j’ai dessiné beaucoup de montagnes.

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Raah, j’arrive pas à m’arrêter mais puisqu’on parle de montagnes bleues, je ne peux pas ne pas parler de Louis le Brocquy. Son tableau « Greatlake Glendalough » (ci-contre) de 1991 a inspiré ma Maman les magnifiques aquarelles suivantes :

 

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Auteur: Maman

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Auteur: Maman

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Auteur: Maman

Oulala c’est ce qu’on appelle un gros article. Je suis éreintée maintenant 😀 Et complétement à la bourre pour aller voir Doris au cinoche.

Allez bisous et à très vite les copains! Virtuellement et dans pas si longtemps, on se reverra même dans la vraie vie! Unbelievable !

One day in Cabramatta – Another Atypical Assignment…

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The following is an excerpt from our -professional- report and a deep (lol) analysis of our sense of place.

“The area seemed mainly Vietnamese although we did observe a few Chinese places as well. It was interesting because some of us felt like we were overseas somehow. Alison, who was born in Australia, was not surprised because she is used to it. However, Hugo being from England and Elsa being from France* were more surprised to find this micro society within Australia.

We took some pictures below the arch of friendship (or Pai Lau), just before the freedom Plaza.

This arch, with the quote “The World is for us to share and to respect”, seems to welcome every visitor no matter where they come from. Moreover, other inscriptions written in different language can be observed on the façade, and after further research, we learnt that it is written in Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian and English. This symbolizes the harmonious and multiculturalist aspect of Cabramatta and Australia in general. ”

*from France AND Switzerland 😀

One thing that I understand now is that historical trajectories are embedded into every cultural landscape and you could ‘read’ it as you would read a text somehow.

You could. It doesn’t mean that’s easy…

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Related to the topic it would have been relevant to put “Love Generation” from Bob Sinclar but I prefer to share with you this song from an Australian Indie pop band (= gros gros hipsters) . ♪

♫ welcome to the world of our love ♫

Bisous!

Red Mountains or Sacred Rock and Indigenous Progressive Knowledge

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And..it’s booked!

I am going to see the sunset at Uluru! (also known as Ayers Rock) (you know, I talk about it in this article). My departure is right after my exam.

Needless to say that I am very excited, especially since now that I have learned a little bit more about the beautiful aboriginal culture and also the indigenous protected areas (IPA) notion. IPA are like areas (it could be land or sea), where traditional owners (that is, Indigenous people) have entered into an agreement with the Australia government to promote biodiversity and cultural resource conservation. While some of those areas such as Dhimurru are successful in their endeavour, there are still many administrative and communication issues in those areas. Indeed, how do you find an agreement when the two parts involved have a completely different way of looking, representing, thinking about the world? The two parts that I am talking about are of course the Australian government and the traditional owners.

The thing is that we, when I say ‘we’ I mean, the West, tend to think that our knowledge is universally true, that we are the most advanced in terms of sciences and technologies and that other nations that do not  join our camp are ‘primitives’ (Modernisation theory baby).

We have huge troubles to recognize other kind of knowledge as also valid and true. In our view, our medicine is the best, our way of mapping the world is the best, our political system is the best, our economic system is the best and in this case our resource management system is the best.. Well, I think that you get my point.

But then, my geography teacher (décidément!) has challenged these assumptions and she has introduced us to a post-colonial geographer, Deborah Bird Rose, that has been interested  on how aboriginal view lands and landscapes. She looked at their relationship with their environment and especially the way they take care of it. So indeed, the difference with us is like night and day. To a better understanding of what I am trying to convey,  I encourage you to read this quote below that explain a bit aboriginal view on the land (allez Sofia, elle est petite celle-là, you can do it :D). And then, you will understand how indigenous view differs from our own view of the world:

“People talk about country in the same way that they would talk about a person: they speak to country, sing to country, visit country, worry about country, feel sorry for country, and long for country. People say that country knows, hears, smells, take notice, takes care, is sorry or happy. Country is not a generalised or undifferentiated type of place, such as one might indicate with terms like “spending a day in the country” or “going up the country”. Rather, country is a living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness, and a will toward life.” (Rose 1996:7).
I have been really moved when she said that “they can be sorry for a country”, and that the country can be sorry as well.. I imagine that this must happen when the land has been damaged or so. When I think about it, thinking about the land as something alive makes sense, it is both poetic and clever actually.
After reading stuff like that I always wonder who are the most developed human group on the earth: the one that feel sorry for a land? or the one that view the natural landscape as something that exists only out there to serve our needs?
In this perspective, are we truly the most ‘developed’ civilisation?
I don’t think sooo ♪♫” (as Cher would say, in Clueless :D)
Anyway, I hope that I will learn more from these cultures (there is not only one aboriginal culture) during this trip. I genuinely want to connect to a intellectual but also deeper level.
In the meantime, 9 days to go before the end so I should better go.
Love ♥
PS: I messed up my scan of the red mountains so one quarter of the drawing is lost in space (including my signature). When I realized that, I had already sent this drawing to my Grand-Mother.. Oh well, a little bit of anonymity does not hurt anyone.

 

Vivid Sydney: Light, Music & Ideas

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From the 27th to the 18th of June, Vivid is held in Sydney.

Vivid Sydney is an annual outdoor lighting festival with immersive light installations and projections in Sydney. But concretely (or conceptually) it is a celebration of both art and technology, and both are brought together. (That makes me think about my future master hehe :D)

Here are some of my pictures. The quality is a shame compared to what it was so that is why I strongly recommend that you check their website.

Or that you look at “vivid sydney 2016” on google image 😀

I have been very impressed by the installations in the city but I must say that the most spectacular was the one on the Opera house.

For half an hour or so, the petals of this –already amazing- building are recovered by incredible animations and artwork. It was so beautiful, so magical and so real at the same time. It was exactly as if the artworks were part of the walls, were the walls. I was completely immersed… actually it is very hard to come up with a good description of this experience. What is also very meaningful is that these artists come from aboriginal communities, and for the period of the festival, it is aboriginal art that light up not only the opera house but the entire city.

Below, please find a more professional and more accurate description of the installation:

Lighting the Sails for the eighth year of Vivid Sydney, Sydney Opera House will transform into an animated canvas of Australian indigenous art featuring iconic contemporary works from Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu.

Celebrating First Nations’ spirituality and culture through the songlines of our land and sky, this year’s Lighting the Sails is about painting and celebrating country through a pattern of sharing systems, interconnected history lines and trade routes. Lighting the Sails Director and Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts has selected six artists of different clans, national estates and territories for an immersive projected artwork that weaves through time and distance.

Vivid website

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That night, I have been to my first (and probably last since it is almost the end of my exchange) concert at the opera house to see:

Antony and the Johnson ♪ ♫

I leave you with one song:

Bisous!