view from plane, looking over central australia. photo by me, pjb.

Lara Damiani is a young australian filmmaker whose film-making adventures  I’ve been following closely over the last few years. I first heard about her through the Tibetan community in Dee Why, Sydney -  it was early 2007 and there was a rumour going around that this young woman had plans to go into Tibet to film. I was intrigued and inspired, to say the least. After doing some research I found out the rumour was true – Lara sold nearly everything she owned to set off for Tibet, risking her life to make a documentary about the plight of the Tibetan people. That documentary was Tibet’s Cry for Freedom, you may recall I wrote about it upon its release, right here.  Since its release, Tibet’s Cry for Freedom has been acquired by two international television broadcasters, and has screened at 14 film festivals across the world.

Lara has just embarked on another film making journey which I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time, this one is a little closer to home. Banjo’s War follows the story of the Alyawarr people of central Australia as they attempt to create a self sustaining community from mulga scrub on their land at Honeymoon Bore. It’s a story about self-determination, freedom, dignity, human rights and why the Government’s Intervention is wrong. The doco will be centred around Banjo Morton who led a successful walk-off back in 1942 and now, 68 years later has led another in protest against the Government’s Intervention.

collecting bush plums. photo by rusty stewart.

Filming has begun – last week Lara and her crew went to Alice Springs to attend the Gathering of the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous People. Here is a snippet from Lara’s account of the event:

“As I sat, filmed and listened to the stories from the Traditional Owners of their experiences after the Government’s Intervention, I came to fully understand their struggle. I couldn’t help but think of the thousands of years of history, tradition and culture that were standing before me over the course of the week – elders, children and other Indigenous Australians – and how little mainstream Australia really knows about the issues and the struggle affecting our Indigenous People. How rich Australia is to still have our Indigenous people. How sad it is that they are struggling to survive.”

This is a story that needs to be told, and I’m more than thrilled that Lara has taken this doco on board. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying seeing Lara’s photos and video journals come through from her visits with the Alyawarr people, and I thought I’d share with you one of my favourites below. It’s a little clip of young Jesse-Lee showing Lara how to find and eat bush banana – brilliant, check it out…

The completion of Banjo’s War relies heavily on donations, so if this is a topic that you are passionate about like me, you can help make this film happen -  for more info click here. And to see the film’s teaser trailer, click here.

Well done Lara, your work is awe-inspiring and I hope to meet you one day – even better, work together. Until then, as they say here in Holland, succes!

An Hoang’s oil on canvas, Lavender Light

As part of the Art Walk NY (which is a benefit for the coalition for the homeless), my friend and artist An Hoang has donated one of her beautiful paintings called ‘lavender light’ for the auction. You can view all the works in the auction online (click here) and if you’re interested in bidding but can’t go to the event which is on November 17 in New York City, you can still place absentee bids by contacting the organisers (check details online here).

I love An’s work, and this painting is one of my favourites. Whoever wins Lavender Light at the auction will be one lucky soul, with a discerning eye for fabulous art.

xx

Some of you may already know that as a stylist, I am represented by an agency. What does this mean exactly? well, it means that my agency holds my styling portfolio and if you want to book me for an upcoming project, you can contact them and they will organise everything.

Anyway, not only does my agency – which is called House of Orange – represent me, they represent hair and makeup artists, fashion stylists, models and photographers. They also have their own charity which is called Orange Babies and throughout the year they hold different fashion events here in Holland to raise money to help HIV infected women and their babies in Africa.

I will be helping out with one of the upcoming events next month and as part of the project we would like to send clothes to the children in Africa. We need HEAPS of children’s clothes and I was hoping some of you might have some to offer? We need clothes for children between 0-12 years, and we need them by the first of July which is only 1 week away! So, if you live in Europe and have some clothes you can offer, please send them to House of Orange at this address…

I hope to show + tell you more about the project once we get started on it next month, it is going to be alot of fun! For now, we need childrens clothes so please, send send send!

If you don’t have children’s clothes you can also send a donation or offer to be a sponsor for the event – for more information, please contact joanne.

xx

i adore jen’s stella shoe collection polaroids.

My friend Connie is the loveliest. Not only does she live in one of my favourite cities in the world -that being Victoria, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia – but she is creative, gorgeous, has impeccable style and does great things, for great causes. I will tell you more about her another time (sorry to whip the spotlight away from you so quickly Connie!), but for today I want to tell you a little about a fabulous fundraiser hosted by an organisation that Connie is the administrative coordinator for. The fundraiser is called Walk A Mile In Her Shoes…

The concept of this fundraiser started in California back in 2001, and the “walk a mile” events are happening all over America throughout Spring (check the calender here for an event near you). On June 6 however, the Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre will be holding their 3rd annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes event, and I want to encourage all you Vancouver Islanders – and Vancouverites alike who fancy a trip to the island – for this fabulous fundraising event!

Walk A Mile in Her Shoes is an international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault, and gender violence. Everyone is welcome to the event and you can visit the website to get registered, pledge your hearts out and then get prepared to have an awesome time while supporting an important cause in the Victorian community. You can get your friends and co-workers involved by forming a team but if you can’t make it, you can still help out right here by adding a donation to my friend Birger and Chris’ Walk a Mile in Her Shoes pledge! Birger, who has just moved to Victoria from Germany, has this to add:

“I’m walking because it’s the right thing to do. It’s important for us as men to change our perspective and engage in the issue of sexual violence by participating in positive events like Walk a Mile. Then we can start to understand this issue and how it affects so many people we care about. And – I also look forward to experiencing what’s it’s like to be almost 7 feet tall for a few hours!”

Please don’t sprain an ankle dear Birger!!

another favourite of mine from jen’s flickr set.

I’m also very excited to let you know that Walk a Mile in Her Shoes has just received an added boost from a Victoria couple who will be matching all pledges raised at the event over the next 3 years, up to a maximum of $80,000! The couple are giving the donation in an effort to help address a 1-year wait list for one of the Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre’s programs. And as Connie points out, “that means by making even a small donation of $5.00, $10.00 or $20.00 to the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, the Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre would receive double what you give!”

awesome.

jen’s gold swap shoes are so gorgeous!

So, if you fancy seeing a whole bunch of Canadian guys in heels – a sight I would absolutely love to see myself – please go along, I have no doubt you will have an absolute ball!

xx

PS We will see more of Connie soon in the (blog)house as she will be setting her e-travel bags down in the guest quarters sometime in the near future. And I know you are gonna love her as much as I do. See you here soon Connie!

…………………………………………………

For more info about the event, including the walk route map and registration info, please click here.
To make a pledge, please click here.
All photographs with courtesy of photographer & stylist, Jen Gotch.

Do you remember back in June I wrote about a beautiful book that was in the making, written about my Tibetan friend Tenpa and his family? Well, I’m so so pleased to announce that this very special book titled Our Tibet, has just been published and is now available to all…

It is filled with stunning images of Tibet taken by my friend Sophie Bouris, who accompanied Tenpa and his family on their very precarious trip back to Tibet last year. I was not able to accompany them on the journey but Tenpa, our good friend Leona who also traveled with them, and Sophie all kept in contact with me for the duration of the journey to let me know they were each safe along the way. There were many a dangerous time, and my heart skipped a beat whenever i received an email from Tenpa giving me a quick run down of events. I was more than relieved to hear of their safe return, and when I went back to Sydney in August last year, we shared a lovely dinner at Leona’s place, reviewing all the fabulous photos and discussing the possibilities of Sophie creating a book. So it’s with absolute delight for me to tell you the book is now complete and available for you to buy. Read more about it here, and click here to purchase.

For those of my readers who emailed me and expressed interest in the book back in June, please follow the links above to purchase Our Tibet – international orders are accepted. And for every copy of Our Tibet sold, a donation is made to the Tibetan community. The key project is funding schools in the region of Kham, within Tibet which is something that Sophie and I have been striving to do since we first met 5 years ago. By purchasing this book you are helping me toward my dream too. I thank you.

……………………………………………………….

…and while on the topic of Tibet I must take this opp to mention Australian Lara Damiani’s film called Cry For Freedom (I gave you a little snippet of it here). I was able to watch Cry For Freedom at a special screening hosted by Tenpa in August of this year when I was in Sydney, it is a wonderful production, I highly recommend it. Lara has a special offer available as noted in the above pic, click here to read more about the film, watch the trailer, and purchase the DVD.

xx

PS if you are interested in stocking the book Our Tibet in your store, please be sure to contact sophie directly (or you can tell me and I will pass on your message!). x

Heather Smith Jones has been busy making these little hearts for Christmas and she is donating 40% of the profits from the sale of each heart purchased between Oct. 21 – Dec. 15, 2008 to Habitat for Humanity. Please click here to learn more about the organisation, and click here to visit Heather’s etsy boutique.

Thank you to all of you who were inspired to post your thoughts about poverty yesterday. It was wonderful to click around the blogosphere and read your posts, I could barely keep up with them rolling in. Please click on each others names in the comment section of the post below to check out more of the posts, there are many fabulous ones still to read.

……………………………..

Katie wrote a rather poignant comment that I’d like to share with you all…

“…I do some days feel down by people I see who feel they can do nothing and thus don’t. We all have something to give. We don’t have to fork out millions and donate funds like some of your fellow bloggers, or volunteer innumerable hours, like me, but we can share the voice, we can be mindful and thoughtful and we can make a difference in all those small actions…”

She nailed it: “we all have something to give”. Think outside the box. Look around your immediate surroundings, look around your extended surroundings, open your eyes. Use what you have. Just like we all started seeing hearts wandering all over the place when it was brought to our attention – those tiny little hearts were there all along. And so is yours. The more you give (whether it be time, love, clothes, thought, or money), the bigger your heart gets.

Image by Anna from Heartland, submitted for My Heart Wanders.

……………………………..

I have spent many years researching, analysing, and observing our global Human Rights issues, privately. I have been plagued by the question all my life, “what can I do?”. One of my biggest discoveries was the affects of money – when I gave money, I wasn’t able to see the direct results of that money and I found it very frustrating. And then I would receive more newsletters saying the problem is getting worse. How can it be getting worse when I, and so many other people, are continually giving money? Where is it going?

Then one day, being the rebellious girl that I can be at times, I decided to by-pass all those various charity organisations that were not answering my questions, and found a way to send my money directly to a person I wanted to help in India. He was a young Tibetan school teacher and was so very dedicated to his pupils, so many of them orphans, having lost their parents from the hardships of poverty in their occupied homeland. I had visions of my new friend buying his students the pens they needed, the textbooks they were craving. He kept me up-to-date as often as he could with emails and letters, and I spoke to him on the phone a number of times. With his broken English we somehow managed to communicate about deep, profound issues. Then he told me, rather shyly, that a boy had arrived at the school the day before, and he had come all the way from Tibet, without his parents or any family member. He said this boy was so skinny and dirty, and he had no shoes. His only pair of shoes had turned to rags on his 15 day trek across the Himalayas. I could only imagine the state of this young boys feet. My friend apologised profusely, he said “i’m so sorry, but with some of your money I bought him some shoes, I’m sorry, I know you wanted the money to go toward the books but I just had to buy him shoes”. My heart lifted – I had just helped to buy this young boy shoes!!!

Image courtesy of the Art of Peace Foundation.

I could hear the birds singing outside and i asked him to describe his surroundings. I could hear an instrument being played, he told me it was a man sitting by the roadside with a guitar. I had never met this man, my new friend that I was talking to, and I have never ever been to his exiled home. But there I was, in Australia, talking to a teacher in India, and I could feel the power of our communication, together we would be able to make a difference.

My friend had decided that he wanted to start a magazine for his students with the money I was sending. The magazine was to be called THURSTE, and it would be a means for his students to let out their emotional feelings through writing. He explained that most of the students did not have any parents at all, or the parents were in Tibet, now a place they would never be able to return. He said “…they really need a place to express their feelings.” I thought this was such a wonderful idea, and I couldn’t wait to see the first issue and read these students thoughts, feelings, and drawings. I knew this would be a wonderful project because I knew how much writing and creating had, and continues to help me to express my emotions. My friend had had such a horrific experience himself, of being pressured to leave his family in Tibet who were living in extreme poverty, to try to make a better life for himself in a foreign land, and he missed his mother so much but he was too scared to go back to Tibet as he knew the consequences for him and his family.

The first issue of the magazine THURSTE was never published: My friend was found hanging from his tiny room’s ceiling just a few months later.

Image courtesy of the Art of Peace Foundation.

The state of his poverty, and the state of his people and his land, was just all too much for him to bare. It is very, very unusual for a Tibetan to commit suicide. My heart bled.

This was about 6 years ago, and this is the first time I have ever written about it. I had absolutely no intention to write this today, or any day. But when I titled this post ‘final thoughts’, this is what came out. It seems it was meant to be shared today.

It is my belief that communication + education is the key towards a world without poverty. Every one of you who posted about poverty yesterday are huge contributors to the communication part of the equation. And you brought awareness to the fact that poverty is everywhere – in our own homelands, not just ‘far away’. Educating the Western World on the importance of everyone having the right to Basic Human Needs and teaching ways to how this can be achieved, and helping to provide education in the Third World make up the second part of the equation. Please think about this.

Some of the highlights from posts yesterday, as well as my own personal research toward our plight of poverty are below…

……………………………..

Thanks guys, for taking the time to read this. And for those of you who do not feel that poverty is an issue close enough to home to worry about, please, think again.