The Melbourne Roffs have just hosted my old school mate from Moree, Ray Firth. Ray was curating an art show named "6 voices" which was three Murri (indigenous) artists and three whities and their paintings of Moree landscapes. We all learned plenty about art in the three days he spent here. Amanda and Dan (fresh after the concert in Adam's blog below)attended the opening, as did Annika and Julia. He (Ray) was very grateful for our assistance and I can select something from the exhibition which is very generous if the ticket prices are anything to go by. Ray and I spent about 36 hours talking about Moree and what it all meant. He and I were in year nine, I think, when the Freedom Riders came to town and let everyone know how bad things were for the local blacks. To his credit, Ray joined the picket line at the municipal baths where, much to our surprise, blacks weren't allowed to swim. The local council had passed a law in 1955 disallowing anyone "with an admixture of Aboriginal blood" from entering. Amazing, when you think about it. I'm actually still mates with someone I went to grade four with (Barry Campbell in Lismore) - It's 46 years - can anyone beat that? I'll attach one of Ray's paintings from the exhibition. He's hot in Sydney and now he's moving south. Ray's dad (Ray) and Poppa owned a race horse together (possibly without either spouse knowing) which I saw come second-last at Moree races once. That was four shillings I was in no position to lose...
5 comments:
How generous is Ray? Pity you can't sell paintings given by artists as a gift. It's bad form.
When you die your kids can flog them off though!
Grant
I recall the name of the racehorse was "Baron Fritz" and Poppa renamed him "Pork Fritz" to acknowledge his future life?
Anyway, loved the artwork, is there a cattle-dog?
Ash
John said....
I concur with Ash's memory of the horse. Black used to say the Baron was the fastest horse over 3 furlongs- now there is a blast from the past-that he'd ever seen but every race was over 4 furlongs or more!! Great to see old Moree contacts and names from the past.One of my Moree memories is being in the hot water baths and having tomatoes lobbed in from the street by the 'non admitted' aboriginals, and I was only in primary school with little understanding of the whole issue!!!
The Moree Baths are a major tourist site for Europeans wishing to take the waters (notice the lack of inverted commas) to cure all manner of ills. It really is worth a visit. Personally, I am a believer as my golfers elbow (still no inverted commas) is cured. True this coincided with a Jenny placed golf ban but I still believe. It should also be noted that I was born in Moree. It should also be noted that the picture in the blog looks nothing like Moree.
What do you mean it doesn't look anything like Moree? You've obviously never fallen out of an aeroplane while on an acid trip at that particular bend of the Mehi River...
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