Latest news with #Aftershocks
The Age
29-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Exclusive Brethren cast dark shadow on poll
Sensitivity and solidarity All praise to Rob Harris in his coverage of the Pope's death and funeral. As one who finds patriarchal religion hugely problematic, I often have to pass on reading material about the heart of such institutions. Thanks to Harris for his invitational, levelling and, dare I say, spiritually reflective writing of the man and his mission for peace, justice and reconciliation at the grass roots and beyond. Rather than skipping over this seminal world moment, Harris has enabled me to feel solidarity and to join in the universal call to 'peace, compassion, humility, mercy and courage' as experienced and witnessed to, by Governor-General Sam Mostyn (' Seated among world leaders, governor-general was struck by message she hoped they all received ', 29/4). Rev Sally Apokis, South Melbourne A spirit for the age Our Governor-General Sam Mostyn hopes world leaders at the Pope's funeral will be moved by his spirit, as he 'showed that it is possible to be a great world leader but always act with compassion and concern for those that are often marginalised and left out'. I too hope leaders such as Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky were inspired, as Mostyn put it, with 'a sense of recommitment to peace and compassion with one another'. Francis' life, right up to his final words and actions, incarnated his convictions on humility, courage, peace and compassion for the marginalised. Let's hope it's contagious. Kevin Burke, Sandringham Business as usual The Pope is famously infallible on matters of teaching. No leader of any organisation on the planet has as much autonomy in influencing that organisation, and yet after Francis' tenure, to me, women are no more visible in his church than they were before his election, and poverty is no less obvious in the world than before he came to power while the riches of the church are as apparent as ever. So aside from this Pope being buried in a less ostentatious grave and apparently being a nice bloke, it's business as usual for the Catholic Church. Julian Guy, Mt Eliza Insight into horror I can well relate to Sidney Nolan writing 'How can I paint disease' at the time of Eichmann's trial and the visceral effect of his visit to Auschwitz in 1962 (' These works by Sidney Nolan have never been displayed...' 29/4). My wife and I visited Auschwitz about 25 years ago, cameras at the ready. Two steps inside the gates, they were put away. The visuals, the stories, indeed the 'disease' experienced then remain imbedded in my memory to this day. My memories are very personal. Fortunately Nolan's exhibition, Aftershocks, will allow others to gain an insight into the horrors of Auschwitz. Jim McLeod, Sale Valuable access The failure of adequate provision of pre-poll booths for the elderly and disabled voters to exercise their democratic right is not the only obstacle they face (' Lord mayor lashes electoral watchdog over lack of early voting centres ', 27/4). They have to compete for the parking bays closest to the entrance of the pre-poll entrance with candidates brazenly sequesting them for promotional purposes. At the New Hope Community Centre pre poll in Blackburn North, the Keith Wolahan Liberals team have set up their volunteer support tent, adorned with corflutes and a car with another corflute covering the two car parks closest to the entrance of venue (two disability car park bays excepted). I observed many mobility challenged voters negotiating the busy car park from a distance while volunteers were fed and watered at close proximity. Diana Yallop, Surrey Hills Premier kept us safe I am currently fortunate to be touring in Europe, but unfortunate to have contracted a very bad cold that has resulted in severe asthma. I feel stupid for allowing myself, for the first time since COVID started, to travel on public transport without a face mask, as Milanese (Italy) people are happy to cough and sneeze everywhere with aplomb. I am also incredibly grateful to Dan Andrews and his government for keeping us safe during COVID, and championing the use of face masks which has meant almost no colds in five years for me. I now read that Dan Andrews is not welcome at another private golf club because of some perceived slight during COVID. I'd like to remind those members that Andrews saved tens of thousands of lives, ensured we didn't need to have refrigerator trucks holding hundreds of bodies as per New York, kept the hospitals functioning and saved thousands from long COVID and more. And the public thought well enough of Andrews to vote him back in 2022 with a large majority. Louise Kloot, Doncaster What's my name again? Everyone at some point in their life has to deal with federal government departments. Unfortunately, these departments have trouble spelling my name correctly and consistently. For example, I recently successfully applied for a Seniors Health Card. The correspondence from Services Australia spelt my name three different ways. McKinnon, Mckinnon and MCKINNON. The Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Electoral Commission both spell my name MCKINNON but My Health Record spell it Mckinnon. I contacted MyHealth Record but their software would not allow them to change it to McKinnon. It would make sense for each government department to spell a person's name the same. The easy way would be to spell all surnames in capital letters. I do not think this is a difficult problem to solve. Just need to get their software gurus to work on the task. Sandy McKinnon, Patterson Lakes Veteran generosity The call by the RSL to have Welcome to Country on Anzac Day is the right call (28/4). As a veteran who served Her Majesty the Queen for 25 years I can attest that military personnel are generally conservative in their political views but do not lack generosity of spirit. While in RAAF boarding school over three years in the 1950s with 300 other teenage boys, my closest friends included Hugh of Aboriginal heritage and David of Burmese heritage. They happened to be two of the most respected members of our cohort, one winning the Rolls Royce Award for Excellence, the other graduating as education dux. There is a certain meanness by those who object to Welcome to Country. When I see the Aboriginal flag flying on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge or next to our prime minister when he speaks my late friend Hugh immediately springs to mind. He and many others of his heritage, also served. Not a few before their people had been granted citizenship. Ian Muldoon, St Kilda The wrong option We are suddenly having a discussion about the appropriateness of Welcome to Country ceremonies because of the words and actions of a few neo-Nazis at the Shrine Dawn Service last Friday. Peter Dutton's contribution to this discussion was to say that there are too many of these ceremonies and that they are inappropriate for Anzac Day services. As a man who wants to lead our country Dutton could have condemned outright these actions from last Friday and make no further comment, thus depriving it of any oxygen. Rod Moran, Brighton Ceremony of inclusion We should stop this talk of Australia being divided and various practices being 'divisive'. Australia does not belong to any one group. It perhaps belongs to all of us. First Nations people are the only grouping whose primary focus is being caretakers for Country. They should be applauded for this. Senior Liberals have said the Welcome to Country ceremony is divisive. On the contrary the practice is welcoming to visitors and old and new settlers, even after the horrors perpetrated on First Nations people. Various persons and political parties try to claim priority status for their own ends and to create fear and division themselves. Are we not better than this? Jan Marshall, Brighton True reflections I would encourage the correspondent who refers to 'the incessant tugging of the forelock to Aboriginal elders' (Letters, 29/4) wanting to reserve Welcome to Country for the opening of Parliament and international sporting occasions to reflect on the fact that any sporting event when the descendants of the international invaders play and spectate can be regarded as international. This takes place on the lands occupied for over 65,000 years by Indigenous Australians. And never ceded. Perhaps after each Welcome to Country we could all take the time to reflect on what a deep connection to country really could be like, with a humble and inclusive respect for the life-giving land, water, air and all our fellow and future citizens' place in it. Greg Malcher, Hepburn Feeling at home Your correspondent refers to an ideal situation where Australian history would lead us to 'automatically think about life 65,000 years ago, not start with Captain Cook only 250 years ago...' (Letters, 29/4). But who among us understands primeval survival (or not) at nature's discretion? That sustainable multi-lingual population where meeting others from afar would be a significant event? Generations take for granted NASA's 1968 'Earthrise' image of our planet rising above the lunar surface and the subsequent first moon landing driving home 'We live on Earth'. Many of us look on that planet – countries lived in, worked, family, education – from afar. The history, wars, politics, architecture, languages ... and wonder where do we belong? Then along comes 'Always was, always will be', which guilt translates into 'You never were, and you never will be'. Ronald Elliott, Sandringham AND ANOTHER THING Federal election Clive Palmer needs to slow down on his ads. It's getting hard to keep track of what to be afraid of. Right now, I'm on the lookout for Chinese woke trumpets, but at this rate anything's possible. Peter Bear, Mitcham Peter Dutton has floated a notion, repeated by Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 in an interview with the PM, that tradies would be subsidising the proposed HECS debt reductions for university graduates. As the PM keeps reminding us, TAFE is free, so who is subsidising who? Peter Knight, St Arnaud Welcome to Country Those saying Welcome to Country greetings are overused, are invariably confusing the Welcome to Country given by a traditional owner of the tribal land at a (typically important) event and Acknowledgement of Country (given by a speaker who is respectfully recognising that they are on the land of a registered traditional owner group). David Crawford, Balwyn Isn't it amazing that we are still welcomed to country after we rejected the call for First Nations to have a voice? Pauline Brown, Woodend Loading Gratitude Lucia Frazzetto (' Boomers can teach us a thing or two about gratitude ', 29/4), you are a gem. Kindness and gratitude; free to give, free to receive. Judy Kevill, Ringwood Bravo Lucia Frazzetto for your beautifully worded article about positivity. In this age of uncertainty with so much doom and gloom, it is wonderful to be reminded that it is possible to concentrate on what is good about our lives rather than obsessing about what might be better. Dave Rabl, Ocean Grove
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
These works by Sidney Nolan have never been displayed. Now they're heading to Melbourne
'How can a disease be painted?' Sidney Nolan wrote these words in his diary in 1961, in the wake of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind behind the railway system that fed people to Auschwitz and the other Nazi death camps. Nolan's attempts at answering this question form Aftershocks: Nolan and the Holocaust, a new exhibition at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Nolan, one of Australia's most renowned modernist painters, had been commissioned to illustrate an article about the Holocaust. He visited Auschwitz in 1962, but had such a visceral reaction to the place that he withdrew from the commission. Nevertheless, he went on to create over 200 paintings on the subject, most of which were filed away, not sold or exhibited. Dr Breann Fallon, the Holocaust Museum's Head of Experience and Learning and co-curator of Aftershocks, speculates that Nolan couldn't bring himself to profit from the subject. 'They were never designed to be displayed,' says Fallon. 'Is it art-making, or is it a diary? We'll never know.' Much of this work was exhibited at the Sydney Jewish Museum first, but it has been reconfigured for the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Several are from private collections, and the series of paintings based on Ravensbrück women's camp have never been seen on public display. The amount of work Nolan produced about the Holocaust may surprise people. The work in this show is less than a quarter of it. 'We entertained other names for the exhibition, and Obsessed was one of them,' says Fallon. 'People will be shocked to know this has been sitting in the background of his catalogue. He's so known for his Kelly series, and his desert works, but this is a different side to his psyche. I don't think you can look at any of his other works the same way after knowing he created this series.'
The Age
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
These works by Sidney Nolan have never been displayed. Now they're heading to Melbourne
'How can a disease be painted?' Sidney Nolan wrote these words in his diary in 1961, in the wake of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind behind the railway system that fed people to Auschwitz and the other Nazi death camps. Nolan's attempts at answering this question form Aftershocks: Nolan and the Holocaust, a new exhibition at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Nolan, one of Australia's most renowned modernist painters, had been commissioned to illustrate an article about the Holocaust. He visited Auschwitz in 1962, but had such a visceral reaction to the place that he withdrew from the commission. Nevertheless, he went on to create over 200 paintings on the subject, most of which were filed away, not sold or exhibited. Dr Breann Fallon, the Holocaust Museum's Head of Experience and Learning and co-curator of Aftershocks, speculates that Nolan couldn't bring himself to profit from the subject. 'They were never designed to be displayed,' says Fallon. 'Is it art-making, or is it a diary? We'll never know.' Much of this work was exhibited at the Sydney Jewish Museum first, but it has been reconfigured for the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Several are from private collections, and the series of paintings based on Ravensbrück women's camp have never been seen on public display. The amount of work Nolan produced about the Holocaust may surprise people. The work in this show is less than a quarter of it. 'We entertained other names for the exhibition, and Obsessed was one of them,' says Fallon. 'People will be shocked to know this has been sitting in the background of his catalogue. He's so known for his Kelly series, and his desert works, but this is a different side to his psyche. I don't think you can look at any of his other works the same way after knowing he created this series.'
