herstory

Armadale 1971

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Model

Modelling for artists, I watch some painters at work, and make good money posing for amateur photographers.

2004 Lisa at the Newcastle Gallery with John Brack's The Pink Carpet, oil on canvas, 1971

In 2004 I went to Newcastle Gallery and saw myself in John Brack's painting. Brack had a studio built in his back garden, where I used to go once a week for the time it took him to make preparatory pastel drawings and this finished oil painting. Helen Maudsley, Brack's wife, was also an artist. I caught a glimpse of her studio inside the main house, where I she made us a pot of tea after the painting session. There were always biscuits.

The first session with Brack was awkward. He paced a lot, with a tweed hat pulled low over his brows. Later when we got talking during breaks, he told me about Tolkien. He then loaned me the first volume of THe Lord of the Rings. I got through the complete work during our session, and so we could talk about that.

By this year, 85 per cent of the Australian population was urban; 15 per cent was rural.

Senator Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal member of any Australian parliament, filling a casual vacancy in the Senate. In 1972 he was elected on the Liberal Party ticket to represent Qld.

Evonne Cawley, ne Guolagong, the first Aboriginal to compete at Wimbledon or to represent Australia in world-class tennis, won the women's singles from Margaret Court.

Tension betweenthe Minister for Defence, Malcolm Frazer, and the Army over the latter's activities in Vietnam let to Frazer's resignation when Prime Minister Gorton indicated he would support the army. Fraser accused Gorton on, significant disloyalty to a Senior Minister' and as a back-bencher, attacked the Prime Minister in the Party Room and the Parliament.

Gorton faced a 'No-Confidence' motion, the vote being divided 33:33. Gorton, as chairman, used his casting vote against himself declaring the office of Liberal leader open. William McMahon and Bill Sneddon stood for office and McMahon became Prime Minister. Fraser returned to the Ministry, but not the Cabinet, as Minister for Science and Education.

Jack Mundy, leader of the Builder's Labourer's Federation, applied the term 'green ban' for the first time, supporting conservation measures protecting historically and culturally significant landmark sites for redevelopment.

'R' rating for restricted movies introduced by the Commonwealth Film Board.

The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985

During Derrida's stay in Algeria...

...he took the opportunity to visit the seaside villa where he had been born, his kindergarten, and many other sites of childhood memory. His 'nostalgeria' was from now on to be rendered all the more poignant by the death of his mother. Cryptic references to those sites of his former life, and oblique undications of his feelings about them, now began appearing with increasing frequency in his work. But why this elusiveness when he had nothing to hide? Apparently to express such feelings directly would have been to diminish them. Their vitality would have been limited only by trying to contain them in words, which would have come between the actuality of his memories. Once again we have the pharmakon, which both cures and poisons, betrays and stimulates our memory. The pharmakon, or writing, is like a joker, the wild card in the pack. It can signify anything. Words are difference, not identity. We should be looking at how much words can signify, not attempting to see what they signify. Derrida wishes to keep his memories intact the reason for this willful elusiveness with regard to autobiography becomes clearer.

Strathern, Paul, 2003, p.30-31, The Essential Derrida, Virgin, .