From left to right Karen Wiseman, Aunty Nancy, & Jandamarra Cadd.
I haven’t journalled my journey in my new business for so long and when I look back at what we have experienced and achieved in a very short time, I am amazed and proud and feel like we have lived a lifetime in a short time.
Since opening in Feb, we have had the joy of experiencing some amazing art in the Galery space that I will introduce you to.
Kinship’ a Cultural Connection by Jandamarra Cadd, was our most recent and is an Australia wide touring exhibition that Desert Edge Arts Gallery was fortunate/blessed enough to have in the gallery space for the month of May. It was planned that ‘Kinship’ would be our official opening.
We planned and organised everything including the blessing and Welcome to country and smoking ceremony blessing by traditional owner and elder Aunty Nancy, who bestowed us the blessing of opening our space and the exhibition, and Jandamarra Cadd himself would also be present talking about “Kinship’.
Derek and I had invested a lot into the exhibition financially with courier and airfare, car hire and accommodation for Jandamarra, because we believed in the message of ‘Kinship’ , of Unity and walking Together as One Heart, One Voice, One Mob, it fitted our vision for the art space, of unity and nurturing, so ‘Kinship” a cultural connection was a perfect message to open our business with.
Well you know what they say about the best laid plans! To recoup some of the large courier fee, it was decided that I would run a fundraiser. From the fundraiser I received a 50 dollar donation, I was encouraged by the donation yet deflated by the bookings with only 3. Anyway we soldiered ahead as if we were catering for our limit of 30 people.
The day before the grand opening, my husband came down ill, in a very short time he looked terrible, and I decided that I was taking him to the hospital. With Derek having cancer I needed to get him to the hospital just by the way he looked and he was complaining of tightness in his chest. Derek was admitted to hospital confirmed he was having/had a heart attack. Our best laid plans had not included this, wasn’t even on the radar. With Derek’s encouragement everything was to go ahead as planned.
On the day of the grand opening a few extra booked in which brought our total to 13. I was so disappointed in the numbers, and Jandamarra gently reminded me what he had told me the night before, although he is used to talking to crowds of up to 600 or more at his openings, he would give his floor talk even if it was 1 person, because that’s one more person that has heard the message, One Heart, One Voice, One Mob, and he didn’t expect large crowds from our small rural community.
Today I took the exhibition ‘Kinship” down and its on its way to its next destination, the exhibition was enjoyed by so many and the message of unity has been spread a little further, it has created conversation within our community and beyond spreading the message of Love. And I month later my husband has had a triple bypass n Melbourne 400 kilometres away from home, had fluid on the lungs, a major infection, and is finally back at our hospital, still fighting infection, and building himself up, for the next step, coming home..
The latest exhibition “The Earth Sings’ by Julie Kent opens this Sunday 31st at 2pm with drinks and nibbles, hope to see you there.,
cheers
Kazz
karenwisemanartist 