Som Chai meets my family & friends
I am so excited that Som Chai is now in Oz and has been granted a partner visa.
He's met my family and friends, and even come along to Uni with me.
It is wonderful having him here with me - no more lonely nights or awkward outings on my own!
I can throw my wish list in the fire now because he fulfils all my dreams. I am so proud of him - he is charismatic, generous and kind, and he is also Budhist and a meditator!
I wondered whether there was a difference between art made by a human and art made by a machine? So I made a fan that painted, and I became a painting human fan.
Conclusion: there was no difference.
Just an Ordinary Peasant is based on my uncle’s experience as an inmate at Treblinka extermination camp in 1944. His memoir recounts that while being forced to carry corpses from the gas chambers to an open-air pyre, he was handed a sack which held little children who were still alive. The guard commanded the sack be thrown into the fire. The woman I play in Just an Ordinary Peasant is a hybrid character created from the memoirs of my uncle, my parents and my own research. She sings and dances and also throws a sack of babies into the fire. This piece explores my own biases as well as questions the culpability of ‘ordinary people’ who were accomplices to the atrocities carried out during the Third Reich.
Déjà vu
Miss World Peace incites Violence (Melbourne Rally)
From 2010 to 2015 I dressed up as ‘Miss World Peace’ and attended Pro Palestinian/anti-Israel rallies. I was determined to make my message of conciliation and hope heard.
Fast forward 10 years to 9.5.2024.
Since Hamas’s vicious attack on Israeli citizens on 7.10.23, the world has spewed hatred towards Israel, and Jew hate is becoming normalised.
Today I would be scared to appear at these anti-Israel/anti-Zionist/anti-Jew rallies held every Sunday in Melbourne city.
10 years ago I used to attend as many as I could- I held 2 flags for peace, the Palestinian and the Israeli one, but the Israeli flag was always ripped from my hand. Yes they were scary then too, and I prayed I wouldn’t get a knife in my back.
Today the rallies are way larger, the demonstrators are way nastier, and the hatred is more palpable.
How will this end?
More than ever, we have no option but to try and pursue 'peace' - somehow, someway.
After the destruction and killing stops, I hope it’s still possible to mend what’s broken - for a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians alike.
And a better world for all of us.
May there be peace.
A Tale from Treblinka : Just an Ordinary Peasant
 Israelis, Iranians. We love you |
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 Anti-Israel Rally |
 Plonk in the middle of an Anti-Israel Rally |
 An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind |
 Israeli flag ripped away |