World Wheel Newsletter 2010
Dear World Family,
I have just returned to the United States from Australia, and ‘Down Under’ it was to jump into the heart of Australia in the Outback. I would like to share our time in Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of numerous Aboriginal communities.
This was my first time in Australia and I traveled with musician friends Tash and Elena (Indig
ie Femme). While in the Outback we traveled in a rental van and at times slept in our rental accommodation complete with a kitchenette and bed. With hours and hours of driving into ‘the bush’ each day, I was thrilled to experience this powerful earth with no man-made foundations. As soon as it became dark we would stop and cook delicious meals with one large iron frying pan on a single propane burner. Because of the numerous animals in the outback, it is required to stop at dust. We saw herds of wild camels, wild horses, emus, many eagles, and of course the kangaroos and wallabies.
(above) Tash, Elena (Indigie Femme) and Vijali - photo by Rangiwhiua Ponga
Elena and Marge early morning birdwatching after breakfast - photo by Tash; Lunch stop with Marge, Tash & Elena - photo by Vijali Hamilton
Three outback views from hired vehicle - photos by Elena
This World Wheel journey was a pilgrimage for us, and an honoring of the Australian earth and its peoples. The World Wheel Projects emerge out of friendship and is always an unknown at the beginning of the journey.
In Alice Springs we stayed with a beautiful Maori family who are from New Zealand. They are dedicated to work and support of the Aborigines of the area. We arrived at the time of their Matariki Maori New Year’s festivities, and were welcomed onto the land and families through a traditional Maori ceremony. The next evening a group of Maori dancers (kapahaka) from another town called Mount Isa performed traditional dance with fierce stance, eyes bulging, tongue extended, and various chants. I was thrilled! I actually wept with the beauty and strength of the dance and longed for my homeless youth in Los Angeles to have the opportunity to focus their energy through their own rituals.
Temoana and Rangiwhiua Ponga - photo by Vijali Hamilton
(left) Matariki Celebrations in Alice Springs with Matariki kapahapa group from Mt Isa, Queensland - photo by Tash; (right) Tash, Rangiwhiua, Teremoana, Elena & Vijali at the Matariki Celebrations - photo by Temoana Ponga
The highlight of this journey and the commitment the World Wheel has made is with an Aboriginal activist, Barbara Shaw, who has dedicated her life to helping her people. Her work at the moment is about protesting the threat of a nuclear waste dump being established on the Muckaty Aboriginal sacred land.
Barbara’s other efforts are going towards legalizing the Aboriginal lands for their people—a people who have lived between 40,000 and 60,000 years on this Australian land and the 
longest residence that have inhabited one area on our planet. The struggle for their legal rights is ongoing amongst tremendous prejudice socially and politically.
(left) World Wheel & Indigie Femme support at the Intervention conference organization meeting - photo by Rangiwhiua Ponga; (right) Barbara Shaw (right) and family - mom, and two nephews - photo taken by Rangiwhiua Ponga
Barbara’s third focus is to eradicate the “Intervention Law.” This law was originally established in the 1800s to protect the Aborigines from being used as slaves, but has since turned around to control their every movement and community life. At the moment horrid large signs have been erected at the entrance of every Aboriginal community stating that pornography and alcohol are prohibited. Pornography is not their issue, but has been brought into the communities by the European settlers, truckers, and mining men. And of course alcohol has been brought in as a way to control and eradicate indigenous cultures throughout the world.
The World Wheel has given some of your donations to Barbara to help her continue her work. We hope to enlist a lawyer who works globally with nuclear issues and to continue to raise funds to support her work. To contribute, go to my website: www.worldwheel.org and you will see a link for donations.
When we left Alice Springs we went to pay our respects to the most sacred place for the Aboriginals, Uluru (know to some as Ayer’s Rock). This is the largest single rock on the planet. We three took our pilgrimage by walking around the entire rock, which took four hours. All the descriptions of this sacred rock does not come close to the experience of being there. Its presence is still in me.
(left) Vijali at Uluru's waterfall - photo by Elena;
Tash & Elena walking around Uluru - photo by Vijali Hamilton
As I shared in an earlier newsletter, when we first arrived in Australia we stayed in the community on Magnetic Island on the Eastern Coast of North Queensland. I created another “Ocean Rainbow Spiral” ceremony with the community as a prayer for the waters of our planet. As you know our waters are in crisis. Every year our population on earth increases by 83 million people. Unless we change our habits - with the growing pollution in our waters, as well as the habits of wasteful use - it is possible that we will soon have a scarcity of potable water and water may become extremely costly.
Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia - photo from Magnetic Times
For our ceremony on the island we wrote poetry, drew and painted about
our relationship with water. The children wrote incredible poems that they read through a microphone that was set up for this Ocean Day gathering in Alma Bay. I also read some of my poems and the poems that were sent to my website from around the world. Thank you for your contributions.
Then we ‘decked ourselves’ in colorful sarongs tied to our wrists. Uncle Arthur, an Aboriginal elder from the island, opened our event with a blessing and his nephew taught us a prayer for honoring the water. We chanted the prayer. There were about twenty of us (children included) as we entered the clear warm water, and a couple of hundred people gathered at the edge of the surf.
Tash at Alma Bay, Magnetic Island - photo by Vijali Hamilton
Those of us in the ocean formed a rainbow spiral as we opened our sarong wings to the breeze. After our chanting subsided people gave individual prayers for the healing and protection of our oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes. We opened the pouches that each of us wore around our necks and empted the contents of organic colors of red, green, purple, yellow, and orange, forming a painting prayer of a rainbow spiral. Three Manta Rays fish swam to the outside of our circle and hovered there during our ceremony.
After the ceremony we went into a juvenile detention center in Townsville, Queensland. We facilitated art and music workshops for their youth. In the afternoon we were in the men and women’s detention center in Townsville. It is said that 80% of the people in these prisons are Aboriginal, but our experience was that ALL the men were Aborigines and the women, all but two, were Aborigines. We heard their stories and instances of prejudice and mistrials. One woman has been sentenced for life for a crime she didn’t commit. It was a rare experience and I will never forget the faces of these Aboriginal women that are now embedded in my heart.
Foundation Day Celebrations; Vijali & Uncle at Elders Care Unit - photos by Tash
While in the Cairns area (Far North Queensland) we visited the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community, a mission that was settled in 1893. Over time, many Aborigines (including some South Sea Islanders) were relocated from their countrylands to Yarrabah.
Vijali, Elena, Uncle, & Tash at the Yarrabah Museum - photo by Lloyd; Foundation Day Celebrations - photo by Tash
During our visit, Tash and Elena sang, and we were welcomed into their lives. We heard that many parents had been forced to leave their traditional lands to reside in the Yarrabah Mission. Many hundreds of children had been relocated to this mission, died within the first year from the result of being taken away from their families and traditional ways.
I was honored to show the World Wheel film at several venues on our pilgrimage and to introduce Tash and Elena’s powerful music performances by chanting the Gayatri Mantra. You can experience a sampling of their music on the Indigie Femme website: www.indigiefemme.com. I want to thank Elena for organizing this trip and Tash for doing most of the driving over more than half of Australia, some 6,600 miles.
This winter prior to our trip I had been hibernating in Santa Fe, New Mexico and studying at The Institute of American Indian Arts. I have had the opportunity to create new artworks for an installation called, “Sacred Earth.” I am looking for a location for this installation of over twenty paintings and sculptures, so please let me know if you have any contacts. Feel free to view some of the images at “Vijali's Art Store” on my World Wheel website: www.worldwheel.org
“Woman and Nature” bark and acrylic on canvas, 8' x 4 ½' x 3" photo by Vijali Hamilton
Viajli painting "Gaia Born" acrylic on canvas; "Gaia Born" photos unknown
"Prayer (detail)" clay; "Stillness Water (detail)" wood and acrylic on canvas - photos by VIjali Hamilton
For the fall, I will be home in the canyon lands of Utah and available to give private retreats until the end of October. Please email me if you are interested. You can read more about the retreats on my website.
View from building on the retreat, Castle Valley, UT - photo by VIjali Hamilton
I want to close with a prayer for all the animal and plant life that has been lost in the Gulf Oil disaster and the continuation of destruction and pollution to our Mother Earth, and that we learn to honor and live in harmony with each other and our planet.
In Peace and Love,
Vijali Hamilton
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