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Old & alone

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Loneliness, life & death Since retiring to the country in 2021 the writer has come to realise one thing - being old and alone can be detrimental to physical and emotional well-being. As he approached 70, the writer's health went almost overnight from perfect to problematic. Lots of reasons were looked at, analysed, and possible solutions discovered. Yet, at its core, the problem was not simply physiological, as in "aging"; it was psychological as well, as in "being alone". That loneliness was not just separation from an intimate partner, but also from immediate family and friends. The impact of that separation was significant.  The writer became very much aware of this reality about four years into his isolation, when connection with "home" became more fractured and had gradually lessened over time. Looking for medical solutions did not really work, and neither did healthy solutions available aplenty through social media such as YouTube, though t...
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Review: Remarks on the Probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales... 1846

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Australian Indigenous / Aboriginal / First Nations Archive 1. Origin and language Victorian Aborigines 1847 The following review appeared in a Victorian newspaper during 1846 and reveals much of the thought around the local Indigenous population of Australia regarding antiquity and the origin of language. Anonymous, Review: Remarks on the Probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, deduced from certain of their Customs and Superstitions, and existing Caves and Drawings. By a Colonial Magistrate , Melbourne: J. Pullar & Co. pp. 40, Geelong Advertiser and Squatter’s Advocate , 19 August 1846. The present author finds this article notable for a number of reasons, but most especially for the inclusion of a statement by George Grey that there is an unity across the continent in regard to the Indigenous language. This rejects the simple idea that all the various dialects were, in fact, different languages, and the statement in 2026 that there are 2...
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From Saint Phalle to eating stars

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1. The eye has it.... On 5 May 2026 American writer and feminist commentator Sarah Wilson issued her latest book - I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World (Wilson 2026). The cover was graphically interesting, to say the least. Whilst browsing through the bookshop of the Australian National Portrait Gallery in Canberra on 22 June of that year, the present writer came across of book collection of feminist posters, with the back page cover as follows: The poster on the top right, simply titled hon [she], caught the eye of the writer, and immediately reminded one of the Sarah Wilson cover. This blog talks about that artwork and the artist responsible. ---------------- 2. Nikki de Saint Phalle The art work of the aforementioned Sarah Wilson book reminded the present writer of the following offset lithograph poster for a 1966 exhibition by "outsider" French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker and author Nikki de Saint Phalle (19...
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Australia's "monocultural" identity in a multicultural society

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Contents Introduction "Monocultural" Who are we? Post mortem References ----------------- "One shared future "  Abstract : Is Pauline Hanson's Australian "monocultural" identity just assimilation renamed, or is it a genuine attempt to initiate a discussion around the subject of Australia's distinctive cultural identity, and the associated crisis which arose, in part, as a result of the Bondi Beach Islamic jihad massacre of 14 December 2025? In the new millennium, this identity has become as vacuous and divisive as the political leadership. The present article attempts to clearly define an Australian monocultural identity which, in part, must be adhered to by all residents in order to ensure social cohesion and a continuation of those aspects of our Western society which are considered worth preserving and protecting. It is shown that Australia can be both the multicultural society which has existed since the British invasion...
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