Maori friends | Te Kete Kahurangi Dance Troupe

Te Kete Kahurangi Dance Troupe is one of the most active Maori cultural groups in NSW. I met them while working on another assignment. I felt truly privileged to be welcomed to photograph their rehearsals, performances (along with the recent one at the NSW Parliament) and their private spaces. I am ever so grateful to the Maori friends including Awhina and Hohepa for the 'Haka' performance they did for my friend Peter and me in formally welcoming us.

The Domain, Sydney

The Royal National Park and greater environs

Colors of the Wind - Vanessa Williams

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places I guess it must be so
But still I can not see
Is the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Fisher's Ghost Parade

Sweet Sugarcane at the 46th Festival - Fisher's Ghost Art Award. 31 October - 24 November. Campbelltown Arts Centre

Urban Changes project was organised by the Goethe-Institut Mumbai and it invited 7 photographers to Mumbai in 2007. I was a member of the international seven-photographer team. The Urban Changes exhibition travelled to many cities starting from Mumbai : Pune, Delhi, Karachchi, Bangalore and Colombo. My body of work of Urban Changes project is currently hung at the he 46th Festival - Fisher's Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown, Australia.

Sugarcane juice manufacture is a flourishing business in Mumbai. From its roots of cottage industry, Sugar cane juice came to dominate the street market of post independent India as the common man’s drink. The juice has expanded to every corner of the city following in the treks of the ceaseless waves of migrant workers flocking in to the city. The harvesting of sugar cane is seasonal. Thus the people who work the cane fields and the processing of sugar cane are also truly seasonal workers, travelling from one state to the other, following the harvesting. The workers live in cramped dank rooms, space being a rare luxury in Mumbai. A great part of their social and biological activities and interactions are satisfied within these confines. Most live a frugal life in order to send the bulk of their earnings to families back home. However, a silent resilience and the ability to take pleasure in the very simple things in life appear to sustain them, in part reflecting the story of the sugar cane juice itself which, unsophisticated as it may seem, had managed to survive the drastic urban changes that took over post independent India including the pressure from major soft drink brands.