protowilson - Tumblr blog

[protowilson]

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

[protowilson]

Highlights from the conference room where they nominated contenders for Word of the Year 2023:

• They put Skibidi Toilet on the projector to explain what “skibidi” means.

• Baby Gronk was mentioned.

• We discussed the Rizzler.

• “Cunty” was nominated.

• “Enshittification” was suggested for EVERY category.

• “Blue Check” (like from Twitter) was briefly defined as “Someone who will not Shut The Fuck Up”

• The person writing notes briefly defined babygirl as “referencing [The Speaker]”. He is now being called babygirl in the linguist groupchats.

• MULTIPLE people raised their hand to say “I cannot stress this enough: ‘Babygirl’ refers to a GROWN MAN”

[protowilson]

the fact that we as a society have the muppets and they are not everywhere in our cultural consciousness is appalling. why aren't the muppets hosting the oscars. why aren't the muppets commentating the olympics. why aren't the muppets coming to a theatre near me every year with a new adaptation of a classic novel. genuinely what are we doing.

[protowilson]

So disappointing when I unmute a video of animals and there's stupid music when I hoped the animals might be going eep.

[protowilson]

not to go all cringe on main but fictional characters have genuinely helped me through some of the worst shit in my life n i’ll forever be grateful to fiction for giving me comfort when i’ve needed it most

[protowilson]

so you're taking care of your computer's software health. NICE! but what about its physical health?

because yes, computers do need the occasional real-world checkup to make sure that they're running well. but what exactly does that entail? i see many posts about maintaining software health: limit your browser tabs, ensure your antiviruses are working properly, so on and so forth, but checking the physical components is something i sparsely see discussed here.

so what's the deal with physical maintenance? well, have you ever had your computer hack and wheeze trying to keep up even if your OS and all your drivers are up to date and functioning? if you've never opened up your computer before, you may be shocked to find just how FILTHY it can get in there:

take a closer look at that snout dust! PTOOEY .. BLECKH

computers are much more likely to accumulate internal dust if they're sitting on the floor, and especially if they're near any vents and/or if you have pets.

ok, you've figured out how to open your device and now you're staring at the second coming of the dust bowl in your gaming rig. what now? let's explore some basic cleaning tips, deep cleaning pointers for your CPU/GPU, and tips to help keep maintain your computer's physical health in the future.

first of all, turn off your computer and unplug it (for my computer, i turn it off, turn off the PSU switch, unplug it, and then press the power button for about 30 seconds to drain the capacitors and minimize static risk)

generally, you're gonna want to have THESE items:

some sort of face mask (dust masks are best, but anything that'll help keep the harmful dust out of your lungs will generally work)

a can of compressed air (or an electric duster if you're ~fancy~. they look and function like turbo blowdryers)

a vacuum will be useful if there's a LOT of dust, best to use in combination with an anti-static cleaning kit

if you ARE gonna use a vacuum, spray every attachment you use with an anti-static spray. disturbing large amounts of dust creates a lot of static, and electronics are very sensitive to that.

it's never a bad idea to grab an grounding wristband as well, but as long as you wear loose clothes and always keep some part of your skin in contact with the case, you should be ok. (i don't know how much this applies to laptops and smaller devices, since the cases for those are typically plastic)

if there's staining (like from smoke) or there's more gunk caked on than you thought, you can gently clean electronic components with a brush/paper towel/microfiber and medical-grade isopropyl alcohol ONLY. do not use any other cleaning alcohols for this task.

before you do anything, TAKE THAT FUCKER OUTSIDE! always clean a dusty device where the wind can carry that shit away, because oh my GOD will it fuck up your lungs like crazy. (that, and compressed air cans have fluorocarbons in them, which isn't great to breathe in either)

most of the time, you'll probably be fine just using an air duster. for compressed air cans, spray the dirty surfaces in short bursts. an electric duster can be constantly blown. when dusting fans, make sure that you're holding the blades still as to not accidentally make them spin too fast (ESPECIALLY with an electric duster!), since that can damage the mechanism that makes them spin.

however, if there's a lot of dust, it may be better to give it a vacuuming first. anything from a handheld to a shop vac will work, and attachments with brushes on the end will help tons with loosening up even more dust. and of course ALWAYS make sure that you're spraying any attachments with anti-static spray, and keep a hand on the case of the computer to electrically ground yourself since the hose will be in contact with the internals.

if there's any left over, give it a blast with the duster.

in some rare cases, there may be some extra gunk caked onto the internals, and you may have to really get your hands in there or take components out individually. if you don't have an anti static wristband (the ones with an alligator clip) do your best to ALWAYS keep your skin in contact with the case as you're finagling around in there.

it's probably a good idea to have disposable gloves on for this. grab your isopropyl and towel of choice (microfiber is ideal, but dirtier PCs may need disposable paper/shop towels), soak it a little bit, and gently scrub off the gunk n' grime as needed.

with heat sinks specifically, since they're just big blocks of metal, they're the one part of a component that can be cleaned under water. if a dusting doesn't suffice, gently scrub it with a brush under warm, soapy water, rinse thoroughly, and let it dry on a towel for a few hours before reassembling it into the electronic components.

if there's still little bits stuck in the radiator fins, stick an isopropyl-soaked q-tip in there to push it out.

the dust settles, everything's put back together, and it's all clean in there again. YAY!!!!! but what if you're still experiencing temperature problems? well, it typically comes down to either the CPU or GPU:

IF ITS THE CPU: if you took off the cooler to clean it, then i hope you remembered to dab some fresh thermal paste on there. you should be replacing thermal paste few years, otherwise it dries out and loses its effectiveness.

the type you use makes a huge difference too; i like to use arctic's mx-4, it has excellent thermal conductivity while still being an electrical insulator, so spillover isn't a problem. if you go for a liquid metal compound, please do your research first, since some of them can run the risk of corroding the cooler pipes and/or the CPU's outer casing.

to replace thermal paste, make sure that the crusty old paste is sufficiently scrubbed off the contact points of both the CPU and cooler. again, use isopropyl for this. once it's all cleaned off, put about a pea-sized amount of paste on the CPU and carefully lower the cooler onto the mounting bracket before fastening it in place. (also it really doesn't matter how you put the paste on, as long as it ends up covering most of the contact area)

also if you're still using the cooler your CPU came with, you should probably get a better cooler. especially if you're doing gaming or using graphically/mathematically intensive software. sorry. the stock coolers that most CPUs come with are mid as hell. you can get a nice ARGB one for less than 20 USD i promise its worth it

IF ITS THE GPU: like CPUs, your graphics card also needs to have its thermal paste cleaned out and replaced every so often. but they also utilize a second thermal material called thermal pads. these are usually made of either silica gel or a very thick clay-like grease, and come in different thicknesses. my favoured pads are owltree's 12.8w grease pads, the assorted pack comes with enough for about 4-5 GPUs.

taking apart a GPU seems scary, and understandably so; they're incredibly expensive and hard-working pieces of technology! but i've done it twice now, and it's actually surprisingly simple (as long as you keep track of all the damn screws... im lucky there's a magnetized screw mat in the house i can use)

i recommend watching a deep clean/teardown video of the GPU model you have before digging into it yourself. generally, they separate into 4 distinct portions: the outer shell, the heatsink, the board, and the backplate.

the shell contains the fans and any possible RGB elements. it'll have 1-2 controllers plugged into the board, one for the fans and one for the lighting elements if there are any. once the case is unscrewed, unplug these connectors with a firm squeeze and tug.

these tend to be surprisingly dusty on the inside, so it's probably a good idea to blast it with a duster. again, make sure to hold the fans so they don't overspin. you can also remove the fans from the shell and clean them individually if you'd like.

the heatsink is BIG and heavy, and you can do all the same stuff here that you would with a CPU cooler heatsink. it may take a bit of effort to tug off if the thermal materials are really making it stick to the board. once it's off, scrub the old thermal paste, blast it with a duster, and wash under soapy water if needed before rinsing thoroughly and leaving it to dry for a while.

the backplate is just a flat piece of metal that protects the back side of the board. usually all this will need is a simple wipedown.

the board is where all the magic happens, and will usually have a layout that's something like this:

clean up as needed; gently scrub off old thermal paste, scrape off the old thermal pads (but take close note of how thick they are so you can replace them with the correct pads), and brush/wipe down the dust and grease on each side as needed. take care to avoid touching the PCIe connector too much (the bar of golden pins that juts out from the bottom)

thermal padding varies from card to card (i recommend checking thermal pad placements for your gpu in water cooling guides, even if you're not doing water cooling) but it's typically gonna be on THESE spots:

the VRAM chips surrounding the die (main chip) along with the small black chips next to the capacitors will require thermal pads the most. cut each one to size, carefully peel off the plastic films, and press each piece onto the chips.

now you can grab your thermal paste and put some on that big shiny die. now take your freshly pasted/padded board and CAREFULLY lower it back onto the heatsink. i highly suggest having a good source of lightning for this, since shifting around the pieces too much trying to get them to align properly can displace the thermal pads and mess with how the paste spreads.

screw the heatsink tight to the board, and double check to make sure that the pads and paste are snug against the heat sink. now put the backplate and shell back on and BAM YOU'RE DONE! with the paste and pads i used, i was able to bring down the temperature of my cards by a good 10-15 °C.

ok you've done all this deep cleaning shit and your computer is happy and healthy. what can you do for your computer's health in the future?

DUST AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR. haul that thang outside and spray that shit out to stop it from building up for too long.

KEEP IT OFF THE FLOOR. if you can, of course, not everyone has the desk room for it. computers accumulate dust easier when they're close to the floor. if you do need to keep it on the floor, you might have to dust it every 6-8 months rather than once a year.

AND STOP PUTTING YOUR LAPTOPS ON SOFT SURFACES I SWEAR TO GOD

GET A FAN CONTROLLER. motherboards are DOGSHIT at maintaining fan speeds!!!! there are physical fan hubs that use controller software, but if you can't afford that, fancontrol by rem0o is a stellar software-only option.

IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE CASE FANS, GET THEM. the number of fans depends on the motherboard form factor your case can accommodate (ATX cases typically have 6-8), but having that air circulation is very important to maintaining ideal temperatures. arctic makes fantastic budget-friendly fans.

IF YOU HAVE AN NVMe HARD DRIVE: please put an aluminum heat sink on that thang. they get toasty :(

OK THATS IT I THINK. if anyone else has tips they wanna add, go right on ahead. ok thank you bye your computer will love you

[protowilson]

it's not that I need a quiet day or a day off exactly; it's that I need a pocket of time that exists entirely outside of linear time as we know it that would allow me to get things done without time passing in the real world, and frankly, I don't think that's too much to ask.

[protowilson]

finch fancam❤

[protowilson]

[protowilson]

The Mighty Loon!

[protowilson]

Me duele la cabeza

[protowilson]

[protowilson]

The Big Damn List Of Stuff They Said You Didn't Know

Thousands and thousands of years back in three minutes:

But closer to the issue...

Five free eBooks on the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine

Pluto Books Free Palestine Reading List 30-50% off

LGBT Activist Scott Long's Google Drive of Palestine Freedom Struggle Resources

(includes some of the reading material recced below)

The Cambridge UCU and Pal Society Resources List

List of Academic and Literary Books Compiled by Dr. Kiran Grewal

Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)

Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury

Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge

(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications

(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press

(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books

(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications

(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press

Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan

Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books

Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.

Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press

Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press

(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification

(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press

Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)

Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press

Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press

Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House

Memoirs, Novels & Poetry:

Voices from Gaza - Insaniyyat (The Society of Palestinian Anthropologists)

Letters From Gaza • Protean Magazine

Raja Shehadeh (2008) Palestinian Walks: forays into a Vanishing Landscape, Profile Books

Ghada Karmi (2009) In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Verso Books

Fatma Kassem (2011) Palestinian Women: Narratives, histories and gendered memory, Bloombsbury

Mourid Barghouti (2005) I saw Ramallah, Bloomsbury

Izzeldin Abuelaish (2011) I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, Bloomsbury

Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke (eds)(2015) Palestine Speaks: Narrative of Life under Occupation, Verso Books

The Works of Mahmoud Darwish

Human Rights Reports & Documents

Information on current International Court of Justice case on ‘Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’

UN Commission of Inquiry Report 2022

UN Special Rapporteur Report on Apartheid 2022

Amnesty International Report on Apartheid 2022

Human Rights Watch Report on Apartheid 2021

Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ 2009 (‘The Goldstone Report’)

Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, International Court of Justice, 9 July 2004

Films

Lemon Tree (2008)

Where Should The Birds Fly (2013)

Naila and the Uprising (2017)

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Omar (2013)

Paradise Now (2005)

5 Broken Cameras (2011)

The Gatekeepers (2012)

Foxtrot (2017)

Gaza Mon Amour (2020)

The Viewing Booth (2020)

Innocence (2022) - Innocence (2022) | IDFA Archive

The Village Under the Forest (2013)

Palestine Film Institute's films on Gaza

Abby Martin - Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019) | Full Documentary | Directed by Abby Martin

Dan Cohen - Gaza Fights Back | MintPress News Original Documentary

‘The Promise’, directed by Peter Kosminsky (2010) (4 part miniseries on the creation of Israel)

Sources:

https://www.972mag.com/

https://jewishcurrents.org/

Jadaliyya ‘Gaza in Context’ Series

Jadaliyya “War on Palestine” podcast - The War on Palestine Podcast: Episode 1

Border Chronicle, Interview with Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper

NGOs

B’Tselem

Breaking the Silence

Al Haq

Palestinian Feminist Collective

Yesh Din

DAWN

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

Gisha

Forensic Architecture

Instagram Accounts

gazangirl

mohammedelkurd

khaledbeydoun

motaz_azaiza

wizard_bisan1

etafrum

sara_mardini963

Twitter(X) Accounts

@PalStudies - Institute for Palestine Studies

@medicalaidpal

@middleeastmatters

@KenRoth - former executive director of Human Rights Watch

@YairWallach - Reader in Israel Studies at SOAS

@ PhilipProudfoot - researcher on development, humanitarianism and Arab states

@btselem - Israeli human rights documentation centre

@MairavZ - Senior Israel-Palestine Analyst at Crisis Group

@rohantalbot - Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at MedicalAidPal

@sarahleah1 - Executive Director of DAWN (democracy and human rights in MENA)

@alhaq_org - Palestinian human rights organisation

@FranceskAlbs - UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories

@Yesh_Din - Israeli human rights organisation

@sfardm - Michael Sfard, Israeli Human Rights Lawyer

@EphstainItay - Israeli international humanitarian lawyer

@saribashi - Program director for Human Rights Watch (Israeli living in Palestine)

@Gisha_Access - Israeli NGO

@_ZachFoster - Historian

Share widely!

(if any links are broken let me know. Or pull up the current post to check whether it's fixed.)

From River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[protowilson]

Welcome to November, Scholars and Storykeepers! This month I’m introducing you to someone very important, although if you asked him, he’d much prefer you didn’t make a big deal of it. This stately fellow is Harold II, first of the Telestic Knights and the de facto leader of his people, advising them as best he can from his seat in Knightshome. 

You can just call him Harold. That’s what everybody else calls him. 

It should be mentioned that Harold is not a “ruler”. Whilst it may be true that Knightshome was originally the territory of the lord who created him, who gifted the land to him and his fellow Knights on his deathbed, and whilst it may be true that Harold has repurposed his former lord’s estate into the seat of his government, even as a leader he’s almost reluctant and prefers to view himself - and be viewed in turn - as an adviser. He is only the wisest of his people for having been created and raised with love, and he knows this. Harold does not seek to rule anybody, and the long march he and his first friends made to free the rest of Farewenden’s first generation Telestic Knights from the servitude they were born into gave him his fill of leading, but he is wise and well respected, and so here he is. 

Perhaps it would help to explain where Telestic Knights actually came from. 

As previously stated, Harold II was made at the behest of the lord who used to rule the land where Knightshome now stands. As lords go, he was kind and compassionate, and was much beloved by all, as was his loyal knight, Harold - Harold the First, though he wasn’t called that at the time. Between them, they were widely known as protectors of the peasantry, to whom their subjects could turn to for help if ever they needed it. For half a century they governed this way, listening and helping, for the love of the people who lived on the lord’s lands. 

But then Harold became deathly ill one day, and though that good and kind lord sent every man he had searching for a cure, and though every commoner came forward with their own families’ remedies and cures, none of it was enough to save Harold’s life. The kind lord could only say goodbye to his friend and tell him that he loved him, and when Harold died soon after, he was inconsolable, as were his subjects. 

However, the day after Harold died, an old peasant witch appeared at the lord’s estate. She had travelled from the furthest reaches of his lands and, being as old as she was, had not been able to travel as quickly as she might have liked. She was crushed to find that she had arrived too late to offer her magics, passed down to her through many generations of witches, that she had hoped might cure poor, dear Harold, but far from admitting defeat, she suggested that there might yet be a way to save the lord’s old friend, even now. Drawing upon her long lifetime of knowledge, and that of the witches who came before her, she devised a new spell, one that she calculated would call Harold’s vital energy back to his body and revive him. 

Of course, the good lord, desperate not to be without his beloved knight, agreed to let her try, and saw that she had everything she asked for in order to perform this spell, that every instruction she gave was followed to the letter. Harold’s corpse would be placed inside his armour to give his energy a place to house itself until his body could heal, and around it, the peasant witch put everything in place to perform this elaborate new spell. 

To cut a long story short, they called someone into Harold’s old armour, but it was not Harold, and so Harold the Second was born. The lord, despite his grief at finally having to accept that his old friend was well and truly gone forever, was wiser than to blame Harold II for this, and swore to treat him with love, kindness and dignity. Harold II became his new knight, his new right hand, and although the peasant witch was profusely apologetic for her failure, the lord insisted that no apologies were necessary. Soon, two new knights followed Harold as the witch sought to learn from her mistake, and they became his first friends, Robert, whose armour she filled with a few sheaves of freshly-cut wheat, and Samson, made from armfuls of sweet forget-me-nots. The three lived with the good lord, and they were very happy together. 

But not all lords are kind or good, dear reader, and Harold’s master’s neighbours were keen to discover the secret behind his strong, intelligent and unnaturally proficient new knights. They conspired together to send a thief into the lord’s estate to steal the peasant witch’s notes, and soon after that thief succeeded, there were magical knights cropping up all over the place. However, instead of being treated with love and compassion as Harold and his friends were, these knights were brought to life to be servants and nothing more, for the economic convenience they presented as fighters, guards and attendants who required no sleep, no food and no shelter. Made from butchered carcasses and the battered bodies of prisoners, their masters were shortly pitting them against each other in gruelling battles for their own entertainment, knowing that they could never die, and Harold, his master, his friends and the old witch all despaired for what had happened. 

Again, to make the story brief, Harold took it upon himself to go out into the world and free his brethren, to teach them how to love themselves and each other, and though he was away for many years and he often had to fight to do it, in the end, he succeeded. As more of his fellows joined him on his long walk, the harder it was for anyone to resist them when they came to rescue the next, and when he finally returned home to his master’s estate, Harold had dozens upon dozens of new friends, all of whom were already learning to love and be loved, and were healing because of it. They named themselves Telestic Knights, and in time they settled into hobbies and scholarly pursuits, discovering themselves as they found love in those things, too.

By this time, Harold’s master was very old, and he knew that he was dying. He also knew that the best thing he could do for Harold and his new friends was to give them a safe place to call their own, and so as his last act as lord, he named Harold II as his formal successor, striking his own name from the records of his lands. That place became Knightshome, and Harold, deathless as he was, would be its keeper forever. Harold accepted this great gift with grief in his heart, and pledged to continue his old master’s tradition of kindness and compassion. His neighbours, meanwhile, seeing the trouble Harold and his friends had caused and would no doubt cause again should they have reason to liberate any more of their own kind from their estates, all collectively vowed to never create another Telestic Knight again, and the peasant witch’s knowledge was soon purposefully lost to the ages. 

Indeed, Harold took on his master’s mantle and built upon it, and now Knightshome is a place of safety for all who live there, whether they be Telestic Knights or not. Where other local lords and ladies seek primarily to serve themselves and their own interests, Harold only ever asks himself how he might best meet the needs of his people and reduce their suffering as much as possible. With no need for rest, he spends almost all of his time hearing the concerns of Knightshome’s people during the day, and at night, he deliberates with his friends, Robert and Samson, and as many local experts as he can find to decide how best to address those concerns. Knightshome is a good place because of it, and its central city is a vast, breathtaking place for how many people have travelled to settle there.

Even after three and a half centuries, Harold much prefers to govern by handling things himself wherever possible. It’s not remotely uncommon, especially in the city itself, for him to show up to solve problems in person, and even those living on the outskirts of his province can fully expect to see him visit at least once or twice a year. He expects no fanfare or special treatment during such visits, insisting that he is simply there to do his job, to help people, but he is very much beloved, and often receives that fanfare whether he wants it or not. 

Three and a half centuries is a long time, though, and at this point, Harold’s wisdom and experience cannot be disputed. A Telestic Knight’s memory is perfect and eternal, and Harold calls daily upon all that he has learned over his already long life to better serve his people. He is known to be relentlessly stubborn when it comes to speaking for those who struggle to speak for themselves, and cannot be bought with promises of riches or power. Unsurprisingly, his neighbours hate him, but they aren’t the people who matter to Harold. 

Harold’s people, Telestic Knights and mortals both, love him dearly, and he loves them just as much. 

[protowilson]

Anna Price Petyarre, born 1960s, is an Anmatyerre woman from the Boundary Bore area of the former Utopia Station, north east of Alice Springs. Anna is also known as Anna Pitjara, Anna Price and Anna Price Pitjara. She is the daughter of the late Glory Ngarla (Ngale, or Ngal) and niece to the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Anna began painting in the early 1980s.

Anna initially primarily painted Yam Seed Dreaming in a colourful and intricate expression of the songs and stories associated with her plant totem, the Bush Yam, and its seeds. The Bush Yam has been a staple food and water source for the Anmatyerre people for countless years and the seeds that form and scatter from the plant are ground up to make flour for damper. During ceremony, it is Anna's duty to pay homage to the yam seeds and give thanks for their abundance and regenerative qualities. By painting to the tempo of a ceremonial song, Anna expresses her connection to her plant totem in a permanent medium.

A versatile and creative artist Anna has changed her painting style radically several times over the last decade and now concentrates on extremely finely dotted works which represent her country and its ceremonial sites at Boundary Bore.

Copyright Kate Owen Gallery May 2022