Two weeks ago we heard the sad news that Trevor’s father had passed away. Scott and Suzy attended the funeral in Kalgoorlie on the weekend. The news has affected everyone on the project and many who have seen the stage show, as it is this man’s story which sits at the heart of Trevor’s family narrative. Some of us were fortunate to meet Trevor’s father when he came to the show in Perth, delighted as we were to meet in real life the man whom Trevor had portrayed so skillfully over the past two years of the production that we felt we knew him a little. We acknowledge that the upcoming season may be challenging for Trevor at this time but the family has expressed their support for the show to go on and this man’s story to be told. We send our love and thoughts to Trevor's family.

We look forward to Trevor’s arrival in Alice Springs next Thursday. Trevor will be involved in some preliminary shooting for the documentary before the team goes down to Pukatja in convoy on the 15th.

On this note, the office is spilling over at the moment with the arrival of the documentary crew who are about to head off to Ernabella again for the week tomorrow. Big hART filmmaker, Sarah Davies (Davo) who has most recently been working on Big hART’s Gold project in the Murray Darling Basin (and was also involved in shooting the project in Alice in 2006) has arrived from NSW to join Suzy Bates, along with Sound Technician Stuart Thorne and Line Producer Shannon Owen. After much planning and development of ideas for ‘Lost for Words’, the crew started filming with Simon Tjiyangu at Topsy Smith hostel yesterday.

Meanwhile, on the tour front, Jane and Belinda are off on the streets buying eskies, torches, handwashers and pillows today, as tour preparations escalate. Meanwhile Mariaa is managing campsite, swag and transport plans for over 50 cast and crew. With only three weeks to go, emails with site dimensions and photos of the riverbed are flying back and forth and Toyotas are in at the mechanics getting ready for the remote tour.

It's hard to know how many people will be there, but we do know people are traveling from Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide for the 60th Concert and Ngapartji Ngapartji, not to mention all those traveling from other APY communities such as Mimili and Amata to be part of the events.

If there isn’t enough going on, Beth has been working with Sadie choosing photos and compiling lists of Pitjantjatjara words to make magnets which will stick onto the Mobile Gallery we are creating to travel with us on tours, community visits and conferences. With her final design receiving resounding approval from the Ngapartji Ngapartji team last week, local designer Elliat Rich is now liaising with engineers and various businesses to produce the structure which will be a predominantly image-based representation of the project that isn’t reliant on internet access. Jane and Beth are working with project participants to select images and stories to be part of the Gallery.

And last but not least Inge Kral visited this week from Canberra and is working with Jane to prepare a presentation for the Desert Knowledge Symposium later in the year, based on new approaches to literacy.

Dani Powell

Community Producer