Day three Melbourne

After a leisurely  breakfast at the hotel, we headed with rush hour traffic the few miles down St. Kilda rd to downtown. Our first destination was a public art installation by the Yarra River (the river that runs thru the city.) this area is called Birrarung Marr. The sign there, like many throughout the city now pays respect to the original Kulin Nations who lived here:

 The views of the city were also spectacular, notice below the range of architectural styles that seems characteristic of Melbourne.

And we enjoyed almost perfect weather  as we explored this area. I met a young woman at the community art center who is a professor at the university studying the importance of the sense of place to people. She was facilitating a dialogue among elders looking at art and capturing the stories they can recall about their homes and peoples. She indicated that there are very few indigenous people left in Melbourne...perhaps only 35,000 people out of the 4 million citizens here.

From the walk along the river we went Back up to the city level to the Ian Potter Center at NGV where we would see contemporary indigenous art. The themes of identity and reclaiming what had been stolen and grief seemed to permeate the art work. One of the most profound statements was 

"Grief is proof that you are connected".

 Jack in front of our favorite piece

The breast plate represented two sides of the same coin. They were used by colonialists to label their subjects. But later aboriginal leaders used them as a means to capture and transmit their culture rather than be defined by others. The second photo below shows modern interpretation of feather work.

We re boarded our handy dandy tourist bus and headed for the iconic Victoria Market. This is a huge marketplace under tin roofs  with everything from fruits and vegetable to lamb and kangaroo to gourmet cheeses and desserts to socks and tourist items. We found an assortment of goodies to bring to our hosts for dinner this evening.

We used the bus as a way to see more of the city, learn a bit more and rest. 

We got off and walked to an area of town with great little alleys and lanes packed with shops and cafés and people. Great fun. 

From there we made our way back to the hotel, cleaned up and were picked up by our cousins to have dinner at their home. we had a great treat of meeting Marilyn and Louis' two daughters, son-in-law and grandson. We had great conversation, sausage and lamb on the Barbie and laughs.