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Stop killing innocents!

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Nurturing seeds of peace in a polarised reality

Protesters march in the major cities to demand a cease-fire in Gaza: stop killing innocents! Even Jewish activist groups are demanding it. Tavi Gevinson is among the Jewish writers who signed an open letter: Critiquing the State of Israel is not antisemitic. These voices are like seeds of peace, attempting to overcome divisions.

On October 7, Hamas perpetrated a brutal attack on Israeli towns and kibbutzes, killing 1400 people – innocent civilians; an immense horror strongly condemned. But the consequent massacre of Palestinians by Israel is even worse. The revenge is genocide: Israelis killed thousands of people. In Gaza, about half the population is under 18. 

The matter of Palestine and Israel is complex. Also, it hides layers of prejudice, taking this or that political side and polarizing the debate, dumping the consequences on innocent people and children.

“During times of conflict and suffering, we can only hope that outsiders who are not immediately affected will nurture seeds of peace. The job of intellectuals, artists and scholars is to try and go deeper. To try and see the complexity of reality, especially in today’s climate of post-truth. It feels intellectually and emotionally lazy to just pick a side.” – Yuval Noah Harari (historian and author).

On both sides, there’s so much pain and grief. To understand what’s going on, we found illuminating Doctor Gabor Maté’s video. Gabor Maté is a Hungarian naturalised Canadian physician, best-selling author and speaker. Renowned addiction expert sought after for his expertise on trauma, addiction, stress and childhood development. Also, he is a Holocaust survivor.

Indeed, his personal life experience lived the brutality of the Nazis, and such a horrendous trauma impacted him as a child. So, we share his latest video here below.


How far does Israel want to go with revenge? Furthermore, to what extent can the international community accept infringements on the Geneva Convention?

When we read about the Nazis, one of the questions is: how could people remain silent? Silence equals passive complicity, so we cannot make the same mistake now.

Above all, we need to overcome divisions by nurturing seeds of peace. So, we stand with those who demand to stop killing innocents!

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Never too late to start

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The extraordinary paintings of Sally Gabori

It’s never too late to start may seem like a catchphrase. Usually, we tend to believe that there is a specific path we must follow to find what is possible for us. But we discovered an artist we didn’t know about, Sally Gabori. Her powerful story and artistic career taught us that it is never too late to start doing something and find your way.

Last week we went to Triennale Milano to attend Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s exhibition. It collects 30 marvellous paintings that show intense brushstrokes of colours beautifully paired.

Never too late to start
Sally Gabori exhibition – Triennale Milano – Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

Considered one of the greatest contemporary Australian artists of the past two decades, Sally Gabori started painting in 2005, around the age of eighty and quickly earned national and international acclaim.
Before her death in 2015, she had a few years of rare creative intensity, developing her unique work with no ties to other aesthetic currents, particularly within contemporary Aboriginal painting.

An extensive canvas, Sally Gabori painting, contemporary art
Sally Gabori exhibition – Triennale Milano – Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

Sally Gabori’s story

Gabori was born in 1924 on Bentick Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the northern coast of Australia. She was a Kaiadilt woman who spoke the Kayardilt language. Her name, Mirdidngkingathi Juwaranda, comes from the Kaiadilt tradition by which people take their name from their birthplace. Therefore, her name indicates she was born at Mirdidingki, a small creek south of Bentinck, and her “totem animal” is “juwarnda”, or dolphin.

The Kaiadilt, a population of 125 in 1944, were the last Aboriginal people of coastal Australia to establish lasting ties with Europeans. They had a traditional lifestyle relying on their island’s natural resources.

In 1940, Presbyterian missionaries settled on Mornington Island and tried unsuccessfully to convince the Kaiadilt to join their mission. But in 1948, a hurricane flooded and contaminated their land. So, the Presbyterian led the 63 survivors, including Gabori and her family, to their mission. Once in Mornington, they housed the Kaiadilt in camps on the beach, and the children, separated from their parents, in dormitories inside the mission. Also, they’ve forbidden kids from speaking their mother tongue, detaching them from their culture.

Sally Gabori paintings, contemporary art
Sally Gabori exhibition – Triennale Milano – Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

The revelation at 80 years old

Around the age of eighty, Gabori visited the Mornington Art Center for the first time, and the contact with painting was a revelation. Indeed, she went there whenever she could, even painting several canvases per day.
Six months after her revelation, she had her first solo exhibition.

She left more than 2.000 canvases. Her paintings celebrate different places of her native island, which she had not visited for many years. Indeed, they have deep meaning for herself, her family, and her people.

In 2013, Gabori was invited to present her work at the 55th Venice Art Exhibition. And at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
In 2022, the “Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain” in Paris presented the first extensive exhibition of Sally Gabori’s work in Europe.

Bright and bold colours on large size-canvases, absolute formal freedom and boundless imagination. Impossible not to feel deep emotions. Stunning! A must-see if you are in Milan until May 14th.

An exhibition and a life lesson: whatever you want to do, it’s never too late to start!

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Like a common flu? Not really!

You have heard this before: “Covid is like a common flu.” Well, not really.
Most importantly, generalising and selfish thinking can be dangerous.

We are sisters, and we work together. And so it means we spend a lot of time in direct contact. The bad news is that about ten days ago, we tested positive for Covid, and we feel devastated.

Now we are on the mend, but still, we have no energy to handle our working routine fully, so this is not one of our usual posts. But we wanted to leave a message to those who said, or still say, that Covid is just like a common flu.

No, it is not! It’s worse than that.

If you’ve had mild symptoms and can only look at your own garden, it’s ok, do it and think selfishly. But do not assume that it works the same for everyone else.

By the way, we hope that protecting the weakest and a sense of social responsibility will prevail over individual protection.

Thanks for your supportive messages.

Love,
Ro and Cri

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Que fantastica esta fiesta

It was impossible for us not to dedicate a post to the one and only Raffaella Carrà. She was the heart of our nights out with the rhythm of her happy songs! Our beloved icon suddenly left us on 5 July.

Women owe her a lot. Her humble, empathetic and cheerful personality offered a positive role model inspiring absolute freedom and acceptance. Maybe, for this reason, she became a gay icon too.

Besides, her ironic but never vulgar temper contributed a lot to educate our society, influencing our culture more than any law or government. She taught us her values such as kindness, inclusivity, openness, and always working persistently.

A great artist, icon and positive role model

These are some of her quotes:

“To me, the world is not made of gay and straight but of creatures.”

“I am in favor of stepchild adoption, I too grew up with two women.”

“I grew up without a father. He was wealthy but too playboy, and my mother divorced in 1945. I never wanted to get married, and it always pissed me off not being able to adopt children without the obligation of this ring.”

Furthermore, she was the first to unveil her belly button in 1969 on the tv screen, wearing a crop top on bell-bottoms. Her innate elegance allowed her to send messages about female agency with her sex-positive songs.
And perhaps that was the point: her elegance. She was never gross whatever she did, whatever she wore.

Also, this is relevant to the recent controversy about some female Italian singers. They state that they were criticized for their clothing, while men, instead, are free to wear whatever they want.
If this can be true, and in fact, it often is, we have to say that those female singers don’t have even a micro tiny trace of the elegance she naturally possessed.

Elegance, this is what they forget. It allows you to express yourself freely in what you wear, sing or say. Elegance is the key, lost in our times.

Thank you, beautiful soul, for the joy you gifted us.
Rest in peace, Raffaella.

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