AustLit

'The memoirs and paintings that Rod Moss has produced during the last 35 years are unique in their dramatisation of the lives of his trusting Aboriginal family and have been critically acclaimed nationally and internationally. In his third memoir we follow the nurturing of the curiosity and openness that has fastened him to the luminous power of Central Australia and its First Peoples. From the foothills of Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges and his city-based art education, we are taken to arid-zone Victoria where he first embraces the climate most conducive to his well-being. He returns to the city and is invited to participate in Melbourne’s dynamic experimental small school movement. Then there’s a year in the USA studying the ‘spiritual’ teachings of Gurdjieff in a Shenandoah farm setting. Travel necessarily widens perceptions and continues to pique his curiosity. A trip to a Pilbra Indigenous community opens the door on the Aboriginal world that he will spend the rest of his life coming to terms with.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Thirty years ago Rod Moss made his home in the stark beauty of Australia’s Centre. Since then, his place in Alice Springs and the traditional lands of the Arrernte has been deepened by his enduring intimacy with the families of Whitegate camp on the town’s eastern fringe.'

'In this frank and powerful illustrated memoir, Moss gently uncovers the places where his own family and art intersect with the lives of those in the Whitegate mob. The closely connected Hayes, Johnson, Ryder and Neil families consider Moss one of their own and, through them, Moss shows us the majesty of the land, the necessity of story, the intensity of kin, the madness of violence, the tenderness of friendship, and the rhythm of grief.'

'One Thousand Cuts continues where Moss’s highly acclaimed first book left off – this time in pictures as much as words. Through Moss’s moving stories and his stunning paintings and photographs, we share in and celebrate his everyday life with the Whitegate mob, including their fight for a standard of living that is basic to most Australians.' (Source: Inside dustcover)

‘Kat hope at the akeyulerre healing centre in Alice Springs has organised a trip for the families back to their traditional country so that the angangkeres (healers) can collect herbs and visit places associated with healing powers. I have been invited due to my affection and enthusiasm for these places. The trip that was intended to encompass Little Well and Wyeecha/Uyetye has to be revised. We aren't heading south-east as Dominic Gorey, who was to have led the men, was in court on Friday for bashing his wife, and is currently spending three weeks at Her Majesty's pleasure. So Little Well remains on the cards for another trip when he walks.’ (Publication abstract)

'Two years after artist Rod Moss arrived in Alice Springs to teach painting, he met an Indigenous couple who had set up camp in the gully beside his flat. Over the next twenty-five years, his friendship with Xavier and Petrina Neil and the friendships that grew from it with the families of Whitegate, an Arrernte camp on the outskirts of town, would nourish and challenge Moss beyond his imagining.

'The Hard Light of Day offers a rare insight into the reality of life in the Centre, from the contours of the MacDonnell Ranges and the textures and sounds of Arrernte culture, to the endemic violence, alcoholism and ill-health that continue to devastate Aboriginal lives. In recalling the relationships and experiences that have shaped his life and work in Alice Springs, Moss reveals the human face behind the statistics and celebrates the enriching, transformative power of friendship.

'Illustrated with Moss's evocative paintings and photographs, The Hard Light of Day is an incredible journey into a world never shown in the mainstream media, and an artist's chronicle of the moments that have inspired him.' (From the publisher's website.)