AVAAZ Lion Petition, Christian The Lion, Mugi, Kora, Lonesome George, Gorillas, The Aspinall Foundation

Mugi in his boma at Kora

KORA: It is particularly exciting – indeed historic, that lions are being re-introduced to Kora in Kenya, the first since George Adamson’s death in 1989. Tony Fitzjohn, Field Director of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust who of course lived at Kora with George (and Christian), is overseeing the rehabilitation of Kora and George’s camp, among many other projects.  After Tony sent me this photograph of Mugi recently, I asked him many questions on our behalf.  What is Mugi’s personality like?  How old is he?  What care does he require at this stage?  Can we help????  The spots on Mugi’s legs remind me of Christian’s spots that gradually faded. I think I also recognise that expression.  Apart from Mugi’s curiosity about the camera, he is about to playfully pounce!

Drawings from school children in Trieste

I was very touched when these drawings of Christian were emailed from Italy, where these school children had just discovered Christian’s story. Thank you so much!

” We saw a story about Christian at school. He becomes our LOVE at first sight. We were so moved so touched .. SO SO MUCH! we are so happy for
 Christian and all of you.
 In memory of your beloved Christian we decide to draw something  for you and John. We have drawn Christian and after we have made  a stickers.
 Some of these we are sending you with an attachment. And if you want, we will be very happy to send you also some another via  ordinary mail. Only we need your addresses.
 
 Thank you both, including late George Adamson. CHRISTIAN FOREVER!!! MUCH LOVE
 
 Kids from Italy, Croatia and some other places living in Trieste,
 Italy:
 Giulia, Lorenzo, Martina, Gessica, Anna, Francesca, Greta,
 Francesca, Martin, Leo, Vera, Valentina, Alen, Giovanni,
 Francesco, Beatrice, Dario, Andjela, Anna, Marko, Anna, Ana,
 Anja, Dario, Denis, Vladan, Christopher, Noemi and Olga, teacher “

I also received an email from Nancy which I thought summed up very well the feelings many people have about Christian and the subsequent journey some embark on – reading relevant and fascinating books, and getting more actively involved in supporting wildlife and conservation issues and causes.

“I was pleasantly surprised to receive your answer; I continue to “obsess” over Christian. I read Adrian House’s book “The Great Safari” The Lives of George and Joy Adamson, as you recommended and spent weeks on it. With my iPad in hand I must have researched every animal, person, national park, tribe, et cetera while reading it. You had mentioned in one of the many You Tube videos that this sensational interest in Christian is a cry for Africa. Indeed it is! I had never considered myself even a conservationist until Christian and since have begun to contribute to organizations. I believe it is no coincidence that he was named Christian as I see God’s hand all over this.

I also read Beryl Markham and am now going onto Elspeth Huxley. I repeatedly continue to view the reunion and am thankful Google has photos as well. I hope you and John realize the import of what you did and that you really have been used by God to change the hearts of men as certainly as I am proof. I will never be the same. “

AVAAZ:  It is hard to believe that hundreds of South African lions are being slaughtered to be used for “bogus” sex potions, and are also farmed for trophy hunters. Perhaps only 20,000 wild lions remain in Africa and may soon be as endangered as elephants and rhinoceros. This petition is designed to put pressure on President Zuma with as many  people as possible signalling that this brutal trade will hurt South Africa’s image as a tourist destination. Please sign the petition here.

Baby Sumatran Rhinoceros

GOOD NEWS:  The Sumatran rhinoceros is critically endangered and there are fewer than 200 of the breed alive. So the birth of this baby in Indonesia – the last refuge for them – is very good news.  It is only the fourth birth in captivity in 100 years.

Lonesome George

VALE:  No such luck with Lonesome George, the last known member of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies (from the Galapagos Islands),who has died, aged at least 100.  Despite years of efforts and various temptations, he was unfortunately unable to reproduce.

Kwibi the Gorilla

GORILLAS: I was of course very moved seeing Damian Aspinall return to Africa for his reunion with a gorilla called Kwibi who he had returned to Gabon in Africa five years before – one of 53 The Aspinall Foundation has returned. The emotion both of them felt was very beautiful and extremely touching.  Just as we were not frightened of Christian as he ran towards us in our reunion because we could recognise his excited grunts and facial expression, Damian says he was not afraid as he recognised the gorilla “love gurgle”.  It is heart breaking when Kwibi followed him along the opposite side of the river and called out to him during the night.  We have footage of Christian with a very worried expression padding behind our vehicle as we left Kora one time which can still make me cry (like now). When we had Christian in London Damian’s father John Aspinall  was well-known for keeping tigers on his country estate.  I suppose this was a ” least worst” option we may have had to consider for Christian, and so fortunately avoided. Damian took over 2 Wildlife Parks in Kent that were founded by his father, but he has a “deep loathing” for zoos and intends to return as many animals to the wild as he can.

Meeting Katania Young who was named after Katania, Christian’s cub friend at Kora

MAIL:  My condolences to Ray who lost his beloved dog Snoot, and I’m hoping Hélène’s ill diabetic cat Hermione is recovering. Our animals play such an important role in our lives and are a re-connection with the natural world we are increasingly estranged from.  They are family, and it is devastating when they are ill or if we lose them.

Drawings from school children in Trieste

Drawings from school children in Trieste

December 2009

My head is still spinning from the successful international launch of our revised A Lion Called Christian book, now selling well in, I believe, 8 languages and 14 countries.

In 2008 we were the first e-book for Random House, and it is fascinating to see how quickly people are adopting the kindle or other e-book readers, and the changes this signifies for the publishing industry. With Google planning to digitise millions of books, writers and publishers seem divided over the implications of this. It is exciting new territory which hopefully attracts new readers AND is not at the expense of people who still love holding and having printed books. Where does this leave “coffee table books” – like the handsome and for me irresistible “Trade Edition” (Taschen Publishers) I have just bought by photographer Peter Beard who has spent a lot of time in Africa. (See www.peterbeard.com/publications.htm)    

This image of Peter Beard writing his diary is from the book Eyelids of the Morning by Alistair Graham and Peter Beard first published in 1973. Image courtesy of http://www.peterbeard.com.

Peter Beard has been a subliminal artistic influence on me since I first saw his books on Africa in the 1970s  which combined his own photography, diaries, collages and a unique mix of historical, contemporary, glamorous and grotesque material. He also visited George Adamson at Kora while Christian was around, and commented on how truly happy George was there, and that presumably unlike Joy, he was “refreshingly uncommitted to the sentimentalism of the whole Elsa story”. I have also very much admired the photographs in Mirella Ricciardi’s classic Vanishing Africa. Another beautiful photography book is Nick Brandt’s recent book As The Sun Sets, unfortunately documenting a disappearing Africa. Nick’s beautiful images can be seen on his website www.nickbrandt.com.

While getting to No 2 on the New York Times best seller list, No 1 on the Sunday Telegraph in London,  No 1 in Australia and No 2 in New Zealand, and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, was of course amazing, humbling and sometimes nerve wracking, what I really enjoyed when we travelled around the USA, UK, Australia and later in the year, China, was meeting so many very nice, interested and like-minded people, who loved Christian’s story. Many are making, or wanting to make, valuable contributions to wildlife conservation, and what could we all achieve if we work in concert?  

In the 1970s we were lucky to meet some of the influential people who founded the modern conservation movement, like Joy Adamson. She was one of the first to draw attention to the vulnerability of the environmental balance, and she and George Adamson became committed conservationists as they witnessed declining numbers in animal species. David Attenborough began publishing his books then and now at 80 is still making his incredibly popular nature documentaries. Jane Goodall published her book In the Shadow of Man, about her research with chimpanzees. Last year I heard her speak in Sydney, and she described so succinctly the interrelationship of everything, the competition for resources between people and animals – for food, habitats and water, and that people have to have better lives before we can expect them to conserve the surrounding wildlife. Her Roots and Shoots program for schools imaginatively encouraging the participation of children is especially important (www.janegoodall.org.au). Particularly heartening is Jane Goodall’s recent book with Thane Maynard and Gail Hudson Hope for Animals and Their World which documents formerly endangered species whose populations are now recovering. Some good news!   

 I returned to Australia in 1973 after our adventure with Christian, and have had a career as an art curator in Australia and been primarily interested in Aboriginal art. This has been one of the major art movements in the world in the latter 20^th century. It has been a privilege to witness and work with so many varied and extraordinary artists, and Aboriginal culture is the face Australia now presents to the world. This is of course ironic given the lingering, sometimes even overt racism that still exists! More recently I have been researching and staging exhibitions about Australia’s foundational narratives through my own colonial family history and the interweaving of Aboriginal perspectives.   

 It has been an odd disconnect speaking about events that happened more than 40 years ago, with no reference at all to my actual intervening career work which is so important to me. “Get over it!” my agent says. I finally worked out how to link both. With our growing alienation from nature, and the parlous condition of the physical world, we need to look to, respect and involve indigenous people. They are undoubtedly still much more connected to nature (indeed many believe they are part of or emerged from the landscape), and they can advise us how to heal the damage to the environment, and co-exist more sustainably with the natural world.   

My busy 2009 included graduating with a Masters of Arts for my thesis Family Footprints; Tracing the Past in the Present through Curatorial Autobiographical Practice. (Yes I know an academic mouthful! It is online should anyone be interested and if you can follow all the links – at www.library.uow.edu.au). Also online are photographs of colonial and contemporary artworks and material from the exhibition component, Lines in the Sand: Botany Bay Stories from 1770, which look primarily at the first contact between Aboriginal people and the new arrivals starting with Captain Cook and Joseph Banks followed by the First Fleet in 1788. You can see the photos of the exhibition on the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Facebook page.   

Also this year I was Exhibition Coordinator for Martin Sharp Sydney Artist at the Museum of Sydney. Martin was very much a part of the creative world of “Swinging London” in the 1960s and apart from many other artworks, created album covers or posters for Eric Clapton, Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. Again, should you be interested read John McDonald’s review in Spectrum, online.   

Many people have been so responsive, supportive and helpful this year, but I’d like to particularly thank Katie Turner, Cheryl Bath, Heulwen Renshaw for trying to trace Christian’s best friend Unity Bevis-Jones, and Joanne Hamilton.   

I’m travelling to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat for the first time. This year I also saw the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City so I feel very fortunate.   

Merry Christmas!