Category Archives: Write

Kendrea’s original prose, blogging and artwork ◙ follows themes of bushfires, art, covid, family history, motorbikes and stories. Includes images and videos.

Paint what you see – show don’t tell

As a painter, the phrase ‘paint what you see, not what you think you see’ binds and cuffs my wrists until I ask ‘what do I think I see?’ As a writer the phrase ‘show don’t tell’ gags the creative  synapses until binary thought is shattered and realization dawns.

Continue reading “Paint what you see – show don’t tell”

Motorcycle Magazine

Biker Ally was an American women’s motorcycling magazine that is sadly out of print now. As the Australian Correspondent, Kendrea photographed and interviewed Australian motorcycling legends including a 40-year-old hitchhiking plum-pudding, nudist motorcyclists protesting invisibility and the Top End’s Billy and Trish, taking the long-way-round the world.

Click on the images below to read and/or download each story:

Protector of the Pudding by Kendrea Rhodes takes you to the PDF download of the story
Kendrea Rhodes Please Look Twice Biker Ally Magazine
The Finke River by Kendrea Rhodes
South America Long Way Round by Kendrea Rhodes Biker Ally Motorcycle Magazine

Forgotten Australians

‘Abandoned’ – by Kendrea Rhodes

 a snippet from a story about a boy lost in institutional care in the 1920s

Abandoned---Forgotten-Australians-by-Kendrea-Rhodes-WIP

We left him to rest, or so we thought.

In the hospital lobby I realized my son was missing, so we retraced our steps back to my grandfather’s room. The picture was memorable: an 89 year old man chatting to his 5 year old great-grandson.

Noticing me at the door, Charlie quickly whispered in his great-grandson’s ear, ‘You can’t choose your family.’

That message is the reason for this short story and the many more that follow; and the reason that my five year old asked, ‘Why can’t you choose your family?’

Charlie’s mother abandoned her seven children at Young and Jackson Hotel in Melbourne in 1926. All seven children became wards of the State of Victoria and were sent to separate orphanages, institutions and foster homes; living in an unaccountable and unrecorded system of care.

During the early twentieth century, approximately half a million children experienced care in institutions or ‘out of home’. Known as ‘Forgotten Australians’, they lived in an unsupervised system sometimes neglected and exploited for the benefit of their carers. Many children weren’t orphans, but their carers told them that their parents were dead.

 

Save

Want more?…read the following blog posts:

You Can’t Choose Your Family
Abandoned original artwork
Mentally Difficult
Happy Accidents – painting becomes drawing
Validation is good for you
further research on these interesting websites:

Alliance for Forgotten Australians (AFA) is a national alliance of Forgotten Australians and supporters working in partnership to advocate for, and promote, national policies and services to meet the needs and interests of Forgotten Australians.

Find and Connect provides history about Australian orphanages, children’s homes and other institutions.