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Nafisa Naomi has won the Packing Room prize, the prelude to the Archibald awards, for her incredible portrait of Glenn A. Baker, rock music guru!   Read more here.  This is fantastic news, not only as a huge accolade to a very accomplished artist but also as a kind of karmic return to someone who does so much work for charity.  Congratulations Nafisa!

Nafisa’s elephant artworks, which she is donating the proceeds of to elephant conservation in India, can be purchased at www.animalworks.com.au , the website of our conservation organisation, Animal Works.  You can meet Nafisa and pick up one of her artworks in Sydney being auctioned at the Firehouse Hotel next Saturday night, Earth Hour (27 March), at the Elephant Nature Foundation of Australia’s first fund raising dinner.  Get your tickets here !

The world’s last ocean-swimming elephant lives in the Andaman Islands, India and his name is Rajan.

This 4 minute radio story and pictures from the BBC will make you smile.

Listen here.

Sydney-siders, don’t miss out on a night for elephants at the Fireworks Hotel, North Sydney on the night of Earth Hour in just a few weeks time.   This is a celebration of the planet and the elephants we share it with.

One of Nafisa’s original elephant artworks will be being auctioned for charity and you can win a car by entering the Elephant Nature Foundation’s raffle for just two bucks!

See you there!

Time: 7pm

Date: 27 March

For more details and tickets go to http://www.enfaust.com.au/

We all know elephants are smart, but British and Kenyan researchers are beginning to unveil the depths of the elephant mind on the plains of East Africa.

For a little Sunday escapism, listen to this (BBC radio, 30 minutes):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qxgzw

Ever wondered why you often don’t hear elephants when in the African bush, despite their enormous size?  A new scientific study of Thai elephants suggests it’s because they really do ‘tread lightly’ on the earth.

“Despite their size, elephants step lightly, the team reports today in The Journal of Experimental Biology. A human runner exerts peak forces of three times his or her body weight when running, whereas elephants exert at most 1.4 times their body weight.”

Full story here:  http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2010/212/1

Hi folks,

If you’ve been reading ‘Elephant Dance’ or my blogs lately you’re well aware that the Asian elephant is in big trouble.  Nowhere is this more graphic than in places like Thailand, where you might get to ride a tame elephant while you’re on holiday but you’re a lot less likely to see a herd in the wild.

I recently met some very enthusiastic elephant lovers from the Elephant Nature Foundation of Australia, Celia and Emily McWilliam.  They are raising funds and awareness for Asian elephant conservation, especially those in Thailand.  ENFA is associated with a sanctuary for abused and neglected elephants called the Elephant Nature Park (you can read about it on their website).  The stories of the elephants living at the park are pretty harrowing.  I was shocked to read about one elephant called Dok Ngern (meaning silver flower) who was used as a street beggar and was severely mistreated before she was taken in.  Other elephants there have come from the logging industry, ironically once employed to destroy the habitat they would once have lived in, and discarded at the end of their usefulness as workers in the industry. Some have come from the circus.  All of them have suffered much more than any animal should have to.

Want to get involved and do something?  Well, ENFA is hosting a night of elephant fun and games in Sydney next month on the night of Earth Hour – 27th March – to raise money for these neglected elephants.  It’s guaranteed to be a great night and I’ll be there rambling on about elephants again.  One of Nafisa’s original exclusive elephant artworks will be up for grabs.  So if you live in Sydney, put it in your diary!  The details are below.  What better way to celebrate the planet we live in and the animals we share it with than the night of Earth Hour.  Hope to see you there!

ELEPHANT NATURE FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA FUNDRAISER DINNER

SATURDAY MARCH 27TH 2010 7.00PM

FIREHOUSE HOTEL 86 WALKER STREET, NORTH SYDNEY, NSW.

Tickets $20 inc 1 drink or $35 inc 1 drink and 1 main meal. Lots of games, auction items, entertainment and most of all a FUN night to raise lots of money for Elephant Nature Park! TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW

HOW TO BUY YOUR TICKETS.
1. Decide if you would like the drink or drink and meal
2. Round up your friends and family and work out how many tickets you would like
3. Send an email to enfaust@gmail.com with the number of tickets you want and how many to include dinner and how many without dinner
4. Make your payment to the details below use your name as the bank reference or by cheque to the address below
5. Once payment is received you will receive a confirmation email with your tickets
(please allow up to 10 days for your confirmation email, as we are volunteers it might take us a while to get back to you)

Payment can be made at: NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK BSB 082- 401 Acc # 896309560 OR BY POST TO: PO BOX 751, FRESHWATER LPO. 2096. NSW. TICKETS ARE LIMITED TO JUST 200 MEAL PACKAGES AND 150 DRINK PACKAGE SO

BOOK EARLY, 1st COME 1ST SERVED

WE CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL THERE

We are aiming to raise $10,000 for ticket sales and on the night!

Animal Works is selling Nafisa Naomi’s orphaned elephant calendars on line now for $20 at www.animalworks.com.au .  If you buy one now, you get a second one to give to a friend.  That’s half price!  Each month has a different elephant and the sketches are truly beautiful.  Please give us a hand to help elephants in India and Africa by taking advantage of this great deal.

2 for the price of 1!

Happy new year Africa-philes, elephant lovers and friends!

As I was slowly emerging from the land of baby night feeds this week (Sol is almost 2 months old now and as cute as can be) I noticed the story on the American woman and one year old killed by an elephant in Kenya.  A terrible tragedy in every respect.  I don’t know the full story, but it did make me wonder, if this could make headlines, what about the hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who are killed by elephants every year throughout Asia and Africa?  Where are the news stories about them?  Mothers, fathers, kids, most of them poor and without alternative livelihoods to the crops that elephants raid.  And what about the hundreds of elephants who are also killed as a result of human-elephant conflict every year?  What are their stories?  Have we become immune to the annual war between elephants and people, or do people simply not know about it?

The difference between the woman and her child on safari and the people who live with elephants every day is that they were paying tourists.  As a tourist you choose to go into the elephant’s territory.  Whether a one year old should have been there at all is another question and makes me wonder about the tour operator.  But my point is that most of the people who live with elephants don’t have a choice.  They live with that danger every single day in the daily battle for survival.  And as more and more humans encroach on elephant habitat, the mortalities on both sides will only go up.

If you’d like to do more to support conservation programs for elephants that help people too, drop me a line at tammiekmatson@gmail.com

I hope 2010’s fabulous for you in every possible way!

If you’re like me and avoiding the shopping madness this Christmas, don’t forget our baby orphans calenders are still on sale for $20, with all proceeds to elephant conservation through Animal Works.

Sydney artist Nafisa Naomi also has her amazing elephant art prints on sale on our website – www.animalworks.com.au – for $100 each.  They make beautiful Christmas presents for anyone who loves animals, truly unique gifts.

Thanks for your support!

Africaphiles – there’s never been a cheaper time to fly to Africa…  In case you are thinking about going back or taking the plunge for the first time, you might want to check out V Australia’s website.  They have return flights to Johannesburg for $1500 travelling between March and October next year at the moment.  That’s as cheap as they get from Oz.  Check it out at http://www.vaustralia.com.au/bookings/best-fares/?city=SYD&cc=ZA