The Hard Light of Day: An Artist's Story of Friendships in Arrernte Country

Written over the course of 25 years, this book is a candidly brutal and groundbreaking account of race relationships and friendships in the central Australian town of Alice Springs. In the early 1980s, artist Rod Moss arrived to teach painting in Alice Springs and soon was adopted as a family member by the local Arrernte people. Keeping a journal during the next three decades, he chronicled his experiences as he taught, struggled to paint, raised his children, and immersed himself completely in the Arrernte lifestyle. Filled with evocative photographs and paintings, this rare insight into the reality of life there illustrates the endemic violence, alcoholism, and rampant ill health as well as the enriching and transformative power of Arrernte friendships and culture.