Henna

Depicts Lance Corporal Wendy Andrews receiving a henna tatoo at the Polisario Refugee Camp in Algeria. The Polisario's guide, Habouha Soudany invited the artist and the peacekeepers to spend a night in the tent of Habouha's brother. While in the tent the Saharawi women, dressed in traditional clothing, welcomed Wendy Andrews, who was fascinated with the henna designs on their hands and feet. The women persuaded her to let them decorate her left hand. Her fingers are bound with tape and stencils attached. Behind Wendy Andrews is the Venezuelan Major Delrado. In the text accompanying the drawing Gittoes noted; 'There are almost no younger men in these refugee camps. Many have been killed in the fighting with the Morrocans, but most are out in the Sahara manning outposts'. The Polisario are the army of Western Sahara, that for years have fought against the Morrocans and for four years the Mauritanian occupation of Western Sahara, an occupation that started in 1975. Polisario was formed in 1973 and much of the Western Sahara population fled to areas controlled by the Polisrio front and over the border in Algeria. In 1979, the southern third of Western Sahara was annexed to Morroco. 'The result has been the UN peace plan of 1988, that in reality has given Morroco carte blanche in the region, and the proposed referendum on the future of Western Sahara, has been...[postponed] for the last 12 years'. A number of Australian peacekeepers were sent to Western Sahara from 1991-94 with the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).