Dreamtime art .....

These two artworks have been painted on the walls of our little school in Bellbrook. I am going to try point out a few interesting bits on them, mind you I know very little about this kind of art. So if I get it wrong please forgive me. The first one was painted by two artists merging their culture, one white and one abborginal. The scene is of the sun setting on our river down by the bridge.

I really love is one ... Could those be the hands prints of children having gone to this little school.It made by placing the hands on a wall, then sprayed over them leaving the print. The Rainbow Serpent is often described as the primary figure in the chronicle of Creation. In this myth, she creates many natural features and human beings and establishes the foundation of totemism.

Photo's taken by my grandson Cobi. xox
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"In the Dreamtime all the earth lay sleeping. Nothing grew. Nothing moved. Everything was quiet and still. The animals, birds, and reptiles lay sleeping under the earth’s crust. Then one day the Rainbow Serpent awoke from her slumber and pushed her way through the earth’s crust, moving the stones that lay in her way.

When she emerged, she looked about her and then traveled over the land, going in all directions. She traveled far and wide, and when she grew tired she curled herself into a heap and slept. Upon the earth she left her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body. When she had traveled all the earth, she returned to the place where she had first appeared and called to the frogs, “Come out!”

The frogs were very slow to come from below the earth’s crust, for their bellies were heavy with water which they had stored in their sleep. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs, and when the frogs laughed, the water ran all over the earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent’s wanderings – and that is how the lakes and rivers were formed.

Then the grass began to grow, and trees sprang up, and so life began on earth. All the animals, birds, and reptiles awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent, the Mother of Life, across the land. They were happy on earth, and each lived and hunted for food with his own tribe. The kangaroo, wallaby, and emu tribes lived on the plains, the reptile tribes lived among the rocks and stones, and the bird tribes flew through the air and lived in the trees.

The Rainbow Serpent made laws that all were asked to obey, but some grew quarrelsome and were troublemakers. The Rainbow Serpent scolded them, saying, “Those who keep my laws I shall reward well, I shall give to them a human form. They and their children and their children’s children shall roam this earth forever. This shall be their land. Those who break my laws I shall punish. They shall be turned to stone, never to walk the earth again.”

So the law breakers were turned to stones, and became mountains and hills, to stand forever and watch over the tribes hunting for food at their feet. But those who kept her laws she turned into human form, and gave each of them his own totem of the animal, bird, or reptile whence they came. So the tribes knew themselves by their own totems: the kangaroo, the emu, the carpet snake, and many, many more. And in order that none should starve, she ruled that no man should eat of his own totem, but only of other totems. In this way there was food for all.

So the tribes lived together in the land given to them by the Mother of Life, the Rainbow Serpent, and they knew that the land would always be theirs, and that no one should ever take it from them."
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Lets pay our respect to a Thughutti Elder Pastor George Quinlin.

Pastor George Quinlin was a Thunghutti Elder from the Macleay Valley of New South Wales. He was born and raised on the Bellbrook Aboriginal Reserve. He has spoken at a number of conferences in Australia and overseas. He has represented his people on a number of occasions in meetings with Government ministers at both state and federal level.
He has been a pastor for twenty-nine years and has ministered in many areas of Australia. He is among the last of those living that he grew up with. He attributes his long life to his spiritual beliefs and following sound health principles.

I got to meet this lovely gentleman a few times, his horses walked our little bitty land and he asked if I had any objection to them grazing there, which I did not mind. I just fenced where they could not walk. We used to chat while he feed them buckets of oats when the grass was a little scares. His wife Esther still lives in the area and does beautiful art for sale.


Still wonder what's there to do in Bellbrook. Watch for updates ........
Until nexttime
Rina