Wednesday, January 14, 2009

#157-365 In My Neighbourhood

The theme was chosen because it is indicative of this area (Kippa Ring Located on the Redcliffe peninsula), is of course surrounded by sea, River and Mangrove Swamp. So the indigenous inhabitants relied heavily on the resources that these provided. Depicted here is a Dugong (or sea cow) a sea grass eater akin to your manate, which apparently the French, Dutch, Portugues and English sailors mistook for Mermaids (Boy could an optician have cleaned up in those days) as well as several other denizens of the deep which will be posted tomorrow and later. This is your first glimpse of the depiction of the Rainbow Serpent seen winding the length of the fence.
The fence is a work in progress and at the moment there is no head or tail shown anywhere, but this is normal, as I have seen 38 feet depictions of the Rainbow serpent with the head and tail apparently hidden under 100 ton boulders and emerging from inpenetratable rock crevices. This is the one unifying thing I have found in my limited exposure to the Aboriginal Lore, the Rainbow Serpent is pervasive throughout all areas of Australia. But that isn't surprising as accounts that I have read of the Myar, Inca, Hoppi and Seminole Indians as well as ancient Chinese and Welsh mentions of Dragons all seem related to the same creature who knows, I have even read small clues indicating that the Celtic origins of the Welsh/Irish/Scots can be traced all the way back to Mongolian Steppes, where the Celts and Mongols were of like heritage and (Possibly Humourously) The Mongols (with superior numbers) drove the Celts Westward as they were too violent to be allowed to live in peaceful Mongol society. An anecdotal justification for this little gem, is that a friend (of Welsh Heritage) went on a tour of China where tour groups were given Chinese character renderings of their names and John, Robert, Mary or Jane gave the caligraphers hell to interpret, but her name Ceridwin was quickly written out without hesitation. She questioned this through an interpreter and was told "Oh that was easy it is a Northern Chinese word meaning - Owl". Now anyone with an interest in King Arthur will tell you that Merlins grandmother carried the same name as did Merlins Companion "Ceridwin - the Owl).

Sorry ran on a bit but in my defence I was sidetracked by a twisted mind (Mine) please heed my call for respecting the art work and use the link in the last two posts to follow up any interest in the aboriginal Peoples.

10 comments:

Linda aka Elemobe said...

This is really nice - great colours and the background info is interesting

Chesney said...

Wow, interesting and another beautiful art piece. Love your "rambling" - again, it is cool to learn about other cultures that I may have never been exposed to.

Sunny said...

Thanks for all the wonderful photos of Aborigine artwork! The angle on this one allows us to see almost all of the fence. Great work! (The artist's and yours.)

mljrbg said...

Very interesting photo and description.

terricreates said...

Your shots of the artwork again is wonderful. I know I appreciate the history and stories behind it. Thanks.

John said...

Nice patterns. Thanks for the great write up on the owl.

NBY said...

These shots of the aboriginal art are wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful to learn about other cultures. Interesting piece.

Edmund said...

Another great story. What's wrong with the sick Mind?

Anonymous said...

I don't know which is more amazing...you or the art!

Madelaine