Rachel Arthur
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time

The Big Bang theory provides a modern scientific explanation of the creation of the earth, but universally, the ancient peoples of the world have established their own folklore about the beginning of time. The wisdom and knowledge of their ancestors not only provides the answer to how the world began, but also provides a living continuity between the past and the present.
The Dreamtime is central to the oral tradition of Aboriginal mythology. The Aboriginals believe that the spark of life, the soul which energizes them is connected to the Dreamtime, so by stimulating that part of themselves through ritual and ceremony, a breakthrough can be made into the timeless time of the dreaming when all things are made and continue to be made.
The Aboriginals also believe that birds were once gods and that trees are the home of ancestors and create a ladder between the earth and sky world. The dreaming tree of life features in a ceremony where the tree is planted with its roots in the air and is ascended by the shamans who disappear into the sky.
The forest is a symbol of the abode of man in his state of innocence and is universally represented in mythology as a realm of supernatural spirits.

she oak with azure kingfishers
night painting
daytime
geometric pattern
the appropriative nature of culture #2
constancy and change
giant emu and wollemi pine
botanical painting of a bipedal hominid
the invisible yamuti
giant kangaroo
snake
quail