Tuesday 2 August 2016

ABC Wednesday, D, of Dreamtime

The Milbi Wall


Deamtime stories





Australia - Aboriginal Dreamtime: " All peoples of our world have a concept of how the world was formed. The Aboriginals believe that, in the beginning, the earth was featureless, flat and grey.

 There were no mountain ranges, no rivers, no billabongs, no birds or animals - in fact not one living thing.

 Then long, long ago came the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime was a time when giant creatures rose up out of the grey plains where they had been slumbering for countless ages.

These mythical Beings looked like animals or plants or insects, but they behaved just like humans. They wandered across the vast grey wastes, digging for water and searching for food and as they searched, because of their giant size, they made huge ravines and rivers in the land. Thus the world took on the shape it has today."




In Cooktown there is a great example of Aboriginal art. It's called the Milbi Wall. This is created by the inhabitants of Cooktown and the Aboriginal compound of Hopevale, under the direction of the Hopevale artist Roy McIvor, who is an uncle of my daughter's ex- husband.Milbi is the Guugu Yimithirr (local Aboriginal language) word for story. The wall is meant to be part of the reconciliation project and a memorial to show history from an Aboriginal point of view.


The wall concists of three parts. The first part tells about the Dreamtime, the second part about the first contact with Europeans and later Asians, these contacts were disastrous for the Aborigines, then the third part shows us the present time which hopefully promises reconciliation of differences.The stories are told in beautiful ceramic tiles.The Wall is built right at the spot where, in 1770, Captain James Cook and his crew first set foot.

On top of the wall lies the Rainbow Serpent, one of the creator spirits of the indigenous people of Australia.


With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar. This week we are looking for words beginning with D.

13 comments:

Cloudia said...

Such an inspiring post, Wil

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

The wall tells fascinating stories. I am very glad that there is a reconciliation project to honor the history of the Aboriginal peoples. We occasionally see such things here in the US, but not often enough probably .

MelodyK said...

Mooie post Wil.... en inderdaad, iedereen denkt daar het zijne van hè?

Ik hou me maar aan de religieuze versie

Have a nice ABC-W-Day / – week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ (abc-w-team)
http://melodymusic.nl/abc-wednesday-19-d/

photowannabe said...

Beautiful tiles that tell a wonderful story of the Beginnings.

Coloring Outside the Lines said...

Interesting post, and neat story tiles.

Leslie: said...

Such beautiful artist renditions of their beliefs! Lovely!

Leslie
abcw team

carol l mckenna said...

Wonderful photos and post for D ~ so fascinating to see and read!

Happy Days to you ~ ^_^

Hildred said...

What an interesting post, Wil. I have read of Dreamtime, and the Aboriginal beliefs concerning the beginning of the world. These ancient theories capture the imagination...

Roger Owen Green said...

Seems like a simpler time!

ROG, ABCW

Ann said...

Never heard of Dreamtime philosophy, learned something new from you today.
Ann

Anonymous said...

This looks familiar! And again, Wil, I so enjoyed the book about the aboriginal's culture and art. It's a real treasure! Have a great rest of the week:)

Reader Wil said...

Het is niet mijn bedoeling om religies met elkaar te vergelijken.Het is bij mij altijd een waarneming van
Culturen en hoe mensen zich ontwikkelen in hun land
met het materiaal dat daar voor handen ligt.Ik vind
vreemde culturen interessant en vergelijk ze nooit met het Christendom. Ik heb 12 jaar in Azië gewoond.

Reader Wil said...

See my comment!l don't mean the dreamtime to compaŕe
to Christianity.The artists are often very interesting and clever people.The creators of the Milbi Wall deserve to be treated with ģreat respect.