Animal Dreaming: an Aboriginal Dreamtime Story by Paul Mori, 1998.

This is the story of the Kip-a-ara (initiation into manhood) of Mirri, who is told of the earth's origin by his friend and elder Gadurra. As they set off on walkabout, Mirri learns that the Great Ancestor War-ra-mur-run-gun-di created the animals, birds and fish and they all lived together in a watery place. Everything was fine until the birds decided they should have all of the land for themselves. A giant battle commenced, but three, Garn-dag-itj, the Ancestral Kangaroo, Bal-an-ga, the Ancestral Long-Necked Turtle and Din-e-wan, the Ancestral Emu would not fight. Instead, they looked for ways to bring peace. Each had a powerful dream and afterward, the land began to change. All the animals made their homes on earth and were at peace. From that time, when the animals dreamt, they lived their dreams. When the story ended, Mirri looked at rock paintings of the Dreamtime and knew that a time would come for him too to leave his mark.

Mori's paintings of Mirri and Gadurra are done in alkyds on canvas, while his Dreamtime images are based on traditional Dreamtime motifs and are painted in acrylics on wood. The questing boy and his surroundings are painted realistically, using deep dark colors to show a mysterious sacred space. Some of the striking Dreamtime pictures look almost like mosaics, with spirals, wavy lines and dots of earthen colors creating a night sky giving way to a dream. The backgrounds of the pictures of the emu, kangaroo and turtle are highly textured and look to be painted with natural pigments, suggesting the cave drawings that Mirri sees. Readers will enjoy the surrealistic pictures, such as the great snake coiling itself  and changing into a twisting, rock hillside.

Gidja the Moon

Gidja the Moon by Percy Trezise & Dick Roughsey, 1984, North American edition 1988.

In this legend, Gidja the Moon brings mortality to the humans of the Dreamtime and becomes a celestial body, along with his wife, the Evening Star and his daughter the Morning Star. The story describes how the (super)human Gidja courts and wins his wife, then has and loses their little daughter Lilga to death. Death has been unknown to the first people, who blame Gidja and violently chase him away when he is trying to bury Lilga's body. They go so far as to try to kill him, but he does not die. When they fling him into the air, he becomes the moon that we know, waxing and waning as the days pass. At this time, he curses the people to be mortal.

In the book's introduction, we are told that the moon symbolized death to Australian Aboriginal people, but also Nature's seasonal rebirth and the afterlife. "They believed that Gidja attends the good gate at the portal of the new horizon, the Aboriginal concept of life after death. No one passes through the good gate without Gidja's approval."

Gidja the Moon includes a map of Australia with a detail of Cape York and a glossary with pronunciation of names.

The Rainbow Serpent

 

The Rainbow Serpent by Dick Roughsey, 1975. This North American edition 1988.

 

 

This edition of The Rainbow Serpent includes an introduction and a glossary, making the story easier for American readers  to understand. From the introduction, we learn that according to Aborginal mythology, the earth was originally flat and featureless and was populated only by humans. In the story, during the Dreamtime, the Rainbow Serpent Goorialla woke up and began to search for his people, crawling over Australia from south to north and creating mountains, gorges, creeks and rivers with his body as he moved. When he found his people, he was welcomed, and he taught them how to dance and what to wear. Trouble began, however, when a storm gathered and the Bil-bil brothers came looking for shelter. This legend goes on to explain how some of the original people changed themselves into animals, birds, insects and plants and how Goorialla's eye became Halley's Comet. It emphasises that we must now look after those who changed into animals, etc. because they were once people too, during the Dreamtime.

 

 

Dick Roughsey's illustrative style is very  much like his work in The Giant Devil- Dingo, with a similiar color palette and character depiction. The Rainbow Serpent is gigantic, striped with blue, green, gold and red, with horns, a protruding tongue and a inexpressive face. 

The Giant Devil-Dingo

The Giant Devil-Dingo by Dick Roughsey, 1973.

In the Dreamtime, Eelgin the grasshopper woman has Gaiya, a giant devil dingo in her thrall, and when the butcher-bird brothers, or Chooku-chooku, run into Eelgin while they are out hunting, they know that soon they will be the hunted. They are on the run, armed only with spears. Gaiya is huge, hungry and willing to chase them for days. This legend explains the origins of regular dingos and describes them as friends and helpers of people.

Dick Roughsey (1920-1985) was an Australian Aborginal author and artist of the Lardil people of Mornington Island. (To learn more about their history and culture click here .)  In information after the story, he says that this tale comes from several tribes in the lower Cape York peninsula. He  also says that unlike other creatures in the Dreamtime, the dingo was always a dog, not a human.

Roughsey's art shows the Dreamtime animal/people as dark, thin. long and featureless, making them seem at once alien and from the earth. Everything is painted in brown, terra cotta and shades of green. The Devil-Dingo is larger than an elephant and has ruddy eyes, a lolling tongue and vicious looking teeth and claws and is a fearsome foe indeed.

September fifty.fiftyme Challenge

 

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge.  Reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

September  Books Read:

 

• Wither by Lauren DeStefano:

 In this Dystopia, due to  tragic scientific tampering and error, people have greatly shortened lifespans. Girls can expect to die at age twenty and guys at twenty five. Sixteen year old Rhine and her twin brother are living alone in Manhattan, taking care of themselves and keeping other desperate orphans out of their home until Rhine is kidnapped to become the potential bride of a rich and sheltered young man in Florida. Polygamy is now standard, and three brides are chosen out of a van load of terrified girls. The unlucky rejected don't make it back to their families and former lives."Fortunate" Rhine is kept with her sister wives in luxurious captivity, expected to spend her last four years being making babies and prettily hanging on her husband's arm at public functions. But, she is courageous and resourceful. Rhine does not plan to meekly accept the life that others have chosen for her, even if it means tangling with her dangerous father-in-law, who is one of the last generation of elders. I enjoyed this story, with its elements of The Handmaid's Tale and "Beauty and the Beast" and rooted for Rhine and her escape. I'll be reading the sequel Fever.

• Rainbow Bird: An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia by Eric Madden, Illus. by Adrienne Kennaway (Please see blog post)
• Sun Mother Wakes the World: an Australian Creation Story adapted by Diane Wolkstein, Illus. by Bronwyn Bancroft (Please see blog post)
• After the Snow by S.D. Crockett
• P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia
• Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirsten Cronn-Mills

 

September Films watched:

• The Kings of Summer, 2013:
• The Way, Way Back, 2013: I really enjoyed this. A teenage guy, Duncan, (Liam James) has to spend part of his summer at his mom's (Toni Colette) new boyfriend's (Steve Carell) cottage, but the boyfriend is a horrible jerk. Duncan is pretty miserable, but fortunately he meets a guy (Sam Rockwell) who gives him a job at a water park and helps with his self esteem. I thought that this was sweet and fun.
•  Party Girl, 1995:  I wanted to watch this because I'm a librarian, and I heard that the character works in a library. Also because I enjoy Parker Posey. However, it was even sillier than I expected and unfortunately, I found it boring.

Books total: 90
Minus folktales: 53
Movies 28
Major 37/7
Minor 2/3