Seeing Rock Art through the Eyes of the Elders
Thursday: October 24, 10 a.m. – 12 noon
This class will be presented online via Zoom. Those enrolled will receive a link via email before the presentation.
VISTAS member price: $20; non-member price: $30
Presented by David Lee
There are still a few places on earth where traditional peoples use rock art images to aid in inter-generational instruction and in ceremonies. Wardaman Country in northern Australia is one such place. This lecture will present information gathered during ten field-seasons working with Wardaman Elder Yidumduma Bill Harney. The ceremonial traditions of indigenous groups in northern Australia are concerned primarily with lessons first learned during the “Dreamtime” when the world was created (still an-ongoing process). The songs, stories, laws, and ceremonies of the present are informed by that ancient past and are meant (in large part) to help teach children about their connection to the lands of their ancestors. To the Wardaman people, time and space, act and actor are all part of the woven fabric of existence. The lessons of the Dreaming serve to inform both the reality of the present and their hopes for the future.