Interpreting the world around us, or understanding a world that is as spiritual as it is physical is one of the most delightful challenges I have experienced in discovering the ancient Lore of Tribal Australia. As I child I wandered the Aussie bush with an often wary childish delight. There you can feel the presence of many worlds, the touch of ancient spirits and come to understand more deeply the legends of Aus’.
Available for only a few days is a promotional download of the e-book Nulla Nulla and find a Breath of Yesteryear
A trip into Colonial Australia as told by Cecil Roy Mackaway
This is an account of growing up in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. The tales and the vernacular used are of an era now passed. Join Cecil as brings to life the world of colonial Aus’
For other books on travelling around Aus’ see “Around the Campfire” and the stories from “Discovering Australia and Her Lore”
Jan also writes novels on contemporary Aboriginal Australia. In The Dreaming Series, you will walk with the Shaman as they struggle to survive in a contemporary world. Each book from The Dreaming Series is a tale in its own right, each book will step you into a world hidden from your own.
To discover more of the ancient Aboriginal Lore, visit the page dedicated to exploring this Lore in “Australia an Ancient Land”.
Millions of years ago, when life emerged from the waves it was stromatalites and thrombolites that made it possible. They breathed oxygen into the atmosphere and life eventually moved onto the land once water had begun to fall from the heavens, nourishing the earth. 600 million years ago the ancestors of thrombolites and stromatolites produced the oxygen needed for life on land to exist and their ancient colonies can be found today in only a few rare places around the world.
They look like rocks but are really ancient forms of microbial communities that produce energy from sunlight. These ancient forms of life are found in specialized environments around the world. They require water to survive. Stromatalites need saline water and thrombolites require a greater measure of fresh water.
The ancient Lore of the Kadaitcha, or Featherfoot is a Lore lost in time. I first began writing fictional tales about this ancient Australian Aboriginal Lore some years ago now, mostly for the young adults seeking something of their own in Australia. Yet still, after four novels and the framework the new series, I find not only is historical reality a rich resource for a fiction entwined in the facts, but that there is so much more yet to be told of this ancient world.
That these tales went on to become a series dealing with the growth of the Kadaitcha man within his culture and within the mainstream Australian culture, was as much a surprise to me as it is to my readers.
Peeling back the tenets of an ancient lore, whose remnant still largely remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy and respect, is not the easiest thing on the earth to do. I have had an interest in the area of Aboriginal Lore since I was a child who stumbled across an ancient carving in a rock-face, which inspired the fertile field of the imagination.
I grew up around tales of bunyips, and serpents to be wary off such as the Rainbow Serpents who roam the native bush and quiet places as well as others who we were in bible stories of the Garden of Eden. This along with tales of little mischievous sprites of the Dreamtime and others found in childhood fairy tales lends a child’s mind to try and resolve the mysteries of the world around them. This is an Australian childhood for thousands of young Aussies as well as kids across the planet in the world today. Continue reading
The legend of the Djaranin, or the Dark Dogs of Death within Aboriginal Lore is a legend not well known. It is however perhaps one of the scariest legends or stories told to children and adults sitting around a campfire at night. It is right up there with the hell fire of the religious purgatory and was no doubt used tin the same way as hell-fire preachers used a simialar tale to subjugate their rowdy congregations in order to extract a larger legacy, thus avoiding the hell-fire.
Wolgaru, master of the Djaranin is a Serpent, one of the Lore givers of Aboriginal Lore. He is however the judge and jury in bringing into balance the good and evil in man.
He is a dark and beautifully powerful serpent who moves through the night like a spirit of revenge and justice. He is also the serpent and Lore giver for those who keep the balance between good and evil in their society, he is the serpent of the Kadaitcha Men; but he is not a servant, he is the keeper.
In my study of the Oruncha Spirit Men I have come to appreciate that they are a powerful force to be reckoned with. There are two concepts of who or what the Oruncha Men were (or are). They are a tribal men, who lived apart from their tribe at times and practice their lore, not unlike the Kadaitcha men.
The Kadaitcha and/or Featherfoot are also men of power and authority, men who enforced the Lore of the Spirit world in their deeds and who are feared by the tribes and mobs of traditional tribal Australia. Even to this day they are feared by many of Aboriginal descent.
The concept of the Dreamtime is often for some a difficult concept to understand. Dreaming, that wonderful state between reality and fantasy is a place most of us know and enjoy, but the Dreamtime is a place very different. Some would affiliate it with the concept of heaven and hell when arriving at a perception of what manner of place the Dreamtime is.
The Dreamtime is a combined state of both heaven and hell, indeed the only separations made between heaven and hell are those made within the tenets of the religions scattered around the world, which is a recent development given the timeline of man.
One of the most striking things about legends from across the world is the similarities they wear. Always of an interest to me I have now come to search for these markers in legend and lore. From serpents to dragons and the snakes of Eden, all noted as the bearers of knowledge or evil, which can often be considered the same.
One of the greatest pleasures I find in writing is research. I write on Aboriginal Lore, a passion I have had for many years and one, which has been an integral part of my life. I also write informal travelogues, which are opinion and experience rather than travel advice and recommendations. Research has been part of my life from the very early days when I would listen to stories told and read what little there was back then of Australian tales. This has been an interest of mine since childhood. It once entailed spending long wonderful hours amongst old photo’s, writings and microfiche and I still enjoy getting back to the basics in a dusty room, unearthing precious resources.
Now-a-days a great deal of research is done on the internet and within valuable databases such as the Gutenberg Collection. This collection allows you on-line access to many journals, those of our Explorers and many other writings which are made freely available. However there is no going past many of my other research resources, valued books that I have collected over the years, which simply are no longer available and other resources and papers that make up part of my collection.
Jan Hawkins Author 