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’.
Having just experienced the tropic savannah wilderness of Litchfield NP in the Top End, I find myself sitting on the edge of the ocean, to the roll of the endless waves against a sandy beach. We set the swag up last night, just north of Darwin, to watch the lights of the city and those of Casuarina from a beautiful spot called Gunn Point.
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.
Exploring Sydney, where does one begin?
Sydney holds so much of what is our history, both our colonial history and the stories of our ancient culture. We’ve been showing one of our Grandies around this great city, which saw the birth of the modern Aussie culture. It was a journey from the very beginnings of the penal settlement and then on through to Sydney’s current position as one of the great cities of the world.
Jan Hawkins Author 