Women Within Traditional Aussie Culture

I’m working on a novel at the moment as I do in our travels and one of the best thing I find about travelling my country are the experiences you have, the knowledge and the memories you gain which all become part of the story within my writing. The book I am working on presently is the third book in the Spirit Children Series and having very much enjoyed the process of the storyline in previous books, this third novel offers a number of enjoyable challenges as the characters follow in the wake of our own travels. The story is that of an ancient Lore and its survival in a contemporary world.

Aboriginal Lore – Wolgaru and the Dogs of Death – Djaranin

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.

The Kadaitcha – Superhero’s of Aussie Lore

The Lore of the Kadaitcha is an ancient and respected Lore, one of the oldest faiths in the world but one denigrated in the past by historians who recorded Australia’s colonial times. The ignorance of these historians is only surpassed by the lack of depth within the westernised concept of spirituality when it comes to understanding an ancient culture and Lore. A Lore ten times older than Christianity or any other mainstream religion.

In the social media recently I came across the graphic image shown here and found it a remarkable image. To me it represented reality vs fiction or the Kadaitcha of Aussie Lore vs pop cartoon caricature. While I have also enjoyed the still popular vampire fad of the present day up to a point, I do recognise that they are fantasy as is Batman, Clark Kent and any other super hero you might like to name including Astro-boy. I could write reams on the physical impossibilities recounted or presented in popular paranormal or supernatural fiction. This however would not include the Kadaitcha or ‘clever men’ of the Australian traditional Lore who are very, very real and are recorded in our history and the social news-sheets of their day, as well as in legend and tales which recount a social history within an ancient culture which has no ancient literary text as reference.

For anyone who has ever encountered the elusive Kadaitcha Men, or truly studied their strengths recorded in history, such as Prof. A.P. Elkin who published a study of their Lore in ‘Aboriginal Men of High Degree’ which is available online,  there is little doubt as to their commanding power. Amongst these people can be counted a number of historical figures who recognized their strengths with respect. The most notable record of historical accounts of brushes with the Kadaitcha was when Governor Phillip, Australia’s first Colonial Governor, first met the highly respected Kadaitcha Man, Pemulwuy in an incident where the Governor was speared in 1790. To his credit Governor Phillip ordered that there be no retaliation against Pemulwuy, as he believed he acted to defend his people over atrocities committed against them by one particular colonist. The renowned Kadaitcha Man was likely undertaking what is known as ‘payback’ for these same atrocities and reacting to the failure of the Governor to control his followers or those otherwise known as colonists and convicts of the early penal settlement. Pemulwuy was of the Kadaitcha Lore and a great leader amongst his people.