Bankstown Koori Elders Group

Spirit Sticks on Fire, 2023

MIXED MEDIUM, MDF BOARD SLIP AND CLAY
20 cm
From the beginning of our dreamtime, fire has been an essential part of our daily lives. Fire has many uses and meanings, we sit around our campfires to keep warm while we yarn, telling stories and teaching lore and culture that is practiced and promoted today. We use fire to bring people together for ceremony for corroboree and for funerals. As we watch the seasons pass, we know when it is time to use a firestick to burn country, then we watch the rebirth of our country with new plant growth and than the returning animals, sometimes mother nature send lightning to strike our land which causes a firestorm, we work tirelessly fighting the firestorm to make sure it does not destroy our counrty, than we give thanks with a fire dance. There is a fire that burns deep in our gut and in our hearts, it is the need for our families, for country, for peace, for recognition, for treaty and sovereignty. This is our physical as well as our spiritual inheritance, this is the fire that burns within us all

Our Group has 10 members 9 Aunties and 1 Gubba (non aboriginal husband of one of the Aunts)
since 2011 we have been working with clay connecting with culture and land with our ceramic teacher and mentor Walter Auer, we meet every Friday in Bankstown working with other member of the community for mental health and wellbeing.

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