Tuesday 11 September 2007

ELEMENTS : earth



earth....earth with a small 'e'......today's picture is of a rock map we came upon in an extremely isolated part of the Kimberley area in N.W. Australia in 2003. Made by a local mob of Aboriginal people, it is a map or picture of their country. It's not difficult to see the connection between a rock map and Aboriginal 'dot paintings'.

12 comments:

Jules said...

Wow - cabacurl - this is amazing. I've never seen anything like this before. What was the map telling a story or was is just art???

CaBaCuRl said...

Hi Jules, hhmm, yes, i can see that betel nut mouth would not always be a good look.]
FRom my very limited understanding of a rock map, it usually depicts tracks and paths across the local country, and shows things like waterholes, rivers,caves, secret-scared places, hills, mountains, etc. This really was in a very isolated place....there was (to our knowledge) not one living person within a day's drive of where we were( admittedly, it was on a bit of a goat track)

Neva said...

This is a very interestin looking picture with the rocks...Wow..

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!!!!
I'd never seen or heard of such rock arrangements in the outback before. This is fascinating. Thanks for sharing your photo. Australia never ceases to amaze me.

Anonymous said...

WoW...that's a lovely looking pic...very nice!

Marie said...

That is very interesting. We learn a lot through blogs :-)) The photo looks like a modern painting.

NorthBayPhoto said...

Great shot and good info!

Thanks for visiting my NorthBayPhoto blog.

Irina said...

Unbelievable! The spot looks like a perfect space for creation!

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving comments! The green patch you asked about was a pointsman's booth.

Anonymous said...

We visited NT last year, including Arnhem Land and weren't lucky enough to see something like this. In fact,I've never seen an aboriginal rock map in any form.

dr. filomena said...

First, let me say thank you for dropping by at my blog and for your kind words.

I love this photo. I can imagine the energy the place must radiate. I only wish you'd have shared it with us in a larger format.

I'll be back!

CaBaCuRl said...

THank you Dr Filomena for that suggestion. If you , or anyone else, can explain to me HOW to put pictures in a larger format, i will certainly give it a go.

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