Sydney losing touch with Dreamtime history<\/p>\n
By Michael Perry<\/p>\n
SYDNEY (Reuter): Haunting aboriginal voices echo the names of
\nSydney's lost aboriginal clans in a sight-and-sound sculpture in
\nthe financial center of this city, but most workers hurry by
\noblivious to Sydney's black history.<\/p>\n
Beneath this city's chrome and glass and sprawling suburbia,
\nlies an ancient culture dating back at least 20,000 years.
\nErosion and 200 years of white settlement, however, mean this
\nblack heritage is in danger of disappearing like some of the
\ncity's aboriginal clans.<\/p>\n
Aborigines have walked the Earth for 40,000 years.<\/p>\n
Their Dreamtime culture tells of Earth's creation -- of giant
\nmythical creatures ploughing a barren planet, creating rivers and
\nharbors and providing shelter and food for the Earth's people,
\nthe Aborigines.<\/p>\n
It is an ancient culture passed on by word of mouth, rock
\nengravings and drawings. Scattered around Sydney are the remains
\nof the history of the city's original inhabitants -- 6,000 Darug
\nAborigines -- and their vibrant, spiritual culture.<\/p>\n
Many suburbs bear aboriginal names. Bondi means sound of
\ntumbling waters, Coogee translates to rotten seaweed and
\nWoolloomoloo means young kangaroo.<\/p>\n
When the first whites arrived, Sydney was a huge aboriginal
\nart gallery with an estimated 10,000 rock engraving and etching
\nsites. Only 2,000 such sites have been unearthed so far.<\/p>\n
\"There are thousands of rock engravings and more are being
\nfound each year,\" Jim Kohen, author of The Darug and Their
\nNeighbors, told Reuters as he inspected a site of kangaroo,
\nechidna and male engravings.<\/p>\n
\"They are extensive, some up to a couple of 100 square metres
\nin area. There may be 50, 60 or more figures engraved in some of
\nthe sites and they represent a wide range of spiritual beliefs of
\nthe aboriginal people,\" Kohen said.<\/p>\n
\"It is not uncommon for aboriginal engravings and shell
\nmiddens (dumps) to be found in people's backyards,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Some residents who have found aboriginal sites in gardens or
\nunder garages refuse to publicize them because of a fear that
\nAborigines may stake a claim for the site and their homes.<\/p>\n
Ignorance has also seen many sites vandalized, sometimes
\ninadvertently by well-meaning whites.<\/p>\n
The local government which ran Bondi Beach in the 1960s
\nregrooved a large whale and shark engraving in the middle of a
\ngolf course on a cliff overlooking the beach.<\/p>\n
\"To go over those lines in an attempt to deepen the lines --
\ndoes that make it a bastardization version of our art?,\" asked
\nJenny Munro, chair of Sydney's Metropolitan Aboriginal Land
\nCouncil, as she inspected the site.<\/p>\n
\"Here we have a golf course on a site which should really have
\na museum structure over the top of it to protect it,\" Munro said,
\npointing to the crumbling rock, pock-marked by golf balls.<\/p>\n
\"This a very important site for aboriginal people that has
\nbeen desecrated by white Australians,\" Munro said.<\/p>\n
The traditional white history of Sydney tells a story of
\ncolonization of a hostile land and its savages. Only recently
\nhave school text books changed colonization to invasion.<\/p>\n
Under aboriginal law, only traditional landowners can pass on
\nthe engravings' Dreamtime stories. In 1788 when the British first
\nsailed into Sydney Harbor, 1,500 Eora clan Aborigines lived on
\nthe shores where the Sydney Opera House now stands.<\/p>\n
Today, there are no known descendants of the Eora in Sydney.
\nThe new Sydney Museum, in the financial center of the city, is an
\nattempt to resurrect Sydney's black history.<\/p>\n
Haunting aboriginal voices call out the names of the city's
\nlost clans from the museum's courtyard sculpture called Edge of
\nthe Trees. Timber and stone pillars, encased with aboriginal
\nhair, shells, ochre and ash, also bear the names of the first
\nwhite settlers.<\/p>\n
But for most Australians the only time they see an Aborigine
\nin Sydney is when the television reports on the black, inner-city
\nghetto of Everleigh Street.<\/p>\n
Most of the 30,000 Aborigines living in Sydney today come from
\nother parts of Australia. They struggle to preserve not only
\ntheir own tribal cultures but those of Sydney's lost clans.<\/p>\n
But aboriginal culture is adapting to its modern, urban
\nenvironment. Aboriginal musicians and dancers are mixing the
\ntraditional with the contemporary.<\/p>\n
Sydney's Bangarra aboriginal dance company draws on outback
\ntribal stories of the Dreamtime and urban experiences to create
\nits performances.<\/p>\n
\"I suppose because we live in two worlds, so to speak, we are
\nable to cross over into the contemporary and the mainstream and
\nbring this wonderful, traditional essence through,\" said Stephen
\nPage, Bangarra artistic director.<\/p>\n
\"It is like building a bridge... with the rural land keepers
\nand us down here, to survive the two worlds,\" Page said.<\/p>",
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