In the hands of the Gods

        So this scartree website is now in the hands of the modern gods – the tech people who run the world (or crazy domains at least). They will attempt to operate on the site to remove sufficient Inodes from its innards so we can stay hosted. There are often lots of flotsam & jetsam files in the ‘back-end’ of websites apparently that can be painlessly euthanized.  If this goes well I will be able to keep uploading photos as long as I delete as many as I add. Some archives are full – Coolamons, Unusual & Unexplained & Scars in country which is why the new archive – Gomilaroi animals, axtrax & art or whatever keeps changing names & themes as I randomly flick pics in.

If the website dies on the operating table, this will be my last blog so I will make it short. Non literate societies remember stuff in songs & stories but also  in traditional behaviors I think. The Gomilaroi / Euahlayi  story involving a crocodile stealing Baiame’s wives & how he retrieved them at the Narran lakes is like a european fable or fairy tale ie based on truth. Thousands of years ago there were megafaunal crocodiles here from the Pallimnarchus genus up to 7 meters long & weighing over a tonne. These & other Crocodylians  were very capable of gulping down humans whole. These creatures from the Pleistocene Epoch were gone by about 10,000 yrs ago around the same time as the old Barwon river under my feet died & went underground.

So if 10,000 year old stories were still told to Aboriginal children 120 years ago (see K.Langloh Parker’s Australian legendary tales) its not inconceivable that behaviors/habits from that time were passed down as well. What sort of psychological effects remain in a people that lived through the trauma of river loss? We see how important rivers are to our Indigenous people today. Rivers & mountains last forever right… Obviously not – and this has such relevance to today’s precarious climate situation. Interglacials are supposed to be good for humanity but I think we may have accidently let the carbon genie out of the bottle here in pursuit of human comfort & our obsession with higher living standards .Im not interested in politics and blame but think we can still learn from the last massive (not man-made) climate event to help us through this one?

    Goddamit, this was supposed to be short! Lets talk about sustainability & how this may have been practiced in Oz for the last 60,000 years (give or take). I think the reason behind the planting seeds in the humus filled hollows of old eucalyptus trees goes back to the river loss trauma of the Gomilaroi clans that lived along the murramanaarrr land system. I think whenever they lopped a tree limb to build a shelter or cut a coolamon to carry water, they put seeds back into the tree as sustainability thing. I think they have been doing this for a long time & it may have become a superstitious type behavior. I think the reason there is no knowledge of this practice now is it became 2^nd nature. Take & give back, reap what you sow etc.

   Stories & songlines carry traditional directions (star & geographical  navigation) as well as multigenerational messages. I used to think the Trees in Trees were a trading type enterprise along the songlines or even a decorative thing to announce how wonderful your camp was. Now I think its more something the people did almost out of habit. Most casually planted seed would have failed but those that germinated & were close to waterholes were watered. After all their ancestors have seen it as bad as it gets. You don’t forget near total annihilation just ask any Jewish person. Given the lack of academic interest or funding Its unlikely we will never know why the Gomilaroi people of murrumanaar loaded trees with seeds. In our current situation re climate change this knowledge would be handy. Next century all our avocadoes may be grown in box trees ….   

Written By Jane On November 19, 2020