The Australian Dreamtime myth becomes realty By ANNIKA PRIEST 11jan00 AMONG the new apartment blocks of the East Perth Development Estate lies a tribute to the foreshore as it once was, where the Nyungah tribes met and camped, fished and hunted tortoise. Beneath buildings of metal and glass and banners proclaiming "Apartments, available now", between piles of rubble, among the clangs and shouts of construction, nestles a reminder of how the river was once viewed. A tiled path runs along a meandering stream, broken every now and again by a stone tortoise squatting in its shallow waters. This leads to a man-made lake. As you follow the path along you pass through a tunnel; along one side are Aboriginal words for swimming, tortoise, and path. On the opposite side are English words describing the environment and explaining European interaction with it. Walking through a second tunnel you find more words on a wall, this time a poem dedicated to the land's white history � a gold-mining settlement, and then an industrial centre with a power station and gasworks. Just as this land once sustained the Nyungah people, so too did it sustain the colonists. Now it sustains interior designers, architects and lawyers. The Swan River has been part of Nyungah spiritual life since the Dreaming, when they say its twists were created by the rainbow serpent Waugal. This makes the river and its surrounds a sacred site for the Nyungah. Aboriginal elder Robert Bropho says the river "represents sadness, enjoyment, tears of our first mother, and all the suffering and deaths that occurred from then until now". Now the serpent faces another body blow. The expanse of river which the old Swan Brewery site overlooks is said to be the belly of the snake � the life-giving reproductive organs. Plans for a museum and an art gallery there have fallen by the wayside as tycoons make plans for their airconditioned homes. The hunt for tortoise is replaced by the hunt for prime real estate. Annika Priest is a journalism graduate ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
