The Wattle Tree and the Moon 1
This painting perhaps is complementary to my painting 'Sunrise over
Springbrook.'
The wattle tree is a magical tree for me. And there is a curious link
between the Australian wattle or Acacia and the African Acacia - both
cousins spearated millions of years ago when the ancient continent of
Gonwandaland broke up, forming the continents of Africa, Australia,
India and South America. The Acacia is the title tree of Sir
James Fraser's series of 3 books, 'The Golden Bough.'
The wattle is the floral symbol of the Australian nation. Its glorious
golden flowers and pale green foliage light up the countryside in
winter and spring, and seem a symbol of hope and renewal.
But this is another side to the wattle, perhaps closer to Fraser's
sacraficial tree. Near where I grew up in the south-eastern corner of
Australia there is a dark sad place called Skull Creek - the site of a
murder of several white people by Kurnai Aboriginals - who were
themselves outcasts. My father, a bushman and drover who lived most of
his life in the bush, told me the (unrecorded) sequel to this story -
of how the local police found the Aboriginals at the creek and gave
them bags of flour laced with strychnine... My father said that the man
they killed was a hard and cruel man who treated the Aborginals
terribly. One crime led to another, more tragic one - the extinction of
a culture.
Here the golden boughs of the wattle are lit not by sunlight but by the
moon - dreaming of times past when people lived peacefully by the water
for thousands of years, then it all passed away.
Oil on canvas. 32in x 24in (approx).
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Copyright (c) Helen Duley 2003