The Eagle and the Dingo
Oil on Board
91x121cm
Signed Lower Right, Dated 1980, Titled Lower Left,
Story verso
Prov: Private Collection Adelaide
$7,000-9,000
Illustrated: Page 71 Echoes of the Dreamtime, text Melva Jean Roberts
Below is an extract from the book - “Echoes of the Dreamtime”
The Australian Aborigines who lived on Melville Island, north of Darwin, collected their best ochres from Arunumpi, on the island's southern shores. At this place there are two large ochre deposits, one of yellow and another of white, which were used by the Aborigines for ceremonial body decoration and for painting their unique burial-poles.
But the locality also has a special significance. The tribal mythology relates how, during the great creation period, Mudati and his wife Kirijuna were camped at this spot when Mudati saw his wife's brother, Jurumu, coming towards them.
Mudati warned his wife not to speak nor even look at her brother, for so it had been decreed by the spirits. But the woman, who had not set eyes on her brother since they were children, took a quick look just to see how much he had grown.
Instantly, she dropped dead at her husband's feet. But even as he watched, he saw the body slowly transformed into the first dingo, rise to its feet, and slink away. The brother, Jurumu, was changed into the eagle.
Ever since then the dingo, ashamed of its disobedient action in those far-off times, keeps out of sight, and has developed the ability to merge with its surroundings to an uncanny degree. The dingo slinking through the bush, and the eagle soaring high above her, remind Aborigines of Melville Island of the ancient spirit law: that once brothers and sisters have grown to be adults, they may no longer look at or speak to each other.
