Aboriginal Blue Mountains Walkabout by Evan Yanna Muru

03/03/2021

Thanks Sonia, It was a privilege to share the Dreaming with you.....

15/04/2019

Great cultural story. Dad would love you for that. Thank you Lisa.

Development has been approved for this barren paddock in the Snowy Mountains. But Indigenous people say it could contain burial sites

29/05/2015

Rainbow circle our greatest Aboriginal symbol of the never ending creative cycle of The Dreaming.......

22/05/2015

Once a year I share the Glowing; mushrooms, worms and stars Dreaming Tour. I also share ocassional one off interpretive cultural tours of some special Sacred Sites accross Sydney and Blue Mountains. To be a part of these it is necessary to have completed my Aboriginal Blue Mountains Walkabout first. To be on the notification of these tours please click the subscribe button below. Dreamtime from Evan

Achieve ancient wisdom to enrich your life and a deep connection to our country & culture. Owned, operated and guided by Aboriginal Evan Yanna Muru.

21/03/2015

The OLDEST HUMAN MEMORY on EARTH

Our ancestors Dreamtime stories that were; sung, danced, painted or carved in stone had to be kept word and symbol perfect. They are the oldest memory on Earth for humankind. Much older than this good article says. We have history carved in stone in spiritual symbolism about massive tectonic upheaval for the Earth where; giant geysers come up out of the ground, day becomes night due to the suspended volcanic ash from the eruption of volcanic super calderas, the rock becoming soft like jelly due to earthquakes and the creation of landscape and life from an extraordinary ammount of water that came out of the Earth. This age we call The Dreamtime. However The Dreaming energy is a never ending cycle of; destruction, creation and preservation. We should all be very happy and appreciative to be living in the time of preservation because it will change to the next phase at some stage. So did we live through one of these destruction and creation phases or were we taught this by the Creator spirits of The dreaming who gave us The Lore? Either way a carving that I share on my Aboriginal Blue Mountains Walkabout Tour symbolises a Dreamtime story that accurately recorded a tumultuous period of our Earths geological and biological history. Thanks for sharing this article Tanya (Creator of Our Dream Time page). Please share this post. Dreamtime from Evan Yanna Muru

Traditional stories describe how the Great Barrier Reef, pictured, once formed part of the Queensland coastline while other islands around the continent were part of the mainland.

17/03/2015

A WELCOME and INTRODUCTION to my cultural; TOUR, POSTS for SHARING THE DREAMING and upcoming DREAMTIME BOOK SERIES

Hi my name is Evan Yanna Muru (See above banner photo). I am an Aboriginal person born from Darug land. In time I hope to see you one special day in nature on one of my life changing Walkabout tours. For further info or booking; click www.BlueMountainsWalkabout.com, email [email protected] or call 0408443822. Through learning and practicing the ancient knowledge you can achieve a great wisdom to enrich your modern life and gain a deep connection and understanding of our country & culture.

Over time on this page I will introduce you to many of our creative spirits of The Dreaming and give a brief summary of what they are about. I will do this with care to help bring back a greater; clarity, understanding, respect and appreciation for the oldest culture on Earth. Please note that you will not see these particular rock engravings on the normal Aboriginal Blue Mountains Walkabout but you will see other images of them and learn extra detail about them from the sacred sites we visit. As soon as you have done the Blue Mountains one I can then put you on an emailing list so you have the opportunity to grow your connection and understanding by experiencing a variety of one off Walkabouts of some of these other wonderful sacred sites.

Please note that all of the postings on this site is my own understanding of the Aboriginal culture before colonisation based on a lifetime of shared research of; myself, my father and friends including; Archaeologists, Anthropologists and many very wise Aboriginal elders from different parts of Australia. My main mentor is a 5 times initiated elder from Arnhem Land with the greatest cultural knowledge I have ever experienced. He said he has taught me everything he knows and wants me to share it with the world. I greatly thank all those people for sharing culture with me. A combined knowledge accumulated from many sources and grounded on countless very enjoyable but very challenging hours of off track bushwalking; rediscovering, recording, understanding and interpreting hundreds of our sacred sites from Newcastle to Wollongong and west to Lithgow.

From this knowledge base and direct from what our ancestors carved in stone, I am working on a series of 10 books about our culture. The first one will be how we can practice the ancient knowledge in the modern world for greater wisdom and wellbeing. These E books will eventually be available from my website. To ensure the preservation of our sacred sites no specific locations will be given.

The purpose of the Lore (collective wisdom) of The Dreaming was, is, and forever will be to educate all humans who visit us about our; origins, history, and how to master the art of living for the benefit of all life forms. A holistic guide that was designed to be forever relevant and essential for all life forms across all of space and time. It was not our creation but a gift from other worlds. Incredibly wise and powerful creator beings who practiced it for eons before sharing it with us. Our job was to record and pass it on accurately through symbols in; song, dance, drawing, painting and by carving it in stone. Through rhyme and symbology The Lore of The Dreaming remains pure and intact just as it was on its first day of issue. The only thing that needed to change was the method of delivery to match the age we live in so it remained effectively taught to all that visited us.

The Lore of Dreaming is based on spiritual practice which causes continual adaptation to suit the changing natural and social environment. It is the main reason why we are the longest lasting on Earth. There are many ancient Dreamtime stories from around Australia that tell us it was our women who were originally responsible for looking after and teaching this Dreaming Knowledge including all of our sacred sites. Then our men took over that role and preserved and taught The Dreaming until the current age of colonization. Since then the dominant modern way of life has caused a breakdown in cultural; respect, education, practice, preservation and adaptation. To restore effective teaching and preservation of the knowledge of The Dreaming including maintaining our sacred sites our method of delivery is changing again so that both our genders now share the responsibility of caretakers and knowledge holders of our sacred spiritual world. To quote a great elder Tex Scuthorpe from Noonghal country. ‘’Sacred is not secret.’’

My aim then is to help provide a clear understanding of our sacred Knowledge using the current most effective methods of delivery. The Lore of Dreaming has been badly muddied from the effects of colonialism. For an analogy when the colonial explorers first reached what they called the Darling River in our Barkinji country they saw huge fish on the bottom through deep crystal clear water. Within months their imported hard hoofed stock stripped away our native grasslands and spongy fertile top soil and that river has become muddy ever since. These posts are part of my attempt to help restore the original level of cultural clarity.

They are in part a simplified and generalised model for understanding our culture as a whole which can be done with the male All Father (common law) third of The Dreaming. However because the female third of The Dreaming Earth Mother (local law of the land) is different across Australia I will also give our local detail which will be different to other regions. Where ever there is a gap in our local knowledge I will name and give an example from another region.

If anyone has disagreement with any of this information no matter how small please contact me and I will be very happy to; discuss, be enlightened and wherever appropriate make a correction. As Aboriginals our ultimate responsibility was and still is to; learn, practice and pass on The Lore of The Dreaming in the most effective way possible for the times that we live in to everyone who visits our land. These posts are part of my attempt to respectfully and effectively share some of our ancient knowledge in way that modern people can better; understand, connect, appreciate and care for the oldest culture on Earth.

Please; like, share, post and invite all your friends to like my page for with your help we can reach the world. Dreamtime from Evan Yanna Muru

15/03/2015

SACRED EARTH MOTHER the FEMALE THIRD of THE DREAMING

The female third of The Dreaming is The Earth Mother. A common name for her is Nungeena and along with the All Father she is for Aboriginal people the co creator and nurturer of all life on Earth. She is the Earth including all of its great diversity of different forms of nature. She is all its different energies and in most parts of Australia she is also the Moon. Every one of these different forms of her is to be respected and cared for as an equal. For example we cannot eat our 5 different personal Dreamings (totems) and we have to look after their habitat and the food that they eat. For another example initiated men can only speak with a soft tone of voice in front of the women because they are considered a special form of Earth Mother. Her main energies are; female Rainbow Serpent (sacred water), minerals and flowers but she represents the total variety of all the different individual spirits.

She is the local law of the land which is why every clan has differences in the details of their regional culture. A good example of this is the local Earth Mother in particular the birds taught us to speak and that is why we have over 250 different languages and over 500 different dialects. Regional variations in the details of; language, stories, ceremonies, way of life and sometimes even the names of the great spirits. Being every individual spirit she is full of love but very complicated and needs to be treated with great care and respect or she can become a cyclone, get the rage like an angry crocodile and go on the warpath. In one of our dreamtime stories from up north when confronted with her in cyclone form they simply; sung, danced, respected and cared for her even better than before and then she moved back out into the water and changed into a calm sea. She is change and sometimes can be very changeable but she is consistently happy whenever the men dance.

Earth Mother spirit is in the Earth and everything on it including women and men where her energy is symbolised by the left hand side of a person. She has the greatest power on Earth and was made our number one boss and teacher. Her strongest power is healing we gain by keeping in physical contact but she has many other gifts; fertility, water, fire, earth, minerals, protection from bad spirit trouble, our five senses, bush food, bush medicine, comfort, solitude (separation) and solace. Same as the All Father spirit she can be; creation, preservation or destruction. She is the differences which keeps life interesting. She provides the meaning of life which in part is; making, enjoying and looking after an infinite diversity of creation.

She is mostly symbolised by red ochre and seen and mostly depicted in painting or rock engraving as very large with; wide thighs, sacred lines across hips, long hair to her waist, breasts straight out or horizontally sideways and surrounded by symbols or depictions of her many powers. The last 3 attributes are not always shown. Her arms will be down but may be out holding the individual spirit children to be born. Her sacred creation sites are; water fall, mineral springs, deep billabong, deep plunge pool, deep grottos and deep caves. It is there where her spirit children playfully reside until a particular pregnant female life form visits. One will then jump into her body and into the baby’s body to give it their individual Dreaming (totem) and their main connection to country.

Below is one of the many images engraved in stone of our sacred Earth Mother I have encountered. She is from the Greater Mount Yengo area 2 hours’ drive northwest of Sydney. Sorry for the low resolution but I photographed her many years ago. There was once 5 sacred lines out of her head representing her great spiritual power. Her very large eyes represents that she sees all to become very wise. No mouth represents that she is observing and becoming wise by listening and not talking. The many natural mottled holes across her body represents her awesomely strong female Rainbow Serpent spirit. She has the sacred lines across her breasts and legs showing she is a major spirit of The Dreaming. Her rounded or cupped left hand carefully holds the great diversity of life in the form of spirit children. She is showing her power of fertility and creation with her breasts full with milk, straight out sideways and giving birth shown by her legs up and a baby’s head emerging.

Please; like, post, share and invite all your friends to like my page.

Dreamtime from Evan Yanna Muru

03/03/2015

DISCOVERY of EAGLES REACH CAVE & WOLLEMI DREAMING POEM

It was in May 2003’ that an Aboriginal friend and Archaeologist Wayne Brennan invited me to join a group of Archaeologists which included Prof Paul Tacon who managed the project, Mathew Kelleher and Jill ford. Their goal on this occasion was to reach and record a once in a lifetime major cultural discovery. There had been 3 previous expeditions to relocate it. The first one led by the National Park which had to turn back due to; hazardous terrain, jungle like scrub and sheer cliffs. The second one was led by Andy Macqueen and included 3 other members of The Springwood Bushwalking Club and after much difficulty they made it. The third one saw Andy and Wyn Jones find an alternative route that avoided abseiling but they run out of time. Finally Andy navigated our group of 6 to the cave.

It had been a tough 2 day walk but 206 ancient images from our ancestor’s made us completely forget about our sore bodies and scratched arms. We were sponsored by the Australian Museum and this expedition was the first team ever to scientifically record it. Because it is so special and in pristine condition local Aboriginal language groups; Darug, Darkinjung and Wiradjuri correctly decided to keep it as a secret place. However all people can see a display of all our recording efforts in the projects section of the Australian Museum in College St Sydney.

I have since been on 2 more scientific trips camping for a week at a time out in the Wollemi Wilderness. With most of our original group and quite a few others including Wyn Jones, Richard Delaney and Michael Jackson (NS). They were tough but exciting times as we discovered hundreds of new sacred sites. One had a firestick and on another trip they even found a hafted axe. We shared knowledge of the land and culture. It was fun and a real privilege to be way out in the bush with those great people. Being out in nature with some fascinating stories and dodging the smoke of the campfire is still my best form of entertainment. Then what happened next still amazes me.

In a case of mind blowing synchronicity I found out later that my Aboriginal uncle Don Rice who I never met was the first to discover the cave on the 11/11/1995. He was in a group of 6 from the Sutherland Bushwalking Club. He loved it so much he climbed and abseiled back there the following year. Sadly Uncle died before I found this out but I met his son Mark and we have formed a strong friendship as we continue rediscovering, recording and interpreting our sacred sites. Mark said his Dad was like mine having a great love of bushwalking and culture. They both showed us many sacred sites and were forever going the extra distance to climb up that next hill and peer keenly into The Dreaming.

The 2 photo’s below show firstly my Aboriginal Uncle Don and secondly myself in the cave sitting in the same spot 8 years apart. The Eagle in the white ochre with the tomahawk and boomerang stencilled on its wings represents Biamee our Sky Father. The hand stencils are very sacred and formed a strong bond with your Earth Mother totem. They are sprayed from ochre in your mouth only in a cave at or near your dreaming place. Where your spirit baby entered your mother’s body and into yours shortly after your conception. Hope you enjoy this cave of creation.

See below a poem I wrote 10 years ago based on a dream I had after spending some quality time alone in the very spiritual Eagles Reach cave.

Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your; likes, posts and shares. Please invite all your friends to like my page? Dreamtime from Evan Yanna Muru

WOLLEMI DREAMING

Soaring over the wilderness
Flying high over the dreaded lawyer vine
It’s thorny snare can’t reach an eagle
Now I can safely explore- the Wollemi

Over the thickest jungle
And rocky scree- so steep
Gliding amongst those golden sandstone walls
That plummet down hundreds of feet

I ride a scorching thermal
I’m elevated over the top
I spy a lonely small dark cave
And it beckons me to stop

Peering inside this curiosity
My talons clenched at the view
For I was surrounded by every beast I’d ever seen
And some I never knew

Surrounded by Aboriginal ancestors
There was just so many to tally
And I was enchanted by all those totem birds
Their spirit perched perpetually

So which mob created these bird men?
An ancient mystery on which to gaze
And why in such a lonely treacherous place?
Ahhh… the secrets of the Wollemi Cave

Well as I wake from my slumber
I remember that flying adventure
But I have so many scratches upon my arms
And I begin to wonder whether?

Are those marks from my feathers?
Was my spirit really out there flying?
Or was it just that thick rugged Wollemi bush?
And that curs-ed lawyer vine?

02/03/2015

The DREAMING, the GREAT SPIRIT and the RAINBOW SERPENT

The Dreaming, also called The Great Spirit is in everything. It is mostly symbolised by the rainbow and commonly referred to as the Rainbow Serpent spirit. It is the base energy of everything and every non thing. It’s a never ending cycle or dance of 3 main different energies that create, preserve and destroy all things. It’s most potent period was when the Earth, its landscapes and its inhabitants were created. This era is called The Dreamtime. The Dreaming however continues forever and lucky for us at the moment it is in a state of preservation.

I drew the dancing spirit below as my logo to personify the sharing of The Lore (collective wisdom) of The Dreaming. The circle represents The Dreaming which is the base energy of everything and is a never ending cycle or dance of the 3 main different genders of the energy called Rainbow Serpent spirit. They are; female- providing healing, preservation and all the variety of spirits and often symbolised by red ochre, male- providing connection and equality often symbolised by yellow ochre and the third one being both male and female caused by the dance between the first 2 providing change through creation/birth symbolised by white. The first 2 Rainbow serpents if angered enough can cause change or punishment through destruction/death.

In people the dual gendered Dance of Creation Serpent is represented by your spine. In my logo it is represented by an actual dance. The Male Rainbow Serpent is represented by the right hand side of your body. In my logo it is symbolised by the Kangaroo foot which represents our Lightning Brother but our women only called him father. The Female Rainbow Serpent is represented by the left hand side of your body. In my logo she is symbolised by the emu foot which represents Ngalabal the emu who is a very powerful female form.

The lightning brother and Ngalabal then passed on The Lore to men and women respectively and separately from north to south. It was the ultimate way of life for us to practice and along the way we mastered the art of living. Aboriginal people are responsible to teach our Lore to all people who visit or live in Australia. However practicing The Lore of The Dreaming is a great gift for our whole world.

To connect with The Dreaming at the most basic but most rewarding level simply involves any kind of sensory feeling. It works for everybody.. It works the same as meditation but its results can be far greater because it is nurtured to become our constant state of being. Supported by scientific research into the benefits of meditation, consistent connection to The Dreaming generates a natural ever expanding growth in the following great human abilities; peace, relaxation, sensory awareness, attention span, truth, common sense, performance, connection of the mind, body & spirit, intelligence, interest, passion, connection to all life, empathy, equality, fairness, respect, responsibility, reciprocation, reverence, health, healing, forgiveness, compassion, vitality, happiness, harmony, longevity, sustainability, creativity, imagination, expression and positive individual and social change.

This way of being should be the number one subject taught in schools across the world. If so within one generation Earthlings would gain all the above qualities and the admiration of our galaxy. To learn and practice Dreamtime and other great knowledge from our ancestors please book a tour with me (Evan) by; Phone 0408443822, email [email protected] or online at my website www.BlueMountainsWalkabout.com

Please; like, post, share and invite all your friends to like my page.

Dreamtime from Evan