Healing Waters
Easy Tiger
Gurtha-Wuma Worrk-gu: Fire, Strength & Renewal
I have taken this theme from the 2024 Garma Festival and am using it in my daily life. It is sort of like a mantra. These words in both languages will assist in my healing journey and give me power.
The ocean has always been where my spirit thrives. I grew up on an island. Long Island, N.Y. And although it was truly suburbia, no house in the Hamptons for my family, the Atlantic Ocean and the Long Island Sound were not far from my doorway. The sound of gentle waves on the Sound or the big surf of beaches from Rockaway to Montauk rejuvenated me no matter the season.
The sand, the surf, the smell of the salty air. Riding waves, watching waves, and the seabirds swooping for some food. My decades of life are filled with memories of one beach or the other. A constant. Alone or with family and friends the saltwater is in my heart.
For the last 40 years, I have lived on this island continent. This is my home. Australia.
Again, I find myself on the land of the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation. The Wadawurrung name for this region is ‘Balla-wein’ and the balanda called it the Bellarine Peninsula. It was named this after the boats came. When the land was stolen, the indigenous people were displaced or massacred. There is blood in the soil of this land.
But as we continue to seek the truth and the stories that have been lost to many through time, the beauty of this country prevails and the custodians of this land are the Wadawurrung people. Walking to Point Addis today I could feel the ancestral heartbeat in the ironbark and the blooming wattle. I knelt at the start of the sandy trail and asked permission to move along the walk.
I was welcomed.
Cockatoos, galahs, and rosellas squawked and flew in the trees as I walked. Spring was happening all around me and the morning sea mist had not burnt off yet and wisps of fog hung low along the coastline. Searching for whales or dolphins or other sea life was limited due to the decreased visibility.
Instead, I soaked up the energy of the land. The remains of an ochre quarry presented me with a thought of the indigenous people excavating and using ochre for art and ceremony. I ran my hands over the clay earth as I listened to the waves down below the cliff face. It was not hard to imagine what this land was like thousands of years. The only thing missing was my tribe as I was alone on this walk.
This is a a healing time for me. In nature and near the sea with some yoga thrown in is how I plan on thriving over the next 2 months. The incision in my chest has healed but I still feel tight and not quite right physically. My energy is good but I feel a bit jammed up from not having used my upper body much for 3 months. My lovely entanglement with COVID 2 weeks ago has also brought about some stiffness. It is hard to know what is causing what at the moment.
Walking will move me through this country and I will learn and investigate stories that I have missed in my earlier travels along this coastline. There are always new tales to hear and more yarns to stumble upon. Movement is important and nature is my medicine.
Here is Barry Gilson a proud Wadawurrung man, a water tribe they are, and this is a short tale to tell you about the place where I am located until early October.
Water will heal. Water will bring life. The land of the ironbark trees will shield me and I will study the art of the bark. Strength returning.
At the bottom of the artwork are sand dunes. The sand dunes hold thousands of years of history of Wadawurrung people.
Freshwater to saltwater.
The coastal waters are represented withbottlenosee dolphins, sharks and whales included to symbolise some of the largest species that live there. The freshwater is where buniya the eels and fish live. These were also a food source for thousands of generations of Wadawurrung people.
Look, I know it’s not as if I planned it
I grew up where I landed
But now I’ve got to understand it
I ‘ve got to see
The things I take for granted
The sense of ease I’m handed
All the circumstances
I move through easily
And I’m not gonna lie
I’m afraid I won’t get it right
I’ll try to help and hurt someone
I’ll walk when I should run
But fairness is like love
A thing you can’t have too much of
The more you give the more you get
We haven’t tried that yet
So I’m looking in the rooms I’m in
And the songs I sing
The bent notes I sing with
I’m looking at everything
Look out – look in
Let it in
And when I see it call it out and say “This is water”- Rain Perry
Inspired by the David Foster Wallace essay “This is Water”
Hope you are healing and strong wherever you are.
Let the music keep your spirits high.