Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Nepabunna Day 4


Time I added another day to this blog. This is becoming quite an epic.

Day 4 was probably the best day ever. First we drove out to Malkiwi Gorge (spellings on this one seem to vary a bit), a very important site in the Yura history. The gorge has beautiful rock paintings many hundreds of years old. It is believed that this gorge was used at the route from the Northern Finders to the Southern Flinders area and the rock paintings were done by Yura passing through who wanted to leave messages about important events and happenings in the area.

Uncle Ron, Aunty Shirley and the two sisters Joelwyn and Julette were our guides through this very important area. The gorge is visually stunning and although we visited on a very overcast, grey day, the colours were beautiful and my photos do not really do them justice.

As we walked through I felt quite overwhelmed by the sense of history in this place - almost like being in a cathedral. I felt the same when I visited Uluru. I couldn't speak, just wanted to look. At one stage I turned around and Joelwyn who was normally a lively, happy, talkative lass was strangely quiet and introspective. I commented that she looked like this place meant a lot to her and she agreed that it was very special to her people and to her.

Makiwi Gorge is a restricted area and you can only visit with an authorised member of the community. We were asked to stick to the track and not to pick up or remaove any articles because there are many artefacts there which are being preserved.


The small rocks here are thin sharp pieces of stone that were shaped and honed to be used as cutting tools


As we approached the gorge we crossed this flat sandy area which was used as a camping ground. It is here that we found the cutting stones.





Scenes in the gorge

Uncle Ron talking to the group about the paintings and the gorge




A close up of some of the main cave paintings at Malkiwi

The morning in the gorge was the highlight of my week at Nepabunna and the area really touched me emotionally. It is a place I will not forget.

Liz

No comments:

Post a Comment