SACRED SITES
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As pilgrims on a sacred journey, we are not simply tourists or sight-seers passing over the landscape. We are on a journey of discovery, deepening our own spirituality as well as becoming aware of the sacred within the other, the land, and its people.
As we travel between different sites, we may pause at times to reflect whether the land is changing us. Do we see it solely as a piece of good real estate, as a beautiful landscape, or as just a harsh and arid place of little value? For me, as I move around the country, it is its vastness and its mystery that stirs in me a strong feeling of awe and wonder. I want to go beyond the surface appearances and try to enter into the depths of its mystery.
Throughout this journey visiting different sacred sites, we will at times stop a while and ponder a little, connecting to the mystery within ourselves, the land and all that is around us, trying to weave ourselves into the great cosmic dance of the whole universe. Each of us is called to listen, to hear with the heart, to belong to the Creator and all creation, to become as one, just as our indigenous people once did.
The Mutawintji Dreaming Tracks were once home to the Wilyakali Tribe of Western New South Wales. The stony gullies and textured hills of Mutawintji (pronounced Moot-a-wingee), meaning place of grass, still retain a sense of mystery and calm.
Mutawintji lies between Broken Hill and White Cliffs. At the turn of
the century a settler, Charles Raven, ran a coach change station and hotel,
the Harp of Erin, at Mutawintji. He also dammed a gully to provide water
for his flock of goats and his distillery. The dam still exists today,
so do the goats; but sadly no Wilyakali remain.
Mutawintji is in the Byngauno Ranges, sandstone ridges cut by numerous
gorges and many rock pools. The rock pools and springs in the ranges are
the focus for the many spectacular engravings and stencil sites, as well
as big campsites with stone artefacts and fireplaces.
It was a place of profound significance for the river people. In the past, the elders performed important rites of passage and rain-making ceremonies. The presence of water for most of the year meant game was plentiful and the bush provided in abundance nardoo roots for making flour, yams, wild lemon, quondong nuts, nightshades and native plums. It is also the sacred place of the Sky Hero, Coolawaddy, who, it is said, left his last earthly footprint in this region before his ascension.
A significant feature of Mutawintji is that it is a place where various Dreaming Tracks intersected. Oral tradition says there were big multi-tribal meetings there and the place was visited by the River Paakantji, the Wilijali, and the Paruntji to the north-east. Mutawintji was also known to the people in the Flinders Ranges who visited.
Mutawintji has sites of great Dreaming power that have influence over a large area. When approaching such sites, there are points where one should speak with the spirits that are present and a ritual purification by smoking should take place, and where a green branch needs to be picked and carried, where a mental ‘state of grace’ is needed. A sacred landscape is very complex.
Modern Aboriginal people who have the knowledge try to observe these rules as quietly as possible. They make a fire, boil a billy for tea and stand in the smoke, pick a green leaf and put it behind the ear, silently, to make peace with the spirits. Today, ignorant people make fun of and ridicule these rituals as actions of superstitious savages.
Although the power of the Dreaming is stronger at some places, nowhere is it ever completely absent. Aboriginal people make no distinction between a cultural site and the natural environment. The significance belongs to more than just the ‘historic area’. Even if no artefacts are present, the place may still have strong Dreaming power. Because of this, the whole of Mutawintji National Park has a sacred quality. This belief in the spirits is at the core of Aboriginality and is not to be scorned. It is often difficult to explain this to Europeans.
Today, the human ‘story’ or ‘myth’ is no longer being listened to. As the noted environmentalist, Thomas Berry, suggests, humanity has largely separated itself from the natural world and it follows that in the process we have distanced ourselves from the soul of the world. Have we lost sight of the presence of the sacred in all life forms?
The issue goes far beyond economics, or commerce, or politics, or a moment of pleasure as we look out over a scenic view. Something is happening beyond all this. We are losing splendid and intimate modes of divine presence. Perhaps we are losing ourselves.
A thought to reflect on as we continue our pilgrimage.
