'Presence'

 

The work referred to visitors in the land from the long past, recent past and the present.

Time layers.

Larrakia peoples walking through this land, hunting, fishing; camped here, camped there. Ceremony in this place and ceremony in that place. Under this sky, warmed by this sun, lit at night by
these stars and this moon. The presence of these people is still strong in the land.

Later came new settlers. Then WWII soldiers followed by more soldiers practicing for war.

 

Now in the contemporary layer this area is seen as a wasteland, a place of freedom away from the rules and constrictions of the town. Its visited by hoons swirling around in old cars, boys on bikes, girls exercising horses, young men on roaring motorbikes. Visiting from Arnhem land, Maningrida women often cross the mudflats to get crabs and shellfish. Their small abandoned fires accompanied by broken shells remind me of earlier peoples.

Then there is myself, with two running dotted dogs, present every day.

This time that I call the 'present' is ripe with the energy of those who
walked the land before me. The rocks, the land still holds that energy. We
are all visitors in time.