The Journey of the Rainbow serpent: An update

In May, 2008 at our Senior School Gala, "Dreamings", we inaugurated an ambitious community art project. As well as celebrating our young laureates, the Gala marked the Reconciliation statement made by the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, in Parliament on 13th February, 2008. The school decided to draw attention to this landmark event by raising money for The Fred Hollows Foundation to help them with its work with indigenous communities in Australia.

The art project is now complete and it is our intention to auction it to the highest bidder to the benefit of The Fred Hollows Foundation. It is envisaged that the /Journey of the Rainbow Serpent /will be unveiled at our upcoming /Soiree de prestige/ marking our fortieth anniversary to be held at the Hotel Intercontinental Sydney on 20^th February, 2009, the anniversary week of the Reconciliation statement.
The painting will promoted widely both in Australia and internationally and a purpose designed independent web-site will be set up in January where people can view images of the painting, make comments and leave expressions of interest. The painting will be sold in mid-autumn at a reception to be held in the exhibition space at the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists’ Co-operative in Leichardt, Sydney.

The artist who conceived the creative narrative of the work, Jeffrey Samuels, tells us the painting represents the Creation myth of the Rainbow Serpent, the Mother of us all. The Rainbow Serpent was the first deity and existed before time, in the Dreamtime, when all was in darkness on Earth.

The first of panel of the triptych depicts this time, darkness in the cosmos, a time before the sun and the moon and the stars. She moved around in this darkness, the movement of her long body creating mountain  ranges and deep channels as it wound its way around the unborn universe. The Rainbow Serpent eventually decided that the time had come to create light and life. At Uluru, (Ayers Rock), she gave birth and out of her stomach leapt all the animal tribes and all the spirit beings, the sun leapt up into the sky to light the world and the moon, too, jumped up to take his place in the night sky. The blood of the Rainbow serpent flowed from her body and spread out into the deep channels cut by her journey, the deepest chasms becoming the seas. These events are depicted in the second and third panels of the triptych.

The image of her colours was left in the sky as the rainbow, a reminder to us of our common Mother. Beautiful, non?

Please support this worthwhile project by telling all your friends and connections of its upcoming sale and visit the web-site once it comes on line, more update will follow as the project develops. We should all be justifiably proud of this community based initiative.

Well done Condorcet, we, too, have come a long way – “from little things big things grow”.
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