Module
About Rocks
About Rocks
Rocks were important places for Aboriginal people and hold great spiritual significance. They were places where gatherings could occur, and ceremonies held. Rocks were also camping places, because of their significance as a source of reliable water.
From the Noongar
The late Everett Kickett (Ballardong Elder) says…
” there was a great explosion as the earth was being formed. Boyagin Rock erupted and out of the ground came the wargles the giant rainbow serpents. Their bodies, as thick as tree trunks, glistened and shimmered a silvery green. Each serpent had a mane of hair and large luminous eyes and as they slithered their way out of the rocky hill, their haunting cries to the night sky were like the drone of 1000 frogs … on that hill called mount Matilda, you see the trails of the rainbow serpents. There are one, two, three and four. You can count them as they come over the hill there … all the rocks have been pushed out to the edge of the roadways …they formed what we now see as the Avon river… going past Northam and Toodyay… the Noongar people know it as the Ballardong river, not the Avon river…”
IN: The Trails of the Rainbow Serpent
Watch the Video of Daniel Habedank on youtube - The Trails of the Rainbow Serpents
Gerry Collard (Ballardong Elder) says ...
”The old people used to say if they came here in the summertime, and it might be 40 degrees plus. Thirsty, they might have been kangaroo hunting, or walked here, or came here after a long journey. And if they wanted a drink of water, there's a crack in the rock there. And the old Nyoongars had to go there, and they had to stand there and give their genealogy - who their parents were - who their grandparents were. Go back through your genealogy. And then the Old Wargyl would move over and let water come down out of the rock...”
In: Boodjin Rock – The Crack. www.WheatbeltNRM.org.au
Using Rocks For Tools
Stone tools were of paramount importance for the Aboriginal way of life. Some uses were:
• As axe-heads, for cutting wood and bark from trees in order to fashion the wooden artifacts, such as spear and axe handles, coolamons for carrying food, constructing a mia.
• As cutting tools, for preparing food
• As weapons for hunting food, such as those that were embedded in resin on the end of wooden handles, used as spearheads and knives
• As grinding stones, for pounding and grinding seeds
• As sharpening stones, grinding axe, spear and tool heads
• As knives, for butchering and other uses
• As ceremonial objects and valuable trade items
Using Rocks For Paint
Ochres are the hydrated (water-containing) compounds, held in clay particles in the surface layer of rocks. The colours of ochres represent the nature of the aggregates they are formed from.
Ochres ranging in colour from pale yellow to red represent the mineral aggregates of mainly iron, manganese, silica and aluminium. When exposed to air, they oxidise, becoming ferric (iron) oxide and manganese dioxide oxides, and take on their colour.
Red and yellow ochre (wilgee) consists of hydrated forms of ferric oxide and manganese dioxide. When hydrated, as clay, they become suitable as a paint.
The oxidised compounds act as pigments, selectively absorbing and reflecting the different wavelengths in the Sun’s radiation energy spectrum.
White ochre, originating from limestone rock, contains clay particles of kaolinite (aluminium silicate) and reflects all energy wavelengths. [1]
Ochres
Ochres are the paints that Aboriginal people have used throughout time, depicting Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and maps. It is extracted from rock, using stone and wooden tools, as rock particles or compressed clay, which are then crushed and mixed with a fluid such as water, saliva, blood, the fat of fish, emu, possum or goanna – or occasionally orchid oil - to form a fixative. The pigmented mixture is then painted on rock, weapons, ceremonial objects and skin.
...“Yoort (white ochre) was used for painting their bodies for ceremonial dances, corroborees. If a group had yoort in their boodja (land), they’d be rich because White ochre. From: https://bangarra knowledgeground.com.au productions/ochres it was used for trade. An old Aboriginal fella told me that every 75 years many groups of Aboriginal people would meet and camp somewhere in our boodja and have a corroboree. The last one was held where the Wyalkatchem CBH is now, and he was in it…”
The late Kevan Davis (Ballardong Elder). IN: The Derdibin Gnamma Storybook, www.wheatbeltnrm.org.au
For extensive information about ochres, and their usage in Aboriginal ceremonies, see:
Yellow ochre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre)
Yellow ochre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre)
Activity
Make an Aboriginal Weapon with Stone Fragments:
This is a Traditional technique and requires Aboriginal permission and support from Aboriginal educator to guide the students.
(Method, courtesy Jaime Garrett, QDHS)
MATERIALS
• A she-oak woody stem (or equivalent), about 2-3 cm in diameter, 30-50 cm long
• Yongka (kangaroo) droppings (faecal pellets or poo)
• Balga resin, harvested from the base of a grass tree • Kop (charcoal)
• Small rock fragments with sharp edges
METHOD
1. Students will be handling heated instruments and must use safety gloves and mask.
2. Grind balga resin to a fine powder and remove any lumps, using mortar and pestle, or yandi (wooden dish) and mulla, (grinding stone).
3. Grind in small amounts of charcoal and dried droppings, making sure it is still a fine powder.
4. Heat the stick over a flame and roll the stick in the mixture.
5. Keep repeating this to add new layers until sufficient resin is on the stick.
6. While still malleable, carefully mould the resin around the rock fragment and the stick, using your hands (in gloves!).
7. Reheat, and roll the stick in the mixture, if more is required.
8. Cool the implement, and set aside to allow the resin to set hard.
Jaime adds…
”There is a nice analogy about the dried kangaroo droppings being full of grass and this is the equivalent of fibre glass fragments when glassing; it is used to increase the strength of the resin.”
For an extensive account of the stone tools, and how Aboriginal people used them, see: https://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/stone-tools-and-artefacts/#:~:text=Stone%20tools%20were%20 used%20to,%2C%20spear%20points%2C%20 and%20knives.
Aboriginal knife, with stone insets
Aboriginal weapon made by students at Quairading District High School, Photo, Jaime Garrett
Boyagin Rock, Wheatbelt NRM, https://www.wheatbeltnrm.org.au/boyagin
Aboriginal stone artifacts, from Phillip Batty, Museum Victoria): https:/libguides.msben.nsw.edu.au/indigenousrocks