Sacred ochre site

NeilL

This is just to the left of a shot I posted earlier called Alum Cliffs. This time it is ochre cliffs. This is a sacred site for the Aboriginal people. In pre-conquest times ochre was among the most important ceremonial materials of the Aboriginal culture, with blood and smoke, and these cliffs were one source. It was as valuable as gold to us today. It was a general belief among Aboriginal cultures that the geographical features of the land were created by a mythical snake as it journeyed over it. The ochre seams were believed to be the "tracks" left by the snake through the earth, and therefore just one remove from touching that god-body. As you can see the snake was pretty hyper in this particular area! It was the job of the women to do the mining of the ochre from these cliffs!











Neil