Many Eagles: A First Nations Totem and Touchstone
The bright blue and violet tones of artist Waylene Currie’s ‘Many Eagles’ mural at the Scenic Rim’s Gleneagle State School speak to the importance of a holistic appreciation of the area’s land by its users.
The Logan River, the wedge-tailed eagle totem Mibunn, Indigenous ancestors, the region’s open country, the school’s kids and colours and more again are incorporated in the large work, sponsored by Villawood Properties, which has developed the Eucalee community located just 100m from the school.
“The work builds on the school’s colours, extending its identity with First Nations people and our stories,” says Waylene, a Mununjali and Wangerriburra woman, proudly working and walking in the footsteps of her forebears.
“The artwork reflects being inclusive and respectful to place, country, people and their connections.”
Waylene hopes her powerful and striking artwork can highlight the many varied and often complex threads of connections to the land, inspiring young minds to engage and learn more about its vitality, its history and its role in their everyday lives.
“Everything is intertwined,” she says. “There are so different views of the land, so many people’s visions; archaeologists, specialists, who home in on the land.
“First Nations look at it holistically, with no separation between its many elements. You need the land in the same way you need bees to pollinate things. It is so important for us, for our survival.
“The reality is you need to walk with Country, and you need to care for Country because everything’s intertwined.”
Waylene’s bee reference ties with Villawood’s biodiversity offset program that sees two blocks of land donated to native reserves for every residential lot if sells.
Villawood has given 600 hectares to Victoria’s Bendigo National Park and 1000 hectares, with another 600 being processed, to South Australia’s Warrenben Conservation Park.
It donates 2000 1kg tubs of honey sourced from the Bendigo site to customers and associates each year while the Warrenben land is protecting several threatened species and also assisting the neighbouring Northern and Yorke Peninsula Landscape Board’s Marna Banggara project, which is looking to return locally extinct species and reinvigorate the bushland’s health.
Find out more about Waylene Currie and her work: https://wrlcarts.com.au/
