BIRRUNGA WIRADYURI
Bundang Babirbambarra (Cicada Song)

2019
oil on canvas

This piece is number 3 in a series of 6 that captures a once in 110 year ceremony of protection performed by my Elders on our sacred Mountain, Wahluu in 2018. This piece refers to the instant in the ceremony where our Female Ancestors ceased singing. Their song was presented by exceptionally loud cicadas building in volume until a certain point of the ceremony was reached when they all instantly stopped singing. The silence in that moment was profound.
Cicadas were in particularly intense voice during a once in 110 years Wiradyuri Protection Ceremony held in July 2018, on Wahluu, one of our most sacred sites, the mountain in Bathurst known as Mount Panorama. The ceremony involved the smoke from 5 fires and the connection of those fires with Wiradyuri Scared White Ochre. At the instant the Sacred Ochre connected the 5 fires, the Cicada Song instantly ceased. This is a significant historical aspect of the ceremony and so warrants documentation. (In consultation with and respect to The Bathurst Wiradyuri Elders).