Colored Sands and Starting Our Mural

Wednesday, 08 June, 2005 by Cheryl W. Colan

Gail, Linda, Mamie, Maria and I got up around five in the morning so we could join Gemma for a walk along the beach to the Colored Sands. In the pre-dawn light of the morning, the beach was absolutely pristine and beautiful. As we walked along we were followed by a dingo pup the Butchulla children have named PupPup. She was so adorable! She wanted to play. She would trot across our path giving a little bit of a challenge, and then dart in toward us from the side, wagging her tail. Gemma began to play with her, jumping forward and the freezing in her tracks to see how PupPup would respond. PupPup barked and ran with Gemma in a sweet, playful dance as we progressed down the beach.

We ran into a sea snake in the surf. We also saw a sea eagle overhead, hovering and readying itself for a dive. The dawn was too cloudy for Gemma’s photographer’s eye. She was hoping for more spectacular light. The clouds made for a beautiful scene looking out to sea.

But the true highlight of the morning was walking in to the Colored Sands with Gemma. When we went up last year it was as tourists. When we walked up this year, Gemma gave us her permission and blessing to touch the sand. We saw a heart shape and some initials left on the sand wall, and Gemma directed us to wipe them away and then repair them by filling in with loose sand. Then we used pine branches to wipe away all trace of our footprints. Our hope was to discourage tourists from following the example and collecting or defacing the sands. Gemma sat with us and told us the Butchulla story of how the Colored Sands came to be. She also talked to us about the aboriginal views of the stages of a woman’s life, and how the Colored Sands are sacred and healing to women. I could tell from the faces around me that this moment would shine like a facet of precious stone in the memories of the women around me. I am deeply, deeply grateful to Gemma for sharing this time with us.

After we got back from our walk we had breakfast, and then Gemma and Roger began sketching out some plans for the mural we are here to create. We decided that the first panel will depict the Butchulla creation story of K’Gari. The middle panel will depict the story of Linda, Roger and Rachel first coming to the island, meeting Joe and Chris, and spending the magical day together that convinced them all to move forward with plans for this Study Abroad program. The final panel will display symbols representing all of this years’ participants.

Later that afternoon we cracked open the paint and Roger sketched out an outline of the island on one panel, and the rainbow serpent flowing across all three panels. Then Gemma posed as model for K’Gari, the woman spirit that became the island. While Roger worked, the rest of us sketched out our ideas for what we would paint to represent ourselves. Nicole and Eliza actually went down to the beach and sketched out their ideas in the sand on a large scale, then came back and redrew their ideas on paper. One by one, the students began to transfer their ideas onto the panels and the vision began to take shape. I can’t wait to see the final result, and I am looking forward to the process.