Searching for 600+ Year Old Aboriginal Dingo Paintings
Dingoes are recognised by many First Nations People as being extremely culturally significant. With First Nations perspectives being shared throughout the film, I knew it would be important to capture imagery that does justice to the generous and kind people who shared their stories, lore and love for dingoes. For the last few weeks, I have been obsessing over topographic maps of an area in NSW that is reported to have had an Aboriginal painting on the inside of a sandstone cave. I had first heard about it while reading a PHD thesis about the cultural significance of the dingo and then through some more digging, I found a very old bushwalking blog online that had mentioned the site as well. Both articles were over ten years old and any new information about the site was basically non exsistent. So with very little to go off, I pin pointed where I thought (hoped) the cave would be and set off on foot.
It was a beautiful spring morning with the chorus of bell birds and King parrots overhead. I began following a very old and overgrown “path” that showed very little signs of use. The path was lined with echidna digging marks which are always a treat to see. After 15 minutes, I saw my first cave that could have been the one I was looking for. I scrambled up the side of the incline to have a closer look but quickly realised this was not the right one. I continued walking for another few kilometres to the centre of the area that I thought the cave might be in. I knew there was a very steep drop on the eastern side of the cave and the ground was starting to fall away in that direction so I hoped I was on the right track.
I eventually found a very steep drop that looked promising and after some not-so-graceful climbing, I found the cave that I had been looking for. The site was absolutely incredible. I had never seen anything like it and I am still lost for words to really describe how special it was. The site contained a book that had been there for 21 years with stories of other people who had managed to find the cave as well. There was a laminated map of the site that contained more information about the history of the paintings. It said that they had been dated to be over 600 years old. The paintings depicted 4 echidnas and 2 dingoes. One of the dingoes had faded a lot and was very hard to distinguish but the rest were still in immaculate condition.
3 echidnas and 1 dingo.
I set up my tripod and filmed and photographed the site for about an hour before heading back the car. I walked through the bush listening to the chorus of birds overhead getting lost in my brain. My mind is a very chaotic place at the best of times, but in particular at the moment, so when I am in the bush and alone, I feel an overwhelming sense of clarity and purpose. As I was driving out of the national park, I spotted a sign warning people that the national park was currently dropping 1080 poison all over the area. I wondered what the people who painted the dingo would think if they knew this was happening on their land to an animal they clearly cared for.
These animals are much easier to film compared to the ones I am used to.