This 14.4 metre long mural is installed on the northern wall of the Thirroul Library, it spans the whole width of the wall above the book shelves …
statement:
The mural tracks a timeline that tell the story of the Illawarra region from prehistory to now, a ‘storyline ribbon’ runs through it. the story begins by acknowledging the creatures that were captured during the laying down of the geological strata that form this land, influencing what it was to become. After the land was formed the first custodians occupied this land leaving their foot prints and their stories across this land, living respectfully with water, cliffs, sky, birds, creatures and plants …
before time … ngaraba-aan … under mirrabooka, the southern cross
… oolaboolawoo, the west wind, formed merrigong, the escarpment:
his daughters are jumbala (mt kembla), gheera (Mt Keira) and the five islands … ngaraba-aan
And then everything changed with the coming of a European mindset: coal was discovered in the area and the light of modernity shone forward out of the hard-hatted skulls of humans, it was the beginning of the great forgetting: forgetting the past and the earth that had made us. A train runs through the landscape, carrying coal and death, speeding past the rock pools and frogs hiding in the moist cliffs.