Marrai’gang and a Mountain Pilgrimage
On ANZAC day we travelled up to the Blue Mountains to see the “Autumn Leaves” (cue the music for lovers of Jazz standards…). And also to visit family who live in the mid-Mountains. Many of you will know that we lived up there for many years, and still own a home there. One day we hope to return. It was beautiful to see the exotic trees in Wentworth Falls and Leura turning red and yellow. It truly is a sight to behold, and part of me has always loved this European flora, transported so far from home. It makes a Anglo-Celtic heart glad.
Of course, ANZAC day is a crazy day to visit the Blue Mountains! Still, history makes good as while joining the public holiday throngs in Leura we ran into Graham King, a local Indigenous man. It was lovely to recognise each other after a number of years absence, and a reminder of the beauty of connection and relationship that the Mountains community fosters: you never really leave!
Back in Hazelbrook we also took time to walk in the bush, right there on Dharug country. We have walked that same circuit of land near the three Hazelbrook falls for well over twenty years now. That patch of country really is home; at least as much as our physical property up the street is home. It’s always sacred and healing to be there. To stand by the creek. To be beside the same gums and Old Man Banksias. To see the same country over many years and many seasons. To contemplate life: the changes - my hair turning grey! - and the things that remain; the grey ironstone outcrops on which we stand and sit to wonder, to listen and watch; both the world around and our spirits within.
This year is different though: as I follow this ongoing track of learning about local Indigenous seasons I now know that while the beautifully glowing leaves of exotic trees are doing what they do in “Autumn”, that it really is the season of Marrai’gang: when the wet turns cool.
One of the main stories of this season is how the Lilli Pilli fruit ripens, but when it falls to the ground it’s time to head to the coast as it’s getting cool! Dharug and Gundungurra peoples spent time on the mountains then headed down when it got cool. We have a huge Lilli Pilli in our backyard in Hazelbrook, and now I know what it was trying to tell me all those years! Enjoy the fruit and then head down the hill, son, it’s getting cool!
The other advice is to mend your coats! At least I think I took that advice to heart as our bedroom in our old clad cottage sure let you know you were living on cold country in winter!
It makes me wonder what else I’ve missed in life, and what I still need to learn. What I still need to acknowledge about myself and my place in creation. What new thing the Creator might wish to teach my spirit.
ANZAC day may be a time to stop and be silent, to remember and recommit. For me, this ANZAC day was a time to contemplate anew the gift that lies in connection, community, country and kin. And to recommit to following a path of learning, both from my ancestors and from the ancestors of this place.
Back down on the coastal plains on the Sydney Basin, I take new heart in dwelling here over the cold months to come. But I will be back in our beloved mountains soon; home and place of winter magic.
And I won’t forget my coat, or the teaching of the Lilli Pilli tree, waiting there in our backyard with a story as colourful as any ‘falling leaves of red and gold’.