The hollow of a tree is the perfect place for playing cubbies. Who would know the child was playing in a tomb?
Prepared as a funerary tree
This tall cider gum: eucalyptus archeri was burnt by the First Nations people, the Lairmarennier in preparation for a funeral. There were few choices for burial in this rocky landscape so the practice was to inter the body in the hollow of a tree and wrap the entrance with wattle and branches to stop predators. The eucalyptus archeri while a cider gum did not provide the cider.
A tree was allocated to a person to care for and to prepare. Like building one’s own coffin but it was much more than this. In life, it would provide temporary shelter from the snow or a storm. They may even have been used as birthing trees. In death, it became your grave. After your death, you would become one with the tree and live on in the soul life of the tree. It was your tree. It could provide temporary shelter, it provided life and comfort. Your tree also gave you a focus of care in the land of your people.
Also a Slab tree
This tree was huge when it was cut to provide a slab for a hut. The scar is nearly three meters high. Harvested on the south, or sunless side of the tree this ensured the tree could good nourishment from the northern light. A hut was constructed by using up to a dozen slabs harvested from the same vicinity. Other nearby trees have similar scars. Once the heartwood was exposed this was then slow-burnt over many seasons to produce the hollow required.
This is snow country and the huts would have been substantial in construction. Possibly with stone circle bases to support the slabs. Digging in would not have been possible. But little is known about their construction in this region.
After the genocide
After the genocide of the Lairmarennier, (by 1830) this site probably lay unoccupied for some time. The site was possibly used as a sheep or cattle grazing site before a large homestead was built as a fishing lodge. Fishers were ferried from Miana to the site. Two double-sided chimney stacks are still a feature of the site, as well as tin and timbers from some outbuildings. There is still an intact Dunny (toilet) that is a double-seater. The second seat is a smaller child hole. Proof that white children lived and played in this settlement. The area still has remnant fencing for either cattle or sheep.
Playing Cubbies
In the hollow of this tree are embedded metal tin sheets, to cut out the wind and provide a space for play. Playing cubbies was and continues to be, a favourite way for children to spend their time in the bush. Using the tin to shape the hollow like a room, and also to protect the cloths from the black carbon of its burnt walls.
Imagine the play and fun a kid could have. Innocence is by nature ignorant. The lack of shared or documented knowledge would mean that settlers and later generations have scant understanding of the importance of these trees nor why so many had burnt hollows.
So the irony of a grave site being used as a cubby would have been lost. This image seeks to tell the story and capture the deep sorry I felt as the artist who came across this site and its significance.
Rules for the series: Photograph the scar tree from the South side. Use multiple exposures to capture the scale and sides of the scar and then to capture the detail of the tin in the hollow without entering the tree itself.
Technical: Camera – Hasselblad Film 80mm lens. Manual setting: HP5 film ISO800 Developed then scanned – post work digital.
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Available for Purchase
As this is a Photographic work, they are available as non-limited edition signed prints.
Single print available at A2 $400
Larger prints available on request.
Plus freight. Framing is the responsibility of the purchaser.
Larger sizes are available on negotiation with the artist. Smaller images are not available for this work.
All Photographs are Giclee printed on Archival Acid-free papers and archival pigment inks. As with all works on paper, do not hang in direct sunlight.