Kura, Yeye, Boorda By Len Collard

This essay explores the story ‘Kura, Yeye, Boorda ‘from the past, today and the future,” written by Len Collard and the Indigenous Australian notion that the land is alive. I outline the deep connection to the land and how Waakal the Rainbow Serpent and the Dreaming has brought about this notion.
To Indigenous Australians, the land is not inanimate; it is a complete environment that supports and is maintained by people and culture. Land is central, spirituality and culturally and in this story the Indigenous respect, adapt and care for their living environments.
In the Dreamtime, ancestral spirits such as Waakal the Rainbow Serpent created the land, animals, rocks and plants. They also created the relationships between humans, animals and the land. “Waakal is the creator…he gave us life and our trilogy of belief in the boodjar…Nyungar moort…and our katitjin Law.”
These objects became sacred sites containing special properties. All that is sacred to life is in the land, containing and provided by these spirits. “After completing her creative act, Warramurrungundj turned herself into a rock.”
The dreaming is never-ending, links the present and past, the people to the land and so maintains the spiritual and cultural connection to the ancestors through the ‘living land’. Ritualistic kaarnya or protocols demonstrate this importance. “There is protocol that must be followed when anyone visits the abode of a Rainbow