Bill Harney

12 AM 1551/04
Bill Harney Gorrondolmi (Rainbow Serpent) Dreaming 2004
Acrylic & natural ochres on Galacia linen 1275 x 1840mm $15000
Gorrondolmi - he made the water and were the first people in the country. His 2 eyes make the spring bubble up
and never go dry and he have 2 children Nayubun. He told them to go live in tree and watch the water. When
they up top in the tree they sing the water to stay up because the song was passed down from his father and
mother - those 2 there. Their headdress they got create the tide - cut a big gorge, made channel all over the
country and there are many other children - Gunben - the fruit bats. Every afternoon he unwinds his ginun -
dillybag - and he lets the flying foxes go out and feed all night - eat flowers of coolibah tree, paperbark and
bloodwood. Breaking dawn he pick up didgeridoo - he blows that didgeridoo and make a very big large sound.
The sound he make is like the floodwater running today. When the floodwater is running you can see all the
whirlpool because old Rainbow is there moving inside and putting the wave in the water. When the sound of
the didgeridoo the flying fox can hear him and they all come home to the camp in a big queue. They go around
in circle like a number 6 and he goes into a funnel in the didgeridoo and he goes back to the camp to Ginun -
dilly bag - and they space there all day and in the evening he lets them out again. If you bust the Rainbow eye
the spring go dry. He looks after the tide and controls the water. "When I go fishing and see flying foxes in the
tree we don't fish there - we know Rainbow is there". Bill painted this piece during his residency at Art Mob in
January 2004.