14 AM 5557/08
Dennis Nelson Tjakamarra Pelican Dreaming 2007
Acrylic on canvas 915 x 1220mm SOLD
The circles represent important sites where the Pelican Ancestors stopped during their travels across the
country. The travels of the ancestors are represented by the animal tracks represented as arrows. The feathery
white marks are symbolic of the headware the men use during ceremonies. Aboriginal people believe the
Creation or Dreamtime is the beginning of 'knowledge', when the laws of existence were put together. It is also
the beginning of time when supernatural Ancestral beings were born out of their own eternity. It is said the
Ancestors moved across the barren surface of the world, hunting and fighting. They changed the form of the
land creating mountains, rivers, trees, plains, water holes and sand hills. The Ancestors were honoured by
Aboriginal people in corroborees performed at sacred sites where the spirit of the Ancestors had become part of
the landscape, or turned into entities such as rocks or trees.