Centre of the Storm: In Search of

 Introduction and Contents THE FIRE OF THE SUN was a video made in the summer of 2000.  It is a story of survival, of place, of conflict, invasion and massacre in the lands of my ancestors (Norwich, East Anglia, Britain) and the lands to which my ancestors moved (the land of the  Gadigal , Dharug and Darkinjung peoples on which the video was filmed). [1]   This is the story of the colonisation of Britain by the Romans and the beginnings of the colonisation of Australia by the British – 10 stories of conflict. 10 moments in time It was not an easy journey for me.  It was a time of ‘the dark night of the soul’ which in my spiritual heritage is a time of facing uncomfortable truths, doubt and loss of direction. From a ritual perspective it is a time of growth and the core moment in rites of passage before stepping through the portal into a newer understanding of the nature of life, into autonomy, agency, and responsibility for self and others.   Scri...

Introduction and Contents  Spring 1999 A pageant in three parts: arrival, disconnection, search for place/home.   Performed at Karuna Conference Centre and surrounds, Katoomba;  Gundungurra country. Stories of arrival…birth…nature…dislocation…impact Remembering northern ancestral beliefs, celebrations, symbols, deities and writing which welcome Spring and celebrate nature and fecundity. [1] …and the arrivals of my ancestors from the north, Elizabeth Pulley . Eliza Ann Miller and Francois Constant Rups ,     I want to tell you a story a story of my people   Many years ago in the lands of my ancestors, Ireland...England...The Netherlands, in the time before, the time before the one land became three, there was a mighty freeze, a long, cold Winter.   Then imperceptibly, gradually, the ice began to melt and on this barren land life a different kind of life appeared. A Garden of Eden. And into this Eden arrived a people. Small groups two or thr...