The Magpie's Songlines
by Cavan Brown
Zadok Perspectives Issue No. 60
Autumn 1998

Introduction

Creation's songs of the red earth

Cavan Brown
Cavan Brown is the minister of Geraldton Baptist Church, WA, and is the author of Pilgrim Through Barren Land, Albatross, 1991, and the forthcoming The Blackfellas Friend: a life of John Gribble (Access Press, 1999).

THIS FIRST IN A SERIES of articles is about the spirit of Australia, yet I begin on the ground floor of Australia looking at things like emus, lonely shacks on outback tracks and kangaroos. The style arises out of my conviction that good spirituality has a strong earth wire. I'm not really interested in spirituality that has lost contact with the ground. I respond warmly to the way the Bible opens with the creation of the earth and from this part of creation, God takes a handful of dust into which he breathes his spirit and human life is formed.

The sacred story that began from the ground floor of creation, proceeds through space and time: only seldom drifting into the misty, half-heaven world of angels and demons. Rather, it follows human history through the environment of the semi-arid grazing lands of Arabian nomads, the brick quarries of Egypt, the desert mountains of Sinai and the multi-faceted scenery of the land of Israel. The faith that emerged never lost its mixture of sacredness and groundedness. Even when the writers wanted to convey the character of the God they had come to know and worship in these environs, they seldom used analytical or metaphysical terms. Instead, they explained God from parts of nature-God was a rock, God was a mountain, God was a stream of living water and a 'vast and awesome' desert. In their inspired writings, matter was transformed into word and spirit. I want to explore the unique nature of Australia, seeking for vertical dimensions that reflect the Spirit of the Creator. Marcus Clark (For the Term of his Natural Life) was one of the first to read the deeper dimensions from Australia's variety in nature. He said, "There is a poem in every tree or flower", and "the poetry that lives in Australia differs from those of other countries". James McAuley, a modern Australian poet, saw the same blend of matter and meaning:

That each thing is a word
Requiring us to speak it
From the ant to the quasar
From clouds to ocean floor -
The meaning not ours, but found
In the mind deeply submissive
To the grammar of existence,
The syntax of the real;
- James McAuley, "Credo"

Many others have become aware of a 'meaning' in the blue-green of the Australian eucalypt forests, in the 'sublimity' in the horizontal of the Australian deserts, in the sunset at Uluru, the surf at Bell's or Margaret River, in the laughter of the kookaburra, the carolling of the magpie and even in the hollow grunt of the emu.

I want to identify the 'word' from those parts of nature that are essentially Australian in the belief that listening to what God was saying when he created the uniquely Australian forms is to discover the spirit of Australia.

I have drawn from a broad base so that the meaning is not mine, "but found in . . . the syntax of the real". This includes the 'word' read by the traditional Aborigines. The wider Australian community (and some international writers like Bruce Chatwin in his book The Songlines, Picador, 1988) has come to appreciate that the original Australians have a deep spirituality which harmonises matter and spirit. I have tried to listen to what they have heard and blend in their perspective. I see each part of creation having a song given at Creation to reflect a distinctive message. My work has been to listen to these Songs of Creation and then capture the message written by the Creator.

To: Song of the Magpie