In this town there are two trees that I know of that are historically significant, yet so many of them must have stood for hundreds of years watching the world change. Many stand dead, like ghosts stopped still on the way to somewhere, expired by way of drought or, in the middle of fields, from suspect agriculture. Or maybe they were just done. Either way they're like fences or the sky - something always there and present, and easily missed unless you were paying attention.
I wonder about those who knew these trees as an essential part of their life. Out walking, I stop to look, really look, at what we've called the smoking tree for many years. We've been told that this gum, now fenced in the water refuse land beside us, used to be used to smoke fish by the indigenous folk who lived here before the graziers moved them on, we presume. We're close to a river, so it made sense. We don't know the real story, as there's no one around here to tell it.
Two streets away there's one that's on a map, protected by the National Trust. It's dated at 300 years old, and the scar on it's belly showed the absence of wood taken - for a container likely, perhaps a shield. Scarred trees across this country show evidence of the life of people that came before us, the marks on them hinting at temporary shelters, food implements, canoes and tomb stones for the dead. There's thousands of them across the country, and they're meant to be protected, though no one can stop anyone cutting them down for firewood. When the highway came through they roped the significant trees off, drove bulldozers around them rather than through them. But many have gone, cleared for agriculture of course, for development. The ones that remain are just there, and we forget - they are just things, not pulsating with history and life:
Of course, they were more than just things.
Upon them too were carved intricate sworls and loops and spirals, for thousands of years marking burial sites, were sites of initation, and spoke the stories of the people who carved them. They were said to perhaps mark the landscape as spiritually significant. They haven't done this for over a century now - Europeans encouraged burials beneath cold stones with other iconography of course. What rites and stories were lost, as the children were taken from fathers, families separated, culture destroyed, a whole nation dispossessed? Only the standing trees know now.
https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmQqAKj8xXVznrmrhcyBiUs5Xc59TePBnRFWcEyDKaQHtJ
Grave of a Wiradjuri man at Gobothery Hill, near Condobolin, 1817
And many were carved up and cut up and sent to museums, like the skulls of the people examined like animals, that were classed as part of the flora and fauna of Australia until 1967. Many anthropologists moved up rivers, photographed them, allowed them to be taken away to foreign lands, other places bereft of the people who breathed with these trees. I haven't been to Corrymongle, but there, in NSW, are 60 of them in a cluster, more than anywhere in the country.
And thus, we might call it just a gum tree, but it is much, much more than just a thing.
Do you have culturally significant trees in your area? Are they still revered and protected, or do they stand like ghosts, forgotten?
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma we have one that is revered, and protected! They just, this week, named a school after this tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_Council_Oak_Tree
Creek Council Oak Tree
The Creek Council Oak Tree is a historic landmark which represents the founding of the modern city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States by the Lochapoka Clan of the Creek Nation.
The Creeks had been forced to leave their homeland in the southeastern United States and travel to land across the Mississippi River, where the U.S. Government had granted them land in what was then known as Indian Territory. In 1836, after their arrival, the Lochapokas chose an oak tree on top of a hill that overlooked the Arkansas River as the site of their council ground. They lit a new ceremonial fire, using coals they had carried on their journey, established a busk ground, where all council business would be conducted.
@smithlabs how crazy is that, there's a bot that will pull the wiki up for us. I don't even have to change the page! Thanks for commenting. I love the way this tree was used for council. We'd be wiser I think if we moved into nature more to conduct our business.
I just bought land out by the lake, I am moving when I get it ready; and you will play hell getting me to come back, LOL! I have my own council oak on that property; it has a 4 foot diameter trunk! AND a LOT of shade, LOL!
:)wOW! Sounds gorgeous. I'd love to sit under that oak. They are the best for shade! Look forward to updates!
As soon as we get moved, I am building a huge deck under that tree, LOL!
:)Great idea!!!! and you can most definitely steem about it!
We got it @wikitextbot....
>:(What a beautiful post.
I feel like if we can see trees, we can see so far. Sounds so silly, but to me to stop seeing through trees as just obstacles, and instead to see them in their complexity, and their relationship to each other, and to us, and to other animals, is to connect all the dots :)
Aww, those two beautiful trees in your town, they have so much presence! I love how the scar tree looks like it has a door in it, and how you pay them their due :)
You have such a lovely way of putting things. It's true.. with these I saw into the past very vividly. A brutal history behind the door, but also a glimpse into lives. I had no idea about the scarred burial trees though, did you?
No, I didn't know about the scarred burial trees at all. Must go do some more reading about that.
Such beautiful trees, and a wonderful post celebrating their life and beauty. Trees are full of so much wisdom, so much power, so much life force and energy. There aren't too many old or sacred trees around where I grew up, here in Michigan, but there are many trees in Thailand that are protected and considered sacred. To me, every tree is sacred. I get so much energy and good vibes when I just sit out and look out or under a tree. Especially going to the Red Wood forests in California....that was quite an amazing experience.
Thank you for this post, and for celebrating the life of trees...they are not just things. They are living, breathing, feeling, creatures that deserve our love and respect.
xxx
I'd love to see those redwoods! What kinds of trees are protected in Thailand @rainbowrachel, and what makes them so? Thanks for your lovely comment. 💚
wowwwwwwww this is maybe one of the most touching things i've come across in my whole life. stories like this... remind me .... about the deeper trails humanity has walked over time ... that have been erased ... that we nearly forget about (or never hear about) ... but even just knowing this is something i'll carry in my heart forever. wow, so touched. thanks.
in our country many of the trees were cut down. few "old growth forests" remain. there are some treees the native americans "bent over" to indicate the presence of water. they're literally bowed and bending toward the ground. i have encountered some very very old trees on the west coast, near the sequoias and redwoods. i can say that those trees have taught me things just by my being in their presence. things taught to me energetically through my nervous system/energy field. i knew then that we did a much graver thing than just "cut down trees" we cut down our wise ancestors ... we are less human now .... but we still can get hints.
Im moved that you are moved. They are powerful reminders of the ghosts and shames of the past indeed. How extraordinary are the carvings? And so devastating so many were lost. Can you imagine this land populated with the carved trees and white man just cutting them down?
i cannot imagine it, it breaks my heart.
such a beautiful post for such beautiful trees, there are actually some gum trees very near me now. But outside the door of my truck is this 400 year olive tree that warms my heart every time I see her
wow that is amazing <3!
This is beautiful. I've never seen trees carved in such a way. Thanks for the stories and photos of the days gone.
No problem. Aren't they beautiful?