Spirit God Moinee and the Red Kangaroo
Still nowadays aboriginal people of the Australian continent of Tasmania worship the great spirit God, ‘Moinee’ who brought life to the lone continent of Australia etching high mountains and lush landscapes and cutting the ground making its full, flowing rivers. Tasmania rich and evergreen, beautiful with deep, blue oceans on the left and luscious, green scenery to its right. ‘Moinee’, the land making creator and spirit god, given the metaphor of kangaroo in Tasmanian history resembles that of the creator of the land. Through kinship with native Aboriginal people, the energetic and strong kangaroo bounds the Aboriginal people to the land gave them a mythical identity as the creation of spirits.
The Aboriginal ‘clever man’ ‘Woorady’ tells a vivid Dreamtime story about how the great, wild kangaroo is an ancestor transformed into a ‘Palawar’ by the spirit god ‘Moinee’. The big, red kangaroo before transformation had no knee joints or a tail and could not sit down, so ‘Moinee’ gave him knees, a tail and allowed him to become part of the creation of the land and to be able to sit and rest as order of gift. And then together they began creating their new environment, cutting the rivers, oceans and lagoons and allowed there to be rain, atmosphere and breathable oxygen and filled them with fish so they could eat.
Rain, pure air and hard, soiled ground was the destiny of Tasmania and was forefront in its creation allowing rivers to flow and plants to thrive and grow to feed the herbivores so the carnivores could then eat. The red kangaroo becomes the totem for native Aboriginal people mimicked in tribal dances, story and song. The Indigenous Tasmanians loved the red kangaroo because he created them their ecological surroundings which the cherished and allowed them to live, breathe and survive. For the environment allowed them to hunt for their meat and to gather berries and provided ceremonial events for eating with family where the family would eat, sing and story tell birthing their creative culture.
Aboriginal writers continue to tell the story of the red kangaroo and how he helped the spirit ‘Moinee’ to create the Tasmanian Earth and life through education within schools and universities. The teachings animate the spirit of the red kangaroo in its stories of wisdom and survival of the evolution of white Australia. The kangaroo remains spiritual and a totem and symbol of the oppression of Aboriginal people. The spirit of kangaroo and ‘Moinee’ symbolized in traditional dance, song and creative arts.
