Goanna Dreaming

This painting is of the Dream Time Dot Art, showing a female Goanna with its eggs, about to hatch. As a child, after a “Corroboree”, at Saltwater Reserve, I tasted my very first Goanna, cooked on a large

wood firein the “Traditional Aboriginal” way along with snakes, kangaroos, wallabies, (small cousins of Kangaroos), fish and Octopus, which in those days, over 50 years ago, were in plentiful supply. This feast was followed by cooked prawns and oysters, which were for the taking, in the glorious Saltwater Lagoon. 

Goannas as they are mostly called in Australia are Monitor Lizards. They are a very powerful reptile that can climb trees and also swim very well. They grow up to 160 centimeters in length and the female lays between 3-10 eggs in a hole in the ground and then they cover them up by scratching dirt, leaves and other ground decaying matter, which incubates them with the warmth. Monitors eat, insects, spiders, other lizards, snakes, eggs and small birds in nests. Their oil from their very thick skin is also used for alleged medicinal purposes. 

Traditional Aboriginals still eat them (cooked on an open fire, using the hot coals), and they are, with a number of other animals and reptiles, considered be a delicacy. 

Medium: Acrylic Paint on Canvas (unframed). 

Painted: 2007