Solstice
Turning and Returning with the Seasons
This is the season that the Wurundjeri people call Berrentakk Darr-Karr*. It’s the season of the winter solstice and the cold west wind; nature gathers strength in its roots and humans hunker down around the fire, telling tales and making tools.
It’s a time for energetic sports such as marngrook (footy), but not a time for long journeys — unless you’re a modern-day Grey Nomad hankering for the subtropics. Animals mate and build nests in preparation for Wintooth Wootanbaj-Jumbunna, the season around the vernal equinox when life regenerates and babies are born.
I too sit by my fire, not making tools (or babies) but spinning tales, and thinking I really should go for a walk, dodging or braving the showers, before another short winter’s day fades swiftly into night.
It seems improbable that soon we’ll be back at that other solstice. The one that marks the start of Winmallee Yallambie Gunung, the season of the hot north wind, when waterholes dry up, farmers scan the horizon for smoke and all Victorians anxiously consult their ‘Fires Near Me’ apps.
Sensible folk like the Wurundjeri spent that parched and angry season on the river, making fish traps and keeping cool.
