Acknowledgement of Country

Acknowledgement of artwork

The original artwork, Creation Spirit – Healing Place, featured throughout our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) was designed by Aboriginal design company Gilimbaa.

Here’s an introduction to the meaning behind the artwork.

Creation story – Healing place

Smooth iridescent skin caresses the earth, unfolding its many layers. Mounds rise up towards the sky; valleys are created. This is the land you belong to; these are the songs you sing. Thick smoke rises through the fresh morning air. Bodies are adorned for this rite of passage in a place of healing.
 
The Rainbow Serpent, the Creation Spirit, moves throughout the land, creating the landscape. It gives people the knowledge and wisdom of the land, ceremony, song, dance and lore – food to eat and medicine to heal. Surrounding the Rainbow Serpent are patterns depicting locations across Australia from the Torres Strait Islands through Queensland across to the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania. The patterns also refer to carvings, markings, tracks, scarification and body adornments – what is found in the landscape and people’s interpretation of this landscape reflected on their own bodies.
 
This artwork also represents the traditional possum skin cloaks worn by the people of the Victorian region. The squares of the checkerboard design represent individual possum skins that are sewn together to form the cloak. Old and new meld. Through this, the RACGP pays its respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia and to the Gilimbaa land on which general practitioners learn, teach and practise the art of medicine.