Awakening Spirits 2026 - The Waterhole

Tilly a white sulphur-crested cockatoo, watches as a plume of smoke rises from the canopy of the Australian outback bushlands. Indigenous warriors and hunters from communities conduct a cultural burn – a land management practice refined over thousands of years. Tilly observes the hunters moving alongside the fire's perimeter, tracking animals displaced by its fiery furnace.

Seeking relief from the intensifying heat Tilly flies over one last time before gliding toward a nearby waterhole. She perches on the weathered bark of an old gum tree admiring the beauty of the water, a stark contrast to the fire she had just seen. Tilly thinks back to her longtime companion Lockie the Baru, a massive saltwater crocodile who likes to surprise and will keep a grip and lock on you if the time is right. She recounts the time Lockie told her the Dreaming story of the Rainbow Serpent, an ancestral being believed to have carved the continent's waterways, mountains and sacred sites. In his retelling, the Serpent's movements sculpt the very waterhole before her, establishing a sanctuary where creatures would gather and where stories would take place.