Shooting Star Rainbow
This design is inspired by Australian Aboriginal culture; it’s dot painting tradition; the stories of Creation; and the Rainbow Snake. In the Creation Time or Dreamtime, the Rainbow Snake was a major Spiritual Ancestor who sang and carved out the rivers, shaped and gave birth to the land, and all life throughout Australia. Rainbow passed on the songs to the children that teach us to care for the land and share the water.
After Rainbow created the land his shadow went into the sky to form the great River in the Sky, the Milky Way and the shadows of all life went up to form the stars. The dots represent the rain and all of life that comes from Rainbow, the plants, birds, animals, insects, and people. The dots represent the stars too, the shadows of all life up in the sky. The Shooting Star is the eyeball of Rainbow, keeping watch, reminding the children to care for the land and don’t be greedy with the water.
The major central figure of our painting is the Rainbow Snake who represents the Platte River that flows through this region. Our Rainbow has 2 headdresses. The Shooting Star, the totem for Sagewood Elementary and its dots represent all the children in this school. The right headdress is a Spirit Ancestor image taken from Legend Rock in honor of the American Indian culture of this land.
The animal tracks represent all the life forms that followed this river dependent on its nourishment, the bison, elk, deer, and the oxen that brought the European settlers along the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express Trails. You can also see the sacred sites of Independence Rock and Devil’s Tower. The winding road coming from Independence Rock represents the road we see daily from Casper Mountain. Devil’s Tower, in one story common in both Australia and the US, is connected to Seven Sisters who rise from the rock to the sky to become the Pleiades constellation.
You can see the Thunderbird, the totem for Casper College. You can see an American Indian rock-painting image of a Turtle from Casper Mountain. To the East you see the sunrise and to the West the sunset. The hands are the prints of the 4th grade Shooting Star painters who are watching and learning this story. They also represent their ancestors and their stories of coming to this land.
Principal design by Ami McCormack. Consultants Paul Taylor, Amanda Reinhardt, Sara Hyatt, Janet Wragge, with 4th and 5th grade painters.
