The Woods Eagle Rainbow Mural Story

This mural is inspired by Aboriginal culture, painting traditions, and the stories of the Rainbow Snake which brings water to the world. This mural teaches us to care for our country and to share our water. Our Rainbow Snake in Casper is the North Platte River. In the Aboriginal tradition, the Rainbow Snake can change his headdress wherever he is on Earth.

The Eagle’s headdress here represents the symbol for Woods Learning Center. The Eagle’s body later turns into mountains and the
North Platte River of Casper. This river is important to the trees and animals because everyone needs it to survive, and every living thing is made of or has water. The dots on wings and the trees are of the Woods kids and students. The roots keep them grounded
and the wings help them take flight in learning and soaring on in life.

The Eagle has Casper Mountain within it that is dark blue with light dots. Along the side is the mountain road.
The symbol near the top that looks like two people holding hands represents the sparse trees of the plains and the river trees in Casper that  all depend on the water. If you look for the trees on our land you will find water.

All of the dots throughout the painting represent the raindrops that fill the river, and they all represent all life that walks on the earth, plants, birds, animals, insects, and the people that drink from the river. The four Big Stars represent the four major classes in the school; Primary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, and Middle School, and together all the pods are one big river. The meaning of the swirls represents the Wyoming wind that helps to spread clouds evenly across the land to give everyone a drink. The stars in the sky are our Grandparents watching over us to see that we are taking care of the land. The black is the night, and the red is day, and these colors represent the unending cycle of life. The ribbons (red and gold) stand for the four major trails of Wyoming, the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express, and the Oregon Trail.

As the students were painting, they were singing and feeding the river and making the painting happy in the Aboriginal tradition.

Thank you to Mandy Blevins for designing the mural. With assistance from Ms. Patterson, Artist in residence Paul Taylor, and Ms. Sutton, Middle school teacher. The mural was painted and dotted by the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. And one last thank you to
the Discover Program for funding this project for our beautiful mural.

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