Canberra film and philosophy night

On Thursday 1 October, ACT members joined with members of A Chorus of Women at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture to watch the film Signs out of Time, a documentary film about the life and work of Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994).

The film was introduced by A Chorus of Women founder, storyteller, composer and singer, Dr Glenda Cloughley. Glenda has drawn inspiration for the many songs and performance works she has written for A Chorus of Women from wisdom in the most ancient layers of European mythology, her training in Jungian analysis and PhD research in cultural psychology. Glenda dedicated the evening to her close friend and mentor Dorothy Cameron (1917–2002), an Australian archeologist whose work followed the same path as that of Marija Gimbutas.

The film transported us to Neolithic Europe of 10,000 years and more ago. There, people lived peaceably and had a spiritual connection to 'Mother Earth', nature and the cycles of birth , death and regeneration, which they perceived as a goddess. From sites across central Europe Gimbutas retrieved 100s of Earth goddess (Venus) figurines. She meticulously studied them to understand the symbols and patterns they portrayed. Made by the friends of Gimbutas, the film is also a fascinating story of women passing knowledge down generations. It is also a grounding story of how we can gain confidence from the indigenous European cultural heritage, which points to the rebalancing needed today for us to transition from the present power-over (‘warrior king’) systems to more regenerative, community structures that favour harmony with nature.

After the film, local artist Dr Sally Blake, who is a member of the Congress and coordinates our 'integrating the arts' circle, and has also been much inspired by the work of Marija Gimbutas, showed us her life-sized black and white drawing of an ancient European goddess figurine she calls 'The Ancient Gaze', as well as some of the 100s of coloured drawings of goddess figurines that she has made since the start of the COVID outbreak.

Glenda brought us into the present time by reading a poem by Dorothy Cameron called 'The Singing Hill' . The poem tells what Dorothy heard in the original place now known as Capital Hill. It also tells of the women who gathered regularly with Senator Jo Vallentine in Parliament House in the early 1990s . They would encircle the fountain near the entrance to the chambers, meditate and hum together. When she retired from the Senate, Jo Vallentine read 'The Singing Hill' into Hansard. You can read the full text of the poem is here: 'The Singing Hill' by Dorothy Cameron.

Viewing Capital Hill as a location of “endless disputes”, in the poem Dorothy observes that:

… once it was the Singing Hill
The hill which sang the Earth Song
At the meeting of the ley-lines
And the crossing of the song-lines
In the centre of the Hills of the Circling.

She then proceeds to reveal the profound vision that guided her life and work.

With the passing of the seasons
Music from the Singing Hill
Will transcend the voices
Of the dark suits
Shouting their abuse …

The shouting will be stilled.
The healing of the planet will begin . …

And the daughters of a different Dreaming Will recover the mystery,
Rediscover the harmony,
Of the Centre of the Circling Around the Singing Hill.

And to close the evening, we played video footage of A Chorus of Women and friends singing 'Hymn to Gaia' and 'The Promise' from the finale of The Gifts of the Furies, Glenda Cloughley's big story song about climate change, in Old Parliament House in 2010 (with Bob Hawke in the audience!). To see this footage, as well as Bob Hawke's impromptu remarks after the performance, see A Chorus of Women's News item 'Vale Bob Hawke'.

It was marvellous to gather face-to-face and a great release from our Covid/Zoom bubbles as well as from the day-to-day work of starting a new organisation, and replace these day to day tasks with a poetic, musical, artistic and thought provoking journey from neolithic Europe to Parliament House Canberra!