Chapter One
Dawn of the Sky Gods
This Legend Was Related To Me
By
Aboriginal Actor-Historian
Ben Blakenley
Aboriginal tribespeople of Arnhem land, Northern Territory believe that in the long ago ‘Dreamtime’ a great silver bird landed upon a certain plateau to lay a big silver egg, out of which the first tribespeople hatched. They were white skinned. Around the Ayers Rock region, local tradition has it that the ancestors of the Aborigines came from the stars.
“Long, long ago, far back in the Dreamtime, a great red-coloured egg [ie spaceship] came down from the sky. It tried to land safely on the ground but broke [ie crash-landed]. Out of it emerged white-skinned culture heroes [gods] and their children. The children’s elders soon died, either through their old age or because they could not accustom themselves to our atmosphere. The children, however, were young and able to adapt more easily to their new surroundings. They carved and painted the likenesses of their parents upon cave walls to perpetuate their memory.
In time, the great red-coloured egg rusted away until its remains had merged with the ground, thus creating the red soil of Central Australia.” The children of the culture heroes who came from the sky grew in number until they eventually populated the whole land, their skins turning black due to the hot climate”.
The cave art depicting the elders still survives, showing figures in garments reminiscent of modern-day astronauts. Aboriginal myth and legend, like that of most primitive people throughout the world, speaks of Dreamtime ‘culture heroes’ [gods] who came down from the sky at the dawn of history to impart culture to Earth’s primitive inhabitants. These traditions, linked as they are with many ancient archaeological sites across the world, suggest to some UFOlogists that in ancient times intelligent beings from other worlds in space may have visited Earth.
For many researchers the most fascinating evidence supporting this theory are the many ancient cave paintings and rock carvings of stone-age people found worldwide. The cave paintings and rock engravings of the Australian Aborigines, like those found elsewhere in the world, depict animal and hunting scenes while often, beside these, strange humanlike figures and objects are seen. Researchers have persistently argued as to whether these represent visiting extra-terrestrials and their spacecraft, or mythical culture heroes and totemic designs. UFOlogists argue that many of these objects are reminiscent of UFO’s that have been reported across the world.The implications are that, thousands of years ago, strange objects were observed in the skies by stone-age people. It is debatable whether these artworks really represent spacecraft and extra-terrestrial beings. Take, for example, the world famous Wandjina cave paintings of the Aborigines of the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia. These human figures dressed in strange garments have been claimed by many to represent ancient astronauts. The myths and legends surrounding the Wandjina state, in some cases, that these beings came down from the stars to impart culture to the primitive tribespeople, while other legends say the Wandjina came from the west across the Indian Ocean in great ships in ancient times.
Those researchers who believe the Wandjina figures depict ancient astronauts place special emphasis upon the ‘helmets’ worn by the figures. On the other hand, I see the Wandjina figures in a different light – as depictions of ancient Egyptian or Phoenician seafarers who landed on the Kimberley coast in Bronze Age times [2000-1400BC] in the course of their voyages to south-east Asia and beyond in search of precious metals and gemstones, in the course of which they established colonies of long duration in Australia and neighbouring islands. [see “Pyramids in the Pacific – The Unwritten History of Australia” URU Publications 2000].
Archaeologists point to the basic similarities in the garments worn by the Wandjina and those of ancient Middle-Eastern mariners. These interesting possibilities are further supported by the presence of apparent Middle-Eastern racial features and ancient Egyptian words still to be found among local Aboriginal tribes. Further support for this alternative argument can be found in the growing mass of Egyptian, Phoenician, Libyan and other rock inscriptions, and various stepped and other pyramids found in Australia and some of our near-island neighbours, suggesting long-term colonization by great numbers of these mineral-seekers as early as around 4000BC.
Yet there still remain other equally mysterious cave paintings and rock engravings over a wide area of Australia’s far northwest, which could lend support to the ancient astronaut theory. These artworks describe, besides humanoid figures in strange ‘spaceman’-type garments, objects that could be said to have the appearance of ancient flying craft. Similar rock art found across Australia, the work of the mysterious Uruans, a megalithic people about which more will be said anon, depicts these same basic motifs.