Who is Morning Star?
Australian born - Morning Star, is leaving the land down under, to go walkabout around the earth with her 'Wings Around the World' book and workshop tour. Sharing skills learned from a lifetime in the bush in dedication to her craft. She offers several fun, informative and creative workshops in Making Medicine Tools and Ceremonial Art!
Morning Star was born in Sydney, Australia. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to a mountain property, on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Both her parents gained employment at the local Tannery, where she spent many hours, observing the processes of turning animal skins into leather and leather into useable products. She also spent many hours on horseback on top of the mountain observing native wildlife and exploring the surrounding mountains.
Morning Star undertook a self imposed discipline to learn and study all she could about creating from the skins of animals. Living in the bush has its advantages, due to the numerous roadkill found on Australian roads, so there were always plenty to experiment with. Armed with a tandy catalogue from the USA and Al Stohlman books printed in the 50's and 60's, she taught herself to carve and work leather.
After finishing school she moved to the city to gain employment, never losing her love of creating with leather, she found she could not live in the city and the bush called her home. She continued her apprenticeship with nature, going deeper into the mountains. By this time she was a mother of 2 children & felt it necessary to teach them the importance of self sufficiency. With her husband, they purchased 150 acres covering a 1,200 foot mountain and a spring fed creek. They set up a solar powered system for the van they moved onto the property next to the creek, created a large vegetable garden, acquired a jersey calf, raising it to milk.
She then began to study nature in a deeper way - roadkill were numerous in the forms of birds, snakes and wallabies (small varieties of kangaroo), which she dilligently practiced different types of tanning techniques, suporting herself and her family with the sale of her creations and teaching of Aboriginal Students at Taree high School, Primary school, Technical College, Skids Kids, Juvenile Justice and anyone who wanted to learn - what she had learnt from the earth and with the skins of animals. At this time an elderly Aboriginal man in his late 70's taught her how to skin, clean and tan snakes in a whole new way. Over the next few years she studied - Oriental Therapies, 3 levels of Pranic Healing, Crystal, Colour Healing, Reiki, Medicial Intuition, Aromatherapy, Australian Bush Flower Essences, Remedial Massage and Aboriginal Studies.
The knowledge gleaned from these studies, deepened her understanding of the importance of the energetic world when she was working with the skins of animals. So much so, that the animals once honoured and blessed, began to share their medicine secrets and wisdom with her, opening up an understanding of animals as stargates of information, the earth as a library and the creatures the books - assisting us to re-member our roles as stewards and custodians of this blessed planet.
Morning Star spent 8 years meditating on the mountain and beside the creek, while her children were at school. Until there came a time when and she found herself closer to town on 10 acres. At the end of 2003, she was asked by the Divine Within to forsake all material possessions, leave her beloved children, land and animals behind to begin her earth walk in a new way, to new lands.
Since that time she has called the earth 'home', with no real roots or possessions she has travelled to Alaska, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Peru, Egypt, Turkey and Guatemala, often travelling with rattles and drum to further understand the use of these tools throughout history in different cultures, visiting sacred sites, sharing and learning about the world & its differences.
In 2006/7, she volunteered for a year with the Grandmother Drum and the Whirling Rainbow Foundation - her duties as Performance and Ceremonial Artist consisted of cleaning and making rawhide from buffalo, musk ox, reindeer and goat skins, made over 200 drums, 80 rattles and hundreds of medicine bags, before heading out with the team of the Grandmother Drum on 2nd January 2007 to drive from Alaska to Guatemala.
In 2008, leaving Australia with $250, a one way ticket & 3 snakehead medicine items, she traveled from West to East USA overland 8,000 miles via lifts and greyhound, then to Glastonbury England for the 8-8-08, to Denmark, England, USA and back to OZ to be a Grandmother for the first time.
While back in Australia, Morning Star lived in a shearing shed on her sisters 160 acre horse property, assisting her sister to set up a new farm stay and Equine Retreat - as she prepared for another journey to the northern Hemisphere - http://www.yarrahappenin.webs.com/
Morning star finances her travels around the planet through her workshops, healings and creations - sharing simple skills in co-creation learnt from 35 years of diligent practice, encounters with other craftspeople and from 18 years of teaching these skills to Aboriginals, school children, Adult Education, Juvenile Justice, Scouts, community groups and interested individuals.
Morning Star left Australia on the 23rd May for Philadelphia USA, with a one way ticket and $200, flying on wings of trust and faith, as she makes herself available to those who can be most uplifted and assisted by sharing what the earth has shared with her.
email : morningstaroz@gmail.com
