Australian Aboriginal Art Gift Mouse Mat

Original design by Skye Ryan-Evans (2011) © An earthy image is set on a backdrop around Uluru or Ayer's Rock in Central Australia. It is an Australian Aboriginal-styled map of part of the desert also known in Australia, as the Outback. The various coloured dots represent nature elements like mountains, water-courses, dried creek-beds, food sources like Kangaroo and Goanna, Gecko and Snake etc. Many of the circles represent small desert plants that flower in the rainy season and the floral shapes in the sky are spiralling stars burning in the heavens and casting their light at night for the nocturnal animals that roam the desert in the cool of evening. The centre-piece represents the relentless desert sun and the heat it generates to bring both life and death to the desert cycle. Some of the animal shapes in the sky depict the animal spirits the Aborigine hunter gives thanks to when he takes an animal for his sustenance. The Snake is related to the Creation in Australian Dreaming mythologies. In this earthy depiction, the head and tongue of the Snake is crawling through the dry desert grasses and the second one seen in the sky, is representative of the Snake's spirit.