Spirit Light Orbs

Spirit light orbs join ancestors in a merry afternoon dance at William Ricketts Sanctuary, Mt Dandenong Tourist Road Olinda, Victoria Australia
(c) Ajanta Judd Words & Images

William Ricketts (1898–1993) was an Australian potter and sculptor of the arts and crafts movement. From 1949 to 1960 he made frequent trips into Central Australia to live with Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte Aboriginal people, whose traditions and culture inspired his sculpture. He was not an Aboriginal by blood but considered himself adopted by the Pitjantjatjara nation. He left behind many of his central Australian works at Pitchi Ritchi near Alice Springs – a bird sanctuary run by his friend Leo Corbet – as he considered the landscape integral to these sculptures.

In 1934 he started his major artistic work, creating the sculpture park now named William Ricketts Sanctuary. There are 92 sculptures of Australia's Indigenous peoples embedded into the landscape and earth, manifesting a magical, ethereal and meditative energy. He worked on this project until his death in 1993.
In 1970 he went to India. He spent two years there, mostly at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram spiritual center in Puducherry, developing spiritual empathy with Indian people and knowledge of their philosophy. Read his biography: Whitefella Dreaming: The Authorised Biography of William Ricketts by Peter Brady
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