Book Description

The Message of the Lyrebird is a photographic odyssey into one of the world's most mysterious creatures, the pristine lands that it inhabits, and the native forest friends it imitates.This companion guide to the feature-length film examines the lyrebird's unique abilities and sophisticated song and dance routines, which date back to the Early Miocene epoch, 18 million years ago.Australian filmmaker Mark B Pearce has compiled this beautiful book using screenplay extracts, homages to poets and writers, and the scribed knowledge from the film's multi-character narrative. Fascinating information and world-class photography of lyrebird imitation, courtship, habitat, plumage and reproduction is weaved with the behind-the-scenes story of a film that took 11 years to create.The book profiles D'harawal Dreaming law stories of the bird as well as modern-day understandings of its behaviours from a cinematographer, a scientist, a lyrebird sound recordist, a lyrebird keeper, a study group, an activist, and a Knowledge-Holder. In their attempts to observe and conserve nature, the characters of the film call for an end to the deliberate erosion of lyrebird habitats from commercial and industrial developments.The Foreword is written by Dr Anastasia Dalziell; with a background in behavioural ecology, Anastasia investigated the ecology of vocal mimicry in the Superb Lyrebird for her PhD research at the Australian National University and continues to write ground-breaking science on Menura novaehollandiae.In our modern age of spiritual confusion, the lyrebird stands as a symbol of sacred harmony - the speaker of all languages and the dancer of life. Lyrebird invites us to re-member our place in the natural world, and inspires us to cultivate the peace and reverence necessary for humanity's salvation.