Snake Lady by Susan Point

Silkscreen Print

17" x 17"

April 1990

Edition of 90

Many years ago there was a woman and her children who lived by the beach. One morning the woman dressed her children and sent them out to play. While the children played on the beach amongst the logs, they came across a nest of snakes. The snakes were startled and began attacking the children, who screamed and cried out. The woman heard the screams and went to investigate. Seeing the snakes attacking her children, she picked up a big stick and began clubbing the snakes to death, except for the mother snake, who was only wounded. The woman brought her children home to safety.

That night when she fell asleep, she dreamed of a beautiful lady who was crying for help. The beautiful lady told the woman that in the fight she had killed all of the beautiful lady's children and wounded her seriously too. Then the beautiful lady explained that since the woman had killed all of her children, her own children would also perish; if she had spared at least one of the younger snake children, her own children would have been spared. As time passed, the beautiful lady's prediction came true and the woman lost all of her children one by one. After all those happenings, the woman and the beautiful lady became the best of friends. When the woman became a Spirit Dancer her powers were those of the snake song. The beautiful lady also blessed her with good luck, and anything she did because of that good luck, she did well.

-Susan Point

Croes, Dale, et al. Susan Point: Works on Paper. Figure 1 Publishing, 2014.