Raven Mary: Who She?

[Frideswide]

While going through Awful Library Books for some light relief from having realised that the cats have destroyed most of our carefully saved Christmas wrapping paper, I found the following picture...

in MacKay D and Jennings K 2010 Alchemy Arts - Recycling is Chic

The relevant bit being "Intrigued to learn about 'Raven Mary' while making a new dress from an old silk petticoat?" Well, tbh, the answer is yes, totally, take my damn money! I'm now looking for a copy so I can also repurpose playing cards into a top hat and artfully wrap a net curtain around my bum.

The authors were based in Edinburgh but so far nobody I've asked knows who "Raven Mary" is. Ideas? A link to an exhaustive scholarly analysis and bibliography would be nice.


EDIT: copy should be arriving shortly!

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Can't find anything directly related to the name "Raven Mary" but

Di Jennings used to have a shop in Wellington and Iooks contactable on Linkedin. Although she doesn't list herself as a designer these days. She's into the Wearable Art movement which has a big internationally recognized event based in New Zealand. It is spectacular if you are into that type of thing.

https://www.worldofwearableart.com/


Kate Mackay is a quite a lovely artist by the looks of things. I notice that she's done a piece called Bird Women - now Bird Women is a legendary character of New Zealand Maori mythology.

http://www.spanglefish.com/katemackayfineart/index.asp?pageid=86417

https://discover.stqry.com/v/hatupatu-and-the-bird-woman/s/ff780fb6-4e32-4795-85f7-c09912cfc90b

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov13_08Rail-t1-body-d19.html


Di Jennings lived within a Maori household so would have probably heard the tale there.


Kate MacKay looks like she is heavily influenced by the late Mal Dean who illustrated the Jerry Cornelius books of Mike Moorcock.

https://abcdefghijklmn-pqrstuvwxyz.com/9036/

Mal is one of my favorite illustrators.


I'm wondering also if the name was a bit of a homage to the old Blues/Murder ballad Crow Jane? The song is most famously attributed to Skip James and Nic Cave did a version on his wonderful Murder Ballads LP 1996. The song is much older though.

CROW JANE- Skip James 1967

Crow Jane, Crow Jane, Crow Jane Don't you hold your head high
Someday baby, you know You got to die
TAG: You got to lay down an - You got to die, you got to -

You know, I wanna buy me a pistol, Wants me forty rounds of ball
Shoot Crow Jane, just to see her fall
TAG: She got to fall, she got to - She got to fall, she got to-

That's the reason I begged, Crow Jane Not to hold her head, so high
Someday baby, you know You got to die
tAG: You got to lay down an -

When I dug her grave, With a silver spade
Ain't nobody gon' take, My Crow Jane place
TAG: You can't take her place, No, you can't take her -

That's the reason I begged, Crow Jane Not to hold her head, too high
Someday baby, you know You got to die
You got to lay down an -

You know, I let her down, With a golden chain
An ev'ry link I would call my, Crow Jane name
Crow Jane, Crow - Crow Jane, Crow -

You know I never missed my water, 'Till my well went dry
Didn't miss Crow Jane Until the day she died
'Till the day-ay-ay-ay she -

That's the reason I begged, Crow Jane Not to hold her head too high
Someday baby, you know you got to die
You got to lay down and - You got to die, you got to -

You know, I dug her grave, Eight feet in the ground
Didn't feel sorry, Until they let her down
They had to let her down Had-a - They had to let her down

That's the reason I begged, Crow Jane Not to hold her head too high
Someday baby, you know you got to die
You got to lay down and -

Here' a Wiki on Murder Ballads which I love.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Ballads

 

[Frideswide]

You are a most excellent Naughty_Felid!

That is an expert and thorough sweep of things and I am thoroughly enjoying it. My copy of the book should be with me soon.

The New Zealand/Maori connection, if we can get it to hold up, would be very interesting.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

You are a most excellent Naughty_Felid!

That is an expert and thorough sweep of things and I am thoroughly enjoying it. My copy of the book should be with me soon.

The New Zealand/Maori connection, if we can get it to hold up, would be very interesting.

We could just email Di, I'm thinking she wouldn't mind at all and would be up for a good natter. I binned my linkedin account years ago so can't do it.

Sorry to take the boring route!

My one thing about Crow Jane is it isn't a particularly nice song about women.

 

[Frideswide]

Yes, we could but I enjoy the hunt and I'll feel much more able to contact her with a copy of the book in paw!

 

[Spookdaddy]

...The New Zealand/Maori connection, if we can get it to hold up, would be very interesting...

Hmm, a quick rummage in the random memory shed dislodged the thought that members of the crow family are few and far between in New Zealand. A quick check somewhere more reliable suggests that rooks are the only residents (and non native, at that) - and that ravens, although they were once native, were driven to extinction a long time ago.

It seems that, for a change, it wasn't Europeans who did for them, but the old locals. Maybe they survived long enough, even if only in memory, to be written into regional myth. However, an albeit not very exhaustive, raven/Maori legend search doesn't seem to dredge anything up beyond Bird-woman - which story, unless I've misread, doesn't appear to connect specifically to the raven.

 

[Spookdaddy]

There's a photo of the Raven Mary dress page from the book here - and a suggestion that there is an associated story (which, unfortunately, is clearly on another page from the one photographed).

And they look like swallows to me.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

There's a photo of the Raven Mary dress page from the book here - and a suggestion that there is an associated story (which, unfortunately, is clearly on another page from the one photographed).

And they look like swallows to me.

Good find! The lady opposite chapter 1 is wearing a dress heavily influenced by traditional Maori dress.

 

[Frideswide]

There's a photo of the Raven Mary dress page from the book

That looks rather interesting Also interesting is that it's the opposite of the review given in Awful Library Books which is where I first found it.

I'm actually looking forward to my copy arriving even more!

 

[Frideswide]

This is better than I could have hoped!

First thing - the index is wrong. It says that the only mention is on p19. In fact, that page is the intro to the Roses and Ruffles section. Second thing, the book is great and the librarian who dissed it has no soul!

I'm trying to get a picture of the relevant page - it's not directly to do with New Zealand by the way, although there will be those influence inherent in the artists