In the DreamtimeWith stories from... The Arrernte Nation, The Wotjobaluk

Nation, The Bardi Nation, The Awabakal Nation

By Gary Campbell

We all love stories. Nations from every corner of the world have special stories that inform and entertain their culture. Some are treated with

particular respect, because they are believed to be explanations of how the world and everything within it came to be. The Bible is a collection of such stories, and is special for people who follow religions such as Christianity and Judaism. The stories told in the Koran are important to people following the Muslim faith.

Indigenous Australians have sacred stories too. Their stories are based in the Dreamtime, and they reveal important messages about respect for the land, for animals and for each other. They are passed on from generation to generation, by word of mouth. And as the longest continuous culture on Earth, we can only imagine how ancient many of these stories are!

Here are four stories from the Dreamtime, each from a different Aboriginal nation.

1

The Arrernte Nation (Northern Territory)In the Dreamtime the Earth was dry and flat and dark. There was nothing except an enormous pole that stretched from the barren ground into the sky. At the base of the pole slept a spirit called Karora. He dreamt the first animals, bandicoots, into life. Karora awoke, breaking through the Earth’s crust, along with the Sun and the other spirits. The land was flooded with light for the very first time. Karora was hungry, so he ate the bandicoots. He was lonely, so dreamt sons. Karora’s sons helped him to hunt the bandicoots. But soon, he dreamt so many sons that there were no more bandicoots to eat.

Karora’a sons went far away from their camp in search of food. They saw a figure in the mist and, thinking it was a bandicoot, struck it. They heard a scream, ‘I am a man, like you, and now you have wounded me! I cannot walk!’ The man turned into a wallaby, and hopped away. The young sons returned to their father, who was resting by a waterhole. The honeysuckle flowers that grew by the waterhole suddenly flooded the land with honey, and the sons were swept away. In the river of honey they landed at the feet of the wallaby, and all of them were turned to stone. To this day, on that spot, there is a group of stones, with a boulder – the wallaby – in the middle. Karora returned to the centre of the Earth from the waterhole, and fell asleep. There he remains, and even today no-one may go to that waterhole without first performing the proper ceremonies in honour of Karora.

A dance of the

Arrernte people,

1901

In the Dreamtime continued

2

The Bardi Nation (Western Australia)In the Dreamtime all birds were black. One day, the peaceful dove was searching for food. He saw a nice, juicy grub crawling along a stick. He pounced on it. The grub squirmed away out of the dove’s reach, but the stick pierced the foot of the hungry bird. The dove flew away, bleeding badly.

Soon the dove fell to the ground, mortally wounded. All the other birds came to help. The only bird that did not come to the dove’s aid was the crow. ‘Leave her alone! She’s going to die!’ the crow cawed. The other birds ignored him. The galah came and, thinking it might help, bit the dove’s foot. Suddenly all the colours of the rainbow gushed from the wound. The parrots were splashed with blue, red, green, yellow and orange. The emus were splashed with brown.

The magpies were splashed with white and the galah was splashed with pink and grey. This is how the birds received their beautiful colours that we recognise today.

All except the crow, who refused to help the dove. It remains black to this day, and does not mix with other birds.

In the Dreamtime continued

Well this sucks

3

The Wotjobaluk Nation (Victoria)In the Dreamtime there lived Ngindyal, a giant and unkind emu, the only emu on the land, who terrorised the Wotjobaluk people. She terrorised and ate many people. One day, a crow disturbed Ngindyal, who became enraged and chased the crow through the mountains. Eventually Ngindyal tired and lost track of the crow. The crow came across two brothers. The brothers were looking for Ngindyal. Ngindyal had killed many of their people and so they were very happy to be told by the crow where the angry emu was resting.

The brothers set off in pursuit of Ngindyal. They surprised her and speared her in the chest. Shrieking and bleeding, she fled. The brothers chased after her, and speared her again, this time killing her. They stripped Ngindyal of her feathers and put them into two piles. One pile became a male emu, the other female. The spirit of Ngindyal rose into the sky, and became part of the constellation we now call the Southern Cross. The crow became a constellation too, still pursued by the giant emu.

A dance in the Wotjobaluk nation in 1904. The dancers decorate their bodies with emu feathers!

In the Dreamtime continued

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The Awabakal Nation (New South Wales)In the Dreamtime there lived a huge frog called Tiddalik. Tiddalik was the largest frog the land had ever known. One day, Tiddalik woke up and was thirstier than he had ever been. He began to drink from the Wollombi Brook, and soon enough he had drunk every drop of water from within it. But Tiddalik was still thirsty. Not caring about the needs of the other animals, Tiddalik drank all the fresh water in the world. Now Tiddalik’s belly was completely full and he could barely move away from the river that he had just drunk dry.

Soon, other animals came to the river in search of water. When they realised what Tiddalik had done, they were very scared. Without water, they would all surely die. Then, a wise wombat had the clever idea to make Tiddalik laugh so that as he opened his mouth, the water would flow back out, wetting the land. All the animals tried their funniest tricks; the kookaburra told a joke, the kangaroo jumped over the emu and the lizard started walking on two legs, but none of them even made Tiddalik smile.

Then, a slippery eel arrived and began to dance. It was such an unusual sight that the corners of Tiddalik’s mouth curled upwards and suddenly he burst out laughing! Water poured from his mouth and all the rivers, lakes and swamps in the world filled with water once more.

Tiddalik was turned to stone for his greed, and even now you can visit him near Wollombi Brook.

Sacred Of great importance to a religion or culture

Nation People belonging to a land with a single culture (There were once over 500 Indigenous nations within Australia)

Barren Lifeless, empty

Bandicoots Small Australian marsupials with long pointed noses

Enraged Furious, very angry

Pursuit Chase, hunt

Constellation A group of stars forming a shape

Mortally Fatally, causing death

Brook Creek, stream, river

GLOSSARY

In the Dreamtime continued

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