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Black-headed Python, Flood, 4 womens and queen Wandjina bees

Black Headed Pythons

In the dreamtime the black-headed pythons and their partner the widgignardi (quoll) were all living in a cave- they were humans then. One day he told them that there was a tribal fight along the coast, and he was going there to fight. When he got there, he started fighting and when he was speared, he left the fight bleeding and went near a waterhole where he was in pain, he started twisting around in pain and then he died.

His spirit left his body and returned to the two pythons in the cave he called out to them, and they both answered him and asked why he was calling out to them. He told them that they speared him, and he died near a waterhole. So, then they told him to return to the waterhole and let his spirit rest there. They were now widows so they started crying for him because they had no-one to take care of them anymore, so they cut off their hair to bald and covered their faces with charcoal and cried all during the night till daybreak. They made a fire in the cave and covered it up with leaves to smoke the cave where they all stayed in there with their partners belongings too.

Then they went out towards the hills when they got near to the hills, they both climbed up onto the two hills to wait for the sun to rise.

4 Womans

These 4 womens were living with their families and relatives as well. One day a man walked into their camp with spears and some old and young men were sitting under a big bough shed. When they saw him they called out to him and welcomed him to join them. He was out hunting and was returning back to his camp so they told him that he could spend the night with him because it was getting dark so he stayed overnight.

The old ladies to the cooking for the men and asked the 4 women to help out so they agreed to help and when they took the food over to the mens under the bough shed they saw the newcomer among them and everytime they bring food over they dress themselves up.

The old mens and the old womens knew what was happening because they were flirting for that man that was there with them. So the old mens and womens called out to them privately and when they got them they told them that what they were doing wasn’t right because they said you womens and that man can’t have any relationship because you all have the same skin and can’t marry one another because its wrong and it will start a fight among ourselves with his families and relatives as well and we don’t want that to happen.

So the womens forgot about him and dressed up with the clothes they had on before. These 2 are our skin groups in our 3 tribes- Wodoi and Jungin.

Flood

These two boys caught an owl and was plucking out his feathers then they left them on the ground. The owl flew up towards the sky to the Wandjinas and they saw it coming towards them then they asked the owl what had happened. It told them what the boys had done to it and the Wandjinas got angry. They asked the animals to look for the two boys but they never returned to the Wandjinas. So the wandjinas saw a ta-ta lizard and they asked it to go and find the two boys, so it did find them in the riverbed with their families and relatives so it ran back onto a rock and waved at the Wandjinas and told them where the boys were.

The Wandjinas started to make rain and the brolgas started dancing in the mud then the rain started to pour and started a flood and the river rose up and drowned some of the people. But some started swimming towards the land. A kangaroo was swimming by and the 2 boys grabbed its tail and it took them towards higher ground they jumped off and ran towards a boab tree that had a hole in the centre of it and they both ran inside to get out of the rain and then the hole closed up behind them and that’s when no-one saw them again because they got punished for what they did.

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The three tribes, Wodoi and Jungun

The three tribes are the Worrora, Wunumbul and Ngarinyin. The three tribes represent the Wandjina who made them what they are today. They’re from the North Kimberley region of Western Australia. The area that makes up the three tribes starts from Oobagooma which is 150km north of the coast of Derby, east across towards inland to Iminji and all the way up to Kalumburru. The tribes have travelled, moved and lived together and share similar stories, culture and language with different dialects. They still follow the law, culture and language of the land today carrying on strong and sharing it.

From left to right we have Wannalirri (Ngarinyin) Wandjina. He was the Wandjina that brought all the Wandjina’s together to send the big flood to drown the people, because of what the children had done to the Dumbi the owl.

The Wandjina in the centre is called Namarali (Worrora) Wandjina. He is the only one with spears sticking out of his head. Namarali stole a wife of one of the other Wandjinas and they both ran away to the coast to a place called Langi. The husband of the women rounded up the other Wandjinas and they went after the two and caught up with them at Langi and they surrounded him (Namarali). They all threw their spears at him and as he was dying he told them to bury him in the sand but bury him on the nearby hill. To this day you can see the rock formations of the Wandjinas at the battle at Langi, and Namarali is the biggest rock of them all.

The third Wandjina on the right is Rimmijmurra (Wunambul). This Wandjina likes stealing so thats how it got his name.

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Wandjina & Gyorn Gyorn (cloud and rain spirits & Bradshaws)

The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the people of Mowanjum. They brought the law, culture and language. The people of Mowanjum believe that the first Wandjina was called Idjair, who lives in the Milky Way and is the father of all Wandjinas. The Wandjina Wallungunda (milky way) was Idair’s first son; he created the Earth and all life upon it. After he created the first human beings, the Gyorn Gyorn people, Wallungunda traveled back to Idjair to bring back more Wandjinas to give the Gyorn Gyorn people laws to live by. Today the Gyorn Gyorns are known to give our corroborree and became hunters, collectors and gatherers.

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Kangaroo

This painting represents the kangaroo and how people hunted them. They were hunted for food and used the skin of female kangaroos for making hair belts.

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Wandjina & Wara Inja (cloud and rain spirits & kangaroo)

The Wandjina spirits are highly respected by the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people who live at Mowanjum and up the Gibb River Road to Kalumburru in the North West Kimberley region of Western Australia. Where you see a lot of Wandjinas they represent the laws of tree, rivers, rocks, bush fruit and animals, all creation. These customs are carried on today. This painting represents the kangaroo and how people hunted them. They were hunted for food and used the skin of female kangaroos for making hair belts.

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Woolamarra (long neck turtles)

These woolamarra are having a rough time because their waterhole has dried up. The woolamarra have sung out to the Wandjina to help them find a new waterhole. Two Wandjinas, Datbudder and Djangunardi, have come to show the turtles how to get to the new waterhole.

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Wandjina & Ungud (cloud and rain spirits & totem)

The Wandjina is the creator spirit that belongs to us (the Wororra, Ngarinyin and Wunumbul people). He is the one that created everything, he also gave us our culture, law and songs and even the dreaming of each child before they are born.

The Ungud Snake story is about two young boys who didn’t listen to their elders or believe in them. There is a big waterhole an in it lies a large Ungud Snake. The old people told the kids not to go near that waterhole, but these boys thought the elders were tricking them so they wanted to find out for themselves. So they went to the waterhole and built a hideout from branches with small holes so that they can see ( just in case the elders told the truth) they looked at the billabong and it was calm. They banged two sticks together to make clapping noise and then they saw all the lilypads starting to move apart on the water and large logs came up from out of the water, then came bubbles and after a huge head coming out of the water to have a look around for who had been making all the noise. He hadn’t seen annone so he went back down and the lilypads went flat and the water went calm. Those two boys ran back to the camp and told the elders that they were right , there was a snake and the elders told them that they should have listened in the first place. The Ungud Snake also was the chosen animal in helping with the creation of mother earth, creating rivers, gorges, stream’s and helped with the formation of the earth. Still today it lives in these dark deep water hole’s in our country which doesn’t want to be disturbed.

 

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Gyorn Gyorn & Bushfood.

The Wandjina he created the Earth and all life upon it. After he created the first human beings, the Gyorn Gyorn people. The Wandjina then told the Gyorn Gyorn to work the land and do well. The Gyorn Gyorns were confused and didn’t understand what the Wandjina wanted from them. The Wandjina was annoyed couldn’t control the Gyorn Gyorn. He travelled back to Wallungunda (Milky Way) to where Idjair was and asked if he could help with the creation. More Wandjinas came back and helped him in all areas in creations. As for the Gyorn Gyorns they became hunters and gathers. They also show the dancing the traditional dancing amongst our tribes.

This is all of our Bush Tucker from the wet to the dry season.

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Gyorn Gyorn & Bushfood.

The Wandjina he created the Earth and all life upon it. After he created the first human beings, the Gyorn Gyorn people. The Wandjina then told the Gyorn Gyorn to work the land and do well. The Gyorn Gyorns were confused and didn’t understand what the Wandjina wanted from them. The Wandjina was annoyed couldn’t control the Gyorn Gyorn. He travelled back to Wallungunda (Milky Way) to where Idjair was and asked if he could help with the creation. More Wandjinas came back and helped him in all areas in creations. As for the Gyorn Gyorns they became hunters and gathers. They also show the dancing the traditional dancing amongst our tribes.

This is all of our Bush Tucker from the wet to the dry season.