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The Seven Sisters – A Dreamtime Story
Pleiades (Kungkarangkalpa) is an important group of stars forming a similar myth across Australia.
They represent a group of young women who are pursued by a hunter from whom they ran and hid, moving across the country as he kept following them. They eventually escaped, flying upward to the sky where they can now be seen in the constellation. In the Matu version of the dreamtime story the Minyipuru began their journey in Roebourne as a big group of sisters and mothers. At various places along the way they lost members of their group until eventually only seven sisters remained. At Kalypa ( Well 23 on the Canning Stock Route ) the Minyipuru met a group of Jukurrpa men; it was the first time that either group had ever seen members of the opposit sex. The men tried to grab the women but the women chased them and beat the men with their digging sticks. At Pangkapini the sisters met Yurla, an old man who had been following them all the way from Roebourne and he snatched one of the sisters until the 6 remaining tricked him and rescued her. At another site to the East he tried to grab 5 of the sisters but again they out-tricked him and they all escaped, eventually making their way into the sky where they remain. Many of the important sites on their journey are wells along the Canning Stock Route.
