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MOON DREAMING
This story is told and painted here by Charlene Carrington as it was passed on to her by her grandfather Hector Jandany.
This work was painted using river red gum sap called garliwoony in Gija.This is Yarin Country in Darrajayn (now known as Springvale Station) which lies south of Warmun. This is Mabel’s country. In the Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) there was a young hunter who’s skin name was Joowoorroo. One day Joowoorroo came back from hunting kangaroo, he had caught a big kangaroo and people from his mob had got a big pit fire ready to cook the kangaroo. As he entered the camp he saw a girl sitting with her mother. She was very beautiful with long black hair and he fell in love with her instantly. This girl’s name was Daawool. After the kangaroo had cooked and everyone had eaten, the old men of the camp called Joowoorroo over and said to him, ” You are now the right age for marriage, which one of these two promised women of Nyawana skin would you like to take for your wife?” Nywana is the right skin name to marry Joowoorroo. Joowoorroo looked at both girls, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman with the long black hair. He paused for a long time and then said “dawooyan dawooyan” (that one, that one) pointing to Daawool, but the old men all shook their heads and said “no she’s your mother-in-law, she is wrong way married for you, you must marry one of these promised girls, these Nyawana who are Daawool’s daughters”. Again they asked him who he wanted to marry and he said once more “dawooyan dawooyan”. The old people were angry that Joowoorroo would not obey the law of the mob so they cast him out ” you must go away!”, they told him. Angrily he left and walked some distance on top of a hill and he looked down upon his mob and cursed them. He said, “You mob will all die, but I will come back to life”, and he turned into the moon – garnkiny in Gija. As the moon, he comes back to life every month. The full moon is also a reminder to all Gija people to respect the rules of right-way marriage. The two promised Nyawana turned into wardool, the evening and morning stars. And daawool was cursed and became the black-headed snake.
