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JUWARKJIL (NIGHT BIRD)

Bessie tells the story of this painting, “At night when Aboriginal people hear the sound of this bird they tell the children to go to sleep early, be quiet and not to sit near the fire.  If this bird hears the sound of a child or catches the child’s spirit.  When the bird gets the childd’s spirit it takes the spirit away to its home and smashes its skull and it eats the brains out.  So when a child is sick the old people put gurugnuny (bush vicks) in dilly bags around the child’s neck and make a bed of gurugnuny so the child sleeps on it.  Then at the same time the child is smoked with biliny (river gum tree). This is done all day and night until the child gets better.  Sometimes a child can die if it is done later.  When the spirit of the child is taken away the child gets skinny, its eyes are sunken in and the chld eats its own faeces, charcoal and any sort of rubbish.  It grows up skinny, doesn’t put on any weight and sometimes, the child is not looked after properly, it dies.”