Malilanya – Ngunytjima’s Story
This is my great-grandmother’s Country, Renita’s grandmother. This is the story about that minyma (woman) that only got one leg so she walks with a stick. She went into that rock hole underground. It’s a good story.
This creation story is from near Kanpi in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Malila was a woman with one lame leg who often went hungry because she couldn’t search and hunt for food. She would have to wait for her two daughters to bring her meat so she could eat. She walked around like a dog on all fours and travelled a long way until she got to a place near Kanpi.
It was raining and her daughters helped her build a wiltja (bush hut) to get out of the rain. That wiltja is now an underground cave. One day her daughter brought her meat and Malila saw that it had been cooked by man and said to her daughters, ‘I’m not going to eat this meat. Who are these men? You must have husbands.’
She left her cave and went travelling further west where she came across some men and got really angry with them. The men hit her and she fell and rolled down a hill and died, creating some mountains along the way. Women are reminded of Malila when they are hungry. Many people tell this story, and the woman Malila stays in existence.
