Creative journeys abound in Aboriginal Mythology. Two cross the Australian continent & begin from ‘Cugin’ [Cudgen] in the ancestral lands of the Ngarakbal Githabal moieties….
The following Bootheram is called the Fairy Emu Dreaming and is one of several ‘Bootherams [Dreaming Lores] about the totemic journey of the ancestor creator spirits across the land. It was recorded from Charlotte Brown in the 1950’s…….Charlotte Brown was the Ngarakbal wife of Githabal man Euston Williams…
The Fairy Emu Dreaming
…”….A big rock stands in the sea six miles from Byron Bay
A man named Nguthungulli made that rock. Nguthungulli is our Father.
He’s the Father of the whole world.
He’s the man we’ve got to be afraid of.
No matter what we do wrong, or where we do it, He’ll know.
And no man has seen Him.
“….Nguthungulli had a cave in the rock. After he made the rock, he told the four fairy woman, ‘gilarmavell’, to stay there…”.
“….Then he went away from there and walked inland from the coast. He traveled over the mountains with his dog Korung. He had a walking stick, and when he put the stick into the ground He left behind a stone like a basin..”…..
…”As he traveled He left the bean-trees, and He named the different places on His journey. He named Woodenbong [where we are now], Nguthumbung.”
“He went over the range to the head of the Condamine. When he knelt down at the river to drink, He left his handprints there in the stone…”…….
“….Nguthungulli went away out into the desert, towards the sunset. In our language we say that Nguthungulli is away out in the Borrgorr now that means the sea. …”…..
“…The old people knew that the sea was out there. They knew that whichever way the butheram, the story of Nguthungalli went, it was towards the sea, Borrgorr. You can hear the sound of the sea in that word. They had seen then that we were on an island.”……….
“….Nguthungulli has big rocks in the Borrgorr, the sea, where he lives today. Out in the caves in those rocks in the sea, Nguthungulli has four daughters and one son. And his son is called Yar Birrain…”….
Ngarakwal [Yoocum] Totemic Lore as told by Charlotte Williams [nee Brown] of the Ngarakwal Githabal moieties – East Coast Australia……The name Yar Birrain has several meanings , one of which is “First Light”….The summit of this sacred Mountain [known as Mt Warning] is the first land in Australia to receive the dawn rays of ‘Mother Sun’….
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Hoo Roo
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