Goanna the lover boy

by Betty Hooker Napanangka, Lajamanu, 1984

translated from Warlpiri with Barbara Gibson Nakamarra (1984, 1995) and edited for the CD-ROM Dream trackers (UNESCO, 2000) by Barbara Glowczewski

Pilja was going underground towards the juwayikirdi Birds to the South. He was scared by the male birds he could feel above him. He was going carefully, blocking the tunnel behind him. He came out and flew up in the sky like a bird.

Pilja is looking for a wife. He is a Japangardi, but instead of a Nampijinpa, he makes love with a Nungarrayi, his forbidden mother-in-law!

He runs away to Yarripalang. Halfway there, he calls himself waji-waji, 'the transgressor'. Worried about having broken the Law, he inspects his body as he walks, to check if anything has changed. This is how we dance today for Pilja Jukurrpa we look at our neck, our shoulders, our arms, our hands, our back, our knees — just like our father did.

Later Pilja sat with two wives. He walked around with his tail in his mouth because the ground was too hot.

2. Mother Goanna

Mother Goanna hid her eggs in a cave, a very special place kilparki. Today little goannas come out of the eggs on their own but in the Dreaming, Mother Goanna Kinyurngali came back to her children to live with them underground and around Yinapalku. Some Ancestral Cannibal Men threw the bones of their victims all around, creating as many names and spirit-children. The children were very numerous now and they went everywhere. When they came back they got scared, because Mother Goanna looked less human than they did.

They danced the Goanna ceremony to make the goannas plentiful. Women were shouting 'Wah! Wah!', the waakarra shout, while the men coated their shields with fat.

We dance that ceremony today. Men put the shields on the ground and women pretend to hit them with little sticks. But they miss and the men get their shields back. And when a hunter finds a mother goanna that just gave birth he does not kill her, he just keeps her in his hand and sings for her. This is our Law to keep the goannas fat and plentiful.

My father Pilja from Mont Theo, Yinapalku went everywhere as far as Ngarnaja up north, meeting the Owl and Budgerigar Dreamings. Coming into the river country, the sand goanna changed over into a water goanna parntangarna.

Mother Goanna left many holes around Patupatu where she rested after giving birth. Each hole is an underground spring. She danced all around those holes going in and out. I dance this too. Her spirit is mine.

3. The birds taught them how to talk

There are many more stories for Goanna. Two Goanna hunters heard something talking and singing in a tree. They were afraid in the first place, since they did not know what the noise was. But later, they came back to the tree and found two little birds. We sing about this.

SONG

The Two Goanna men came closer to the tree. Very gently they took the birds from the nest and covered them with their wamirrirri spear thrower to protect them from the wind. These pakupaku or kupalupalu Birds always say 'Hit him!', to make people fight. Sometimes we call them kurdaija sorcerers. But when the Two Goanna men took the birds from goannas they turned into humans and learnt how to speak.

Yinapalku, the Goanna place, is looking at his brother Yawulawulu the Yam Dreaming place. From the West came the Digging Stick Dreaming, another brother who bent his head in front of him calling him 'yalpurru', co-initiate. They painted each other and their ritual sticks. But I can't say anymore, the rest is secret, the Goanna on top and the little Snakes underneath, kanunju.