Janganpa and Yawakiyi song cycle Lajamanu women, Yarturluyarturlu, 1984 translated from Warlpiri with Barbara Gibson Nakamarra (1984, 1995) and edited for the CD-ROM Dream trackers (UNESCO, 2000) by Barbara Glowczewski
SONG 1 nganjiljiyi wurna wurna jirripirrdi wurnawurna Yawakiyi plum travelled, the jirripirrdi bird travelled.
SONGS 2—4 intilyapilyapipili punmuntu pakarnina wikirri pajirninya Butterfly eat the pretty flower, they become green leaves
pajarradu nganyaniri nganyaniri The flower opens and all the plums come out
yawakiyi wurna kuturlu pukujarkaja The plums travel they become black, half ripe
SONG 5 wajungunta yunanjila karna yanyanya Janganpa possum keeps going not looking at the Yam people (Japanangka/ Japangardi) in the bushes
SONG 6 purrpurrpardinya Rirrinjarrarla ngarlili plum black soup came out from the ground
SONG 7 puturlu warlawarla nganjiljiyi warla warla The Jukurrpa people (Jakamarra, Jupurrurla, Nakamarra, Napurrurla) have been straightening their backbones
Possum and the Plum People by Nakakut Barbara Gibson Nakamarra, Lajamanu, 1984
translated from Warlpiri with Barbara Gibson Nakamarra (1984, 1995) and edited for the CD-ROM Dream trackers (UNESCO, 2000) by Barbara Glowczewski
This story I tell you is my kuruwarri. Janganpa was running from Piyayi to the East. He ran, ran, when the sun was coming up. He was going to the Alyawarri and Wankangurru tribes looking for allies to fight his own people of the Pintupi tribe. At Yiwalpirri he found the yawakiyi big Black Plums, of Jupurrurla and Jakamarra skins, and the yiwirnti small Green Plums, of Jampijinpa and Jangala skins. A big mob followed him, an army, to fight his people. The women came too. Janganpa took the whole lot, two tribes were walking together.
They camped at Mijitinyanu, miyikirlangu. 'Who are you?' the Green Plums asked. 'We are miyi yirnmi, already ripe fruit, good to eat,' my people answered.
Poor Yiwirnti, the small Plums were not 'cooked' yet, not good to eat, my kuyuwurrurru. They were too raw to continue the journey.
Meantime Janganpa brought a group of Possums from Jangankurkangu in Warlpiri country. Joined by them, the Black Plums keep on walking. They look back at Mijitinyanu nothing there. All the Green Plums have disappeared. They went underground forming a rockhole. The Black Plums feel sorry for them. From their tears the Jinma spring was born.
2. Parrawuju and Bandicoot at Mulyukarriji
Janganpa the Possum is leading the Yawakiyi Plums. They are followed by Yarrindakurdaku, a little Jampijinpa bird with black around the beak. The parrawuju Leaves people follow them too, a big mob of men and women coming from Ngarnka (Jungarrayi and Japaljarri skins). The Plums grow into a black soup at Warntapari. The Leaves with the black sap comes to attack them. The bird flies ahead to watch the enemies.
Janganpa stops by a rockhole at Pirnki. The Plums build a windbreak and they all go to sleep. Not far, at Parrapardupardu, the Parrawuju Leaves have a rest.
Early in the morning, the Plums start walking towards Mulyukarriji. Here starts the story of my Jakamarra grandfather, owner for that place.
'We are going to cut the Plums across,' the Leaves say.
Changing into a black soup, they split the black soup of Plums in two groups. The Leaves fought with our fathers at Mulyukarriji and went underground back to their country. After the fight only a few Yawakiyi are left who travel underground back East. They come out through the rocks like a bubbling black river, forming the Rirrinjarra rockhole. They try to stand up, but they are too weak. So they go down for ever.
Mulyukarriji and Rirrinjarra rockholes are part of the Pirliwarnawarna country that also belongs to other Dreamings, WAMPANA, Ngurlu, Kurlukuku, and Yarrapiri Jukurrpa. My people and the owners of these Dreamings used to meet every season to sing and dance their stories.
SONG of Abe Jangala Pakuru the golden Bandicoot, a Jungarrayi who had left his people, was guided by a strange smell reminding him of the wet ground. He went around the Rirrinjarra rocks and found the bubbling soup coming from the Yawakiyi Plums. He tasted it, and, finding it good, he ate too much. He was so tired after that he could not walk west as he wished. He stopped for ever, turning into a rock, Pakurukurlangu, a secret site the women cannot come close to. The men sing the Golden Bandicoot Dreaming especially to seduce the women. It belongs to the owners of the Parrawuju Leaves Dreaming, of Jungarrayi and Japaljarri, Japanangka and Japangardi skins.
3. The battle at the Granites
From the Yawakiyi black soup came out a butterfly, a yintilyapilyapi flower and wikirri leaves. Opossum takes the flower and the leaves and starts walking again with the eastern Possums who joined him. The butterfly follows the flower, its food, and the Yarrindakurdaku bird flies sideways. The flower dried, but the leaves gave new seeds which grew into new Yawakiyi people. We dance all this in a yawulyu.
Coming to the Mirnangi soak, Janganpa explains to the new Plums and his fellow Possums how to enter the country of his people that he wants to attack. First they have to split into two groups and meet him in Yunturru. He goes alone through the quickest way. Stopping at a ghost gum, called since then Jupurrurlawarnu, he notices that a big crowd of his people is already gathered nearby. 'This is where we are going to fight,' Possum decides. 'I wanted to attack them later in Piyayi, my country, but they came into Warlpiri country.'
There was a big battle, between the Western Possums from the Pintupi people, and the Eastern Possums and Plums from the Warlpiri people guided by Janganpa, the Pintupi renegate. A lot got speared in that battle. Everybody died. Their bodies became the red rocks at Yarturluyarturlu, near the Granites old gold mine.
The Yarrindakurdaku Bird witnessed the battle and reported about it back east in the country of the Plums. Later he went west to Piyayi, the country that the Possum renegate left for his revenge. This Bird Dreaming belongs to some Jampijinpa and Jangala.
4. Special places
On the North side of the boulders is a secret cave, Mukuri, where the Possums and some Plums went underground. The other Yawakiyi went inside the ground, further to the East, at Kurumindi marked by more granite boulders and secret stones on the trail.
The Warnajarra Snake-man and Snake woman who came from Jarluwangu to the West stopped near the old mining, at Warriji where a big acacia tree stands today. After the battle they went further east to Payurru, where they swallowed the two women of the Watiyawarnu Dreaming.
Before the battle came the Lingka Snake who belongs to some Japanangka and Japangardi. He made the spring on the south side of the Granites by entering the ground there. Some people say that the Possum women fell in love with the Flying Snake. They were so sad when he disappeared that they filled the hole he left with their tears.
Two Dreaming Men also came. They were coming from Patilirri and walked about for a long time on this land. In two places they dug the ground and discovered the jatipiji. In these two spots the water came up, creating the northern spring and the swamp in the middle of the boulders. A secret hill is also linked with these Two Men who came from Kurlungalinpa.
I received that story from my warringiyi, the father of my father. In his time no one else was organising ceremonies for Yawakiyi and Janganpa at Yarturluyarturlu and Mulyukarriji but him. He was the boss. The elders, kirda and kurdungurlu, men and women, all learnt from him. So here I said the story of my land, my Dreaming, and we followed its track.
At Yarturluyarturlu, in front of the jilimi (the women's place with three rockholes), there is a small stone called Waruka. It is a place where the Janganpa men and women sat before the fight.
On the north side, away from the big mountain, there is a flat rock. When I was a little girl, I used to play around without knowing it was the sacred place Ngamarlangu where a Possum woman saw Janganpa running away to pick up allies to attack her people. She stood there with a little baby. His body is now the little stone erected nearby the flat rock. The story belongs to the Piyayi mob, Pintupi and Kukatja people; some are in Balgo.
The people did not tell us about the secret places that were close because we were living there. But us kids we knew where Kurumindi was, the sacred boulders to the East, the Yawakiyi bodies. Our mothers used to say, 'Don't go there!' We also had to walk around the secret hill to the South that belongs to the Initiated Men Dreaming owned by Jungarrayi and Japaljarri people from Kiriwarang.
Many other tracks are close to the Granites such as the Water Dreaming from Papinya owned by Jangala and Jampijinpa. All the skins used to meet at this rockhole, including the Japanangka and Japangardi owners of Yam Dreaming from Talala.
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