by Yiripanta May Napaljarri, Lajamanu, 1984

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

The puluwanti Dreaming came from Yinapaka, Lake Surprise, where he made a big black tree. Further East he made other trees with small branches. The puluwanti Owls danced shouting 'Pah! Pah!' and shaking their eucalyptus bark. The munikiyi Bees fell from the big tree. They were bringing the eucalyptus leaf with which they made the honey. The Owls shouted with the bark, the Bees sang with the leaf.

All this was witnessed by the ngatijirri Budgerigars who sat on the tree with small branches. The owls cut the big tree and the Honey from the Bees went underground to spread all around. The Honey was flowing underneath and the Jilja Sand Dunes were growing on top.

The Owls followed the Honey and the Sand Dreaming and they joined the Budgerigars who sat on the branches. Feeling sleepy, they moved their heads from one side to the other. The big-eye birds do that ever since. And when we dance the Puluwanti yawulyu we do that too, shaking our heads, shouting and throwing bark like our Owl Fathers.

The Puluwanti Owls from Yinapaka invited the Kuruwa Brolga people to dance with them. The Brolgas, of Japanangka and Japangardi skin, and the Owls, of Japaljarri and Jungarrayi skin, danced together the Fire ceremony, Ngajukurla sevral times in Ngarnaja and Tiyartiya.

2. Spirit-children in the waterholes

When the Owls were dancing in Yinapaka, one of my Napaljarri sisters said to me,

'You go to Jarrangaparrunyu!'

So I went, entering the ground to make the waterhole that has been there since. We sing,

'Yalyawargali is sitting under the sand.'

Yalyawargali is my name that the Honey and and Owl Dreaming put in the ground. We sing like the Ancestral Bees,

'The bee wasp falls and calls itself Ngunulurru.'

Ngunulurru is the special place where the yirlangkurrunyu honey tree was cut by the Owls. When Honey was spreading all around, it dropped names, his spirit-children, each of whom made a waterhole and hid in honey trees. This is how my mother found me. She was collecting honey with my father. I liked her and I went inside her because my father cut the tree in which my name Yalyawargali was hiding. Jarrangaparunyu is my conception site because there lived my spirit-child from the Owl Dreaming.

East of Yinapaka there are three other waterholes bearing the name of three types of rocks, Karntawarra, 'yellow ochre', Ngunjungunju, 'white clay' and Yatu, 'bright white'. Each place is surrounded by such deposits of colours which are used for painting and come from the Sand Dreaming. Like today in the honey trees, a liquid came out of the honey 'egg' to produce the edible 'head'. This 'head' made all the waterholes of the region. Every year after the rainy season, when the water runs out of the holes, we find honey in them.

3. The namawurru stole honey

The Bees formed a new wasp in Wirijini where the purlapurla Kite lived, a Jungarrayi who killed a warlawurru Falcon from the Rain Dreaming. The Owls performed their fire ceremony. In Rilkiya, they put their mangaya stick in the ground and danced. They left many holes, filled with honey by the Bees. 

The Owls went north, passing Yitikakari, then Jarralku, and arrived at Kurlungalinpa, the sacred hills of the Initiated Man Dreaming. Owl men and women built a ritual hut on the round hill called jilimi. The Budgerigars sat in the plain, making trees come out of the ground. These are the bark trees the Ngarrka men made their spears with.

At the bottom of the jilimi hill, where the creek is, a Jungarrayi from the Ngarrka Dreaming caught a Napangardi mother-in-law. He had followed her sneaky way as she had come to camp there with her people to participate as in-laws in the Kurdiji ceremony. Jungarrayi was afraid that Napangardi might denounce him so he hit her on the neck. After the crime was discovered, the Owls made the Fire Ceremony which can be used to settle disputes.

This poor Napangardi was from the Nankalinji Ground Honey Dreaming which belongs to the Kartangarruru tribe. The two Honey people had another conflict previously. When the Tree Honey fell in Kurlungalinpa, some foreign bees from the Mirrirrinyangu pond stole the eucalyptus leaves and flower to make the Ground Honey inside the antbeds. For this country we paint our paraja dish with both Bees, the Munikiyi who brought the tree honey and the Namawurru who made the ground honey. Women paint the board and the men dance to take it from them. Each dancer holds the board on his back to present it to his mother-in-law.

4. Mirnpirri berries, Mala wallabies and Snakes

Leaving Kurlungalinpa, the Owls went eastward. After another Fire ceremony in Ngaja, they returned back South to their sand dunes. They went through Kurrurru, where the eucalyptus trees made the mirnpirri berries that we use for necklaces today. The berries were falling from the eucaluptus trees on the ground, turning round and round, the Dreaming was dancing and produced the big waterhole which can be seen there today.

The Owls danced around this hole, and this is why honey can be found in the region too. Then they went back to the Yinapaka sand dune country where they danced again and were visited by other Dreamings. The Mala Wallaby came out in the middle of the ring and sang,

'I am Warlpiri...'

The jurtiya Snake, also called walya walya 'brown earth', and his companion, the red panukarla Snake with a black tail, took the Owl people by surprise. One came from underneath and the other on top took the mangaya stick and danced with it. Since then the sand dunes have a lot of those snakes. 

In the olden days we used to walk with fire sticks to keep the snakes away. Animals who run away from snakes always hide in honey trees. Since the Dingo Dreaming hid from the Kirmarru big Snake in a honey tree, this trunk has a deadly poison that the snakes are afraid of, and they never come close to it.

The Budgerigars went to many places. Everywhere they dropped their feathers, from which bark trees grew up. Their Dreaming is not a line, but it has spots everywhere. This is why there are bark trees in different parts of the country.

5. Honey Men can't eat honey

The sand dunes of my country are very high. My ancestors dug holes in them so we could put our feet and hands to climb more easily. When we were children we used to play sliding down! My people used to travel by following all the sites where our Dreaming came through. When I was too heavy to be carried, my parents did not travel too far. But as soon as I was able to walk behind them, we went for long journeys again.

While we were travelling, we found the honey from our Dreaming everywhere. But only women, children and in-laws had the right to eat it. Such is our Law, that does not allow our men to eat their Kuruwarri.

All my youth I lived in the sand hill country. And I found my son on my Dreaming trail, at the site of the purlapurla Kite Dreaming. The site of my spirit name is very close to Rilkiya, the place of the Wampana Wallaby, the Dreaming of my husband. Our two Dreamings met before we met or were even born! When, later on, I was camping in Rilkiya with my husband, I burnt my thigh, just like the Owls burnt themselves after meeting the Wallabies!