Dalhousie was an important resource for the Lower Southern Arrente people and their neighbours the Wangkangurru of the Simpson Desert. It was also a place of great spritual significance, and a desirable place for the dreaming Ancestors to visit on their journeys. The following is one small part of a story told to Luize Hercus, a linguist from Australian National University by Mick McLean Irinjili, a Wangkangurru elder.
Irunpa the Perentie had been away on a long journey to the north. He was going to Dalhouse because he knew his friend Itjukwara the goanna was there. He went to a hill overlooking Dalhousie, and looking down he saw his friend the goanna in the distance. From the distance he looked like a pelican, but the Perentie knew who it was. He called to him, speaking in Southern Arrente. ‘Friend and companion, I have come from far away to see you!’ When the Goanna and the Perentie met up they were happy to see each other again.
The main goanna camp was called Imarilja. It was a large camp with a lot of young women walking about carrying ground seed for making the special large cakes consumed after initiation ceremonies. The Perentie suggested that there should be a ceremony in the evening to welcome him. He wanted to see all those naked women dancing. The Perentie’s eyes turned white and he swallowed his spittle (indicating extreme lust). He could not sleep at night thinking about these women, when was he going to see them.
In the meantime the male goannas had assembled at Ingkintja, ‘the Vengeance Party’ spring in preparation for a punitive expedition to strike down Idnapa, the Old Echidna Woman, for defecating all over the camp down at Mt. Alexander and creating such an overpowering smell that most of the people suffocated. The Perentie was expected to go with the goannas, however he had not intention of going away from the women.
He walked a little way out of sight amongst the bushes and scratched his foot with a small stick so as to draw blood. He began to scream and yell in pain, “Oh, Oh! I have staked my foot! Just look at the blood! I can’t walk. Oh, Oh!
So he stayed behind while his friend the Goanna and the vengeance party set out on their journey. As soon as they had gone the Perentie rand down towards the women with such a rush that he created a dust-storm and the women did not even see him coming, He began sorting them out; first of all he left all the older ones behind, they are now dark-coloured stones lying on the ground in the vicinity of Kingfisher Spring. Then in the gloom of the dust storm he had created, he walked up to the young blonde girls, kaputa tjurikura, and grasped them by the arms to separate them from the dark headed girls kaputa-urpulja. The Perentie then decided to take the beautiful blonde girls away. He went to Piriditharka carrying the women in his headdress and then went on to Irrkikala, the place that is now Possum Bore.
He stopped there for a while and tried to copulate with the blonde girls, but he succeeded with only a few. He then decided he would have better luck if he initiated them first, and the too the women on further to the west to Alkjikira-atna, Dead Fish Scrub near Blood Creek Bore. At the place called Awijakarda the Pernetie conducted an initiation ceremony for some of the women, while the others were initiated near Eringa. The Perentie travelled further west to Pitjira where he began to sing a series of songs about his exploits with the women.
Having done all he wanted to do, the Perentie left the women near Tieyon, at Mungapithi, ‘Home of the Night’, as the area is called in Aluritja. The Perentie came back sedately and quietly while the women went away to the west, bringing blonde hair to the Western Desert people.
This story was told to Luise Hercus by Mick McLean. |
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