Ngarinyin, Wunambal, and Worora

(map)

Wandjina, which appear here as rain gods, are depicted in many sacred rock paintings in the Kimberly area. According to legend, the Wandjinas of this story left tracks when they gathered, and those tracks were totemized by the Munmarra people.

Two Wanalirri boys teased and hurt Dumby the Owl. They plucked his feathers, flicked him with speargrass, and threw him in the air, saying, "Now how can you fly!"

Dumby flew high into the heavens to complain to the big Burrawanda Wandjina, who, when he heard how Dumby had been mistreated, summoned other Wandjinas.

"You growl them," Dumby told the assembly.

The Wandjinas growled at the Wanalirri, and it rained and rained. There was a great flood. The people tried to escape, but all in the area were killed -- all except the two mischievous boys. They hid in a kangaroo's pouch and started the whole tribe anew.

David Mowaljarlai and Jutta Malnic, Yorro Yorro: Aboriginal Creation and the Renewal of Nature (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1993), 15, 101.