Under the Stars
Yidumduma discusses his star culture around the campfire with outstanding Australian actor and presenter Ernie Dingo. Bill talks of listening to the Elders, travelling by the stars, the map in the night, the giant Emu, the Southern Cross and Pointers, linking to the landscape, totems, creation and the Dreaming. Segment used with permission from CAAMA Productions series Talking Languages with Ernie Dingo.
• Related Links:
• Talking Language Series TLS
• Transcript
Bill: Keep the firestick goin’ now, break all these up, all the little one.
Yeah, everything come up.
Ernie: Oh, I love the smoke.
Bill: Yeah, lovely smoke. Yeah, put ’em in there…. Anywhere there. That’s good.
Sit around like this in the campfire, old people used to sit around, and they used to say,
“Listen, young boys, we got no watch, we’re gonna tell you all the stars,
why we can travel at night time, we’ll tell you what the old people used to tell us.”
They used to say “stretch your legs like this.”
Very interesting old people, when we used to sit around and talk to them.
Now, they used to tell us all the story about all the stars.
They said, “That Milky Way you look at, we call that Bowonin.” That’s the Milky Way.
Inside of that Milky Way, you see the Emu, close to the pointer…..
That mean, “He’s bending down to drink water, close by the pointer.
Now, those two pointer there, in the side, one is called Mardborrongo and one is called Nardi.
That’s the two, the one that created the country up.
Where you see the Southern Cross is, that’s North up here, but you can’t see it.
That’s the Emu footprints when he got up and walked away.
All the stars, the one what they explain it to us,
Diver Duck and Kookaburra will guide you, in the night.
In what direction you can go, you know, because, they are really the map in the night, see.
And also, in the drovin’ days, no one had a watch, y’know.
We change people when you’re nightwatching, we just went by the star, y’know.
Give you the time where you can change over the next one, all that.
When you’re riding around and you change over and all this, right up till daylight.
Now, those old people, what they taught us and see that, those sort of thing.
We learned so much from them old people.
We’re tryin’ to teach some of the young one about all that now, some interested, some not. Y’know.
Ernie: I’m just listening to all the different birds and animals that are in the sky,
that are guidance, from summertime right through and, other than cloudy night,
you can basically get a direction where you want to go all the time.
Bill: Yeah, yeah, from star, yeah. Star willl give you the good direction all the time.
Y’know, all that sort of thing, very good direction from the star.
The Star People were the creator too, from the landscape up to the star.
Ernie: Cause people also have Totems.
Bill: Yeah, each one, everyone.
Ernie: And that’s to protect everything within their environment.
Bill: Yeah… a Totem from all the different animals from the water side, right up to the tree.
All the different ants, mosquitoes, flies, they’re all part of their Totem.
Ernie: Yeah.
Bill: Right up to the star, they’re part of this Totem. And all the different rock.
Y’know, another one, there, he says, “Oh! That my Dreaming, he says, “You can’t touch him”.
He’s mine.” Another one says, “That’s my Dreaming, don’t bulldoze him.”
And it’s part of their totem. And the Whiteman reckon, “Oh, that’s only a rock!”
But the Blackfella says, “That’s our Dreaming!”
Ernie: Cause it sort of maintains their identity.
Bill: Yeah, yeah.
Ernie: And if you take away that identity, take away that rock, you take away the identity.
Bill: And you take away your Dreaming, you most likely get sick too,
… taken away from your country.
