Bagadjimbiri- Aboriginal Australian PrimordialPrimordial

The Dingo Brothers

The Bagadjimbiri first appeared from beneath the earth in the form of dingoes, two wild creatures emerging into an unformed world. They did not stay small for long. The dingo brothers transformed into giants and set about the work of creation, digging into the earth to release underground water and forming the permanent waterholes that sustain life in the semi-arid Kimberley. They performed the first circumcision with a stone knife, establishing the initiation rite that marks the transition from boyhood to manhood in Karadjeri society. The paths they traveled became Dreaming tracks, and the places where they camped or acted became lasting features of the country.

The twins were boisterous, and their loud, playful laughter carried across the land. It reached the ears of Ngariman, a cat-man of considerable power, who found their noise intolerable. Enraged, Ngariman gathered his relatives and allies, and together they attacked the giant brothers, driving spears into them until both lay dead.

Dilga's Vengeance

When word of the killing reached Dilga, the twins' mother, grief overtook her. Milk began to flow from her breasts, not a trickle but a torrent that swept across the land toward the killers. Ngariman and his allies drowned in the deluge. Then the milk reached her sons, and the same force that had destroyed their murderers revived the Bagadjimbiri. Their physical bodies transformed into water snakes, creatures bound to the rivers and waterholes they had once created, while their spirits ascended to the sky.