Bobbi-Bobbi- Aboriginal Australian SpiritSpirit"Giver of the Boomerang"

The Gift of the Boomerang

The Binbinga people struggled to hunt. Bobbi-Bobbi, a great serpent being, saw their difficulty and tore out one of his own ribs. He gave the curved bone to humanity. When thrown, it sailed through the air and returned to the thrower's hand. Birds and game that had been beyond reach fell to it. Spencer and Gillen recorded this tradition during their fieldwork among Northern Territory peoples.

The story does not end with the gift. When the people misused the boomerang or failed to treat it with proper respect, Bobbi-Bobbi sent a plague of flying foxes, great dark clouds of them filling the sky and fouling the camp. The serpent withdrew his protection entirely. The gift he had torn from his own body deserved reverence, not carelessness.