Wp/nys/Balardong wagyl bidi

Nitja yarn is based on ngalang Balardong Ancestral yoorl koorliny yarn as told to me by my moorditch maam, Everett Kickett, Balardong Noongar boordier. In nitja yarn nyuny maam explains the koombar bidi which meander over kart Matilda, York W.A...

“These bidi were made by the Rainbow Serpents or Wagyls, as nyuny Noongar call them. At the base of the kart the wagyls ngoonding and the yoorl koorliny wirrn yoorl koorliny and saw them and turned the resting places into pimja, where these wagyl could ngoonding unseen. The serpents only travelled at night creating the kearp ways and baal formed the Balardong (Avon) beel and travelled into the Derbal Yira-gin (Swan beel)"... Everett Kickett

Boyagin Boya

Koora, in the yoorl koorliny of the Balardong Nyungar Noongar there was a great explosion as the budja was being formed. Boyagin boya erupted and out of the ground yoorl koorliny the wagyls: the giant rainbow serpents. Their bodies as thick as tree trunks, glistened and shimmered a silvery green, with a huge mane and luminous yellow eyes; and as baal slithered their way out of the rocky kart their haunting cries filled the night like the drone of a thousand kweark. On the kart of kart Matilda you can jinunj the four bidi of the rainbow serpents yoorl koorling over the kart. These bidi have been here since the Nittying and jinunj like baal've been graded, all the boya pushed to the edge of the bidi. Huge boya weighing tonnes, hundreds of them pushed aside to make these huge bidi which are big enough to drive four trucks abreast. When the budja erupted from Boyagin boya, all the wagyls yoorl koorliny out – some going south, some going west, some going east. the biggest majority yoorl koorliny nitja way. baal formed the Balardong beel, going past Northam and Toodyay. And baal ngoonding many, many times. “All the old Nyungar Noongar know their resting places – I know their resting places”.

Balardong Beel

And baal went along here, the Nyungar know nitja beel as the Balardong beel, during the evening the wagyls yoorl koorliny out of the beel and yoorl koorliny to the top of the kart to travel at night. baal travelled over and down the first kart where baal ngoonding at the base of the kart at dawn, where the yoorl koorliny wirrn yoorl koorliny and saw them all resting at the the kart. So, baal made the place into a pinja where the wagyl could ngoonding unseen.

Pinja

The wagyls ngoonding during the daylight hours when the sun was up in the air. The next day baal yoorl koorliny out of the pinja, journeying only in the evening, and travelled up over the second kart. And baal yoorl koorliny down over the kart again, yoorl koorling to ngoonding in the third pinja at the bottom of the second kart because of the big journey baal had. Again it was in the early hours of the morning, just before sunrise. The sun was yoorl koorling up as baal ngoonding at the base of the second kart and all the yoorl koorliny wirrn followed, causing the resting place at the bottom of the kart to turn into another pinja to protect the wagyls.

Bidi

During the daylight hours baal ngoonding in the pinja. late in the evening baal yoorl koorliny out of the pinja and over nitja kart here called kart Matilda, causing all those big paths. Many of them yoorl koorliny, pushing aside the boya – creating ali roadway there, making it bigger and and bigger. Many of them yoorl koorliny, pushing and jostling as baal yoorl koorliny slithering over the kart and down into the pinja you can jinunj at the bottom of kart Matilda. The wagyls only travel at night time for their own protection. During the day you never jinunj them. baal live in the deep kearp of the rivers and also in the pinja areas.

Derbal Yerrigan

The wagyls went further and further, straight into the Derbal Yira-gan and eventually out into the warden. The wagyls jinunj frightening but baal are sacred to Nyungar because wherever you find wagyls, Nyungar Noongar believe ali’s where you find fresh kearp.

Nyuny moorditch maam and keeper of the katijin, Everett Kickett, retelling "The bidi Of The Rainbow Serpent".

This article is based on the following references;

Kickett, Everett (1995) "The Trails of the Rainbow Serpents", Chatham Road Publications, Midland Western Australia

'The Trails of the Rainbow Serpents', (2012) https://youtube/qxPFx4z3184