Stories from the Billabong

by Marshall, James Vance; Firebrace, Francis

• ISBN13: 9781847801241
• ISBN10: 1847801242
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-24
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books

Summary

Tens of thousands of years before Tutankhamen was buried in his pyramid, the Yorta-Yorta people -- one of Australia's aboriginal tribes -- told the stories in this volume beside the campfires and waterholes of the Australian desert. Here readers discover how Great Mother Snake created the world and filled it with plants and creatures, what makes Frog croak, why Kangaroo has a pouch, and just what it is that makes Platypus so special. Aboriginal artist and storyteller Francis Firebrace provides the evocative art that has made him known throughout Australia and beyond.

Author Biography

Francis Firebrace is a 'Wirrigan man', a name given to a wise Aboriginal elder whose songs, including traditional didgeridoo, retell the old stories and speak of freeing the spirit. He is one of Australia's foremost Aboriginal storytellers who has been 'yarning' since he can't remember when and performing at schools, festivals and theatres. He is also a highly respected artist whose works have been displayed throughout the world. He paints in the four colours his people (the Yorta Yorta) have used since the beginning of time: black from fire coals, white from pipe clay, red and yellow from ground ochre, and he mixes these with acrylic to achieve his own distinctive, contemporary effect. Francis lives in Weybridge, Surrey.

James Vance Marshall is also published under the names Ian Cameron and Donald Payne. His most famous book, Walkabout, was first published as The Children, and was later made into a movie by the director Nicholas Roeg. His other books include A River Ran Out of Eden, The Lost Ones (dramatised by Disney as The Island at the Top of the World) and White-Out. He lives in Dorking, Surrey

Table of Contents

The Rainbow Serpent and the Story of Creation 8



How the Kangaroo got her Pouch 12



Why Frogs can only Croak 17



Why Brolgas Dance 22



Why the Platypus is such a Special Creature 26



The Mountain Rose 31



The Two Moths and the Flowers of the Mountain 36



How the Crocodile got its Scales 41



The Lizard-Man and the Creation of Uluru 45



The Butterflies and the Mystery of Death 50



About Aboriginal Australians 56



Glossary 57



Aboriginal Symbols and their meanings 60

Excerpts

The Rainbow Serpent and the Story of Creation





In the beginning, there was no life on the surface of the Earth. But beneath the surface the Great Mother Snake, the Rainbow Serpent, lay asleep.

She slept for a long, long time. Then one day she woke up, uncoiled herself, and crawled into the open. As she moved slowly over the flat, dry, empty land, she said to herself, “This isn’t much of a place.” So she used her magic to make rain.

It rained day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And after a while the tracks left by the body of the Rainbow Serpent filled with water. This is how the long winding rivers, the billabongs and the waterholes came into being.

Sometimes, as the Rainbow Serpent moved forward, she pushed her nose into the Earth, and the soil piled up in front of her. This is how the mountains, the hills and the valleys came

into being.

In some places, the milk from her breasts soaked into the Earth and made it fertile. And here great rainforests sprang up, and all sorts of grasses, and carpets of bright-coloured flowers.

When the Rainbow Serpent had made the land to her liking, she went back inside the Earth and woke the creatures who,

like her, had been asleep there.