Mooie's Stories
MaIamiyayu gurang, in the Dreamtime
Dja Dja Wurrung Ancestors’ stories as told to me by my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother before her.
How did Wabbee, the freshwater crayfish, get its bright red spots? Why does Wehla, the ringtail possum, have a curly tail?
How were Waripi Yaluk, the backwaters of Bulatjal Yaluk Woodlar, the Loddon River, formed? Why does Yern, the moon, light up the night sky? Bunjil, the all-powerful, knows the answers.
‘BurWhela’ Ros Kneebone-Dodson learned these kiki – these stories of Malamiyayu Gurang, the Dreamtime – from her mother, Mooie. BurWhela’s words and images bring to vivid life these stories of her Ngurar Gurrk, her Ancestors, from Djandak, the Country of the Loddon River of Central Victoria.
‘Our storytelling teaches how to live in harmony, how to care for and preserve the land and all living on it. It is lore for living’.
– ‘Burwhela’ Ros Kneebone-Dodson
Production details
- Hardback
- 250mm x 230mm
- 32pp (colour)
- Released May 2023
- ISBN 9780855751258
About the author
Ros Dodson ‘BurWhela’ is a descendant of the Bpangarang and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples of Victoria and the Worrimi and Birripi peoples of the lakes district of NSW.
As a child, Ros’s family called her ‘Possum’ in Dja Dja Wurrung language – this means ‘Whela’. Once becoming a mother, Ros took on the kin name of ‘BurWhela’ meaning ‘mother possum’.
‘Being able to know my oral history through the privilege of storytelling, passing this historic account from my “Apical Ancestors” to my children and grandchildren, I have been entrusted to preserve our “Cultural Stories” as told to me by my mother and my grandmother before and her mother before in the passage of time.’
About the cover
Illustration technique: acrylic on canvas
Cover and text design: Joanna Hunt