Author(s): ‘BurWhela’ Ros Kneebone-Dodson

First Nations Voices

Age range 5 to 10. 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