AustLit

A story about a long time ago, before the spirits of all living things became settled, there was a Dreamtime spirit named Julli-Julli. Julli-Julli was a very handsome spirit. Julli-Julli was also very conceited and did not have any consideration for the other Dreamtime spirits. Instead, he spent all his time preening himself, and gazing at his reflection in the waterhole. The rest of his spirit clan were very concerned about his attitude because Julli-Julli was breaking all the rules in the existing codes of behaviour and this was very serious indeed and caused great embarrassment to the rest of his spiritual clan.

A story about long ago before the Dreamtime when everything was dark and cold; Goonda-Dani-Booloo the great rainbow serpent was aroused from his deep sleep by the dreaming spirits suffering. He decided to relieve their agony by creating a world, which would enable them to see beauty, and give them purpose.

A story about a young girl called Nanji and a young boy called Nguandi and how a long time ago, in the Great Sandy Region of South East Queensland in a place called Undumbi, this couple lived. As they both matured they became increasingly fond of each other and did not want to be separated. According to Aboriginal Law, Nanji was promised to one of the tribal elders as a wife, and the time was fast approaching when she was supposed to be married.

'Good morning. I am very pleased to be here to discuss the Bunya Mountains with you.

The Bunya Mountains, that means our Mothers' breast - Boobarran Ngummin. This is a very sacred place. To us it is equal in status to Uluru. To all the tribes of South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales it has been very significant, in fact for thousands of years, perhaps 60,000 years and that's a long, long time. Our people would gather at the Bunya Mountains from these areas. It is very important that we get the right perspective on these gatherings. Some people think, it was just to gorge on bunya nuts. No, it was very deeply spiritual arousing of ceremony. We went to suck the breast of our Mother, who gave us this, the spirituality that was so intense that it was a part of our bearing in this country, our Mother Australia, the Earth. We 'are sucking the breast, sucking the milk, the bunya nut, from her. All around the Bunya Mountains is very, very spiritual country. There are indicators speaking to Murris, telling them where to go, what to do, what ceremonies to perform. Southwest of the Bunya Mountains is where spiritu~l stones to make axes, knives, whatever were found, all from specific areas. I was just up there for the last month rejuvenating.' (Introduction)