Josephine Mick

This is an ancestral story about Minyma Tjuta (lots of women spirits). Kalpama and Alkuwari – husband and wife – lived in a nest in a tree. Kalpama could not walk so he relied on his wife Alkuwari to go hunting for him. One day his evil grandson came by. When the grandson looked up, he noticed water coming down and, upon further inspection, he noticed it was Kalpama urinating. He became angry and got a firestick, lighting the tree and burning the nest where Kalpama lived. Alkuwari was out hunting for kuka (meat), but she noticed the smoke coming from Kalpama’s nest. She knew straight away that her evil grandson had burnt down the tree. She travelled to a place south-west of Watarru called Mamungari. There she started crying incessantly and called out to the Minyma (female spirit relatives) to come and help her. When the Minyma arrived, they all travelled back to where the boy was. He had made a long ladder out of branches and had climbed up a tree, where he was hiding. When the women tried to climb up towards him, the boy pushed the ladder down and all the spirit women fell down onto the ground. This is a minyma (women’s) site, where the ancestors still live today.