Paddy Fordham Wainbarrnga

The Moon Man This is a story about Totems and why and how Aboriginal people turn to their totems today. The story begins when a stranger shows up one day. This stranger has unusual looking feet. The rembarrnga people asked who he was. “Who are you?” and “Where did you come from?”. He answered “My name is Gurrdunyu and I haven’t come from anywhere. I’ve been here all the time”. One of the men, Wamut, pointed to him and said “But you are different, you are not one of us”. He said “Yes, I am and my skin is Balang. I have lived here for a long long time”. Wamut asked him “How long have you lived here?”. Balang answered “I have lived here since time began”. Paddy explains that this stranger has come and gone many times to show us eternal life. So he says to them “You, Wamut, gammarrang from the dua people and you Narditj and Bulline from the Iirritja people, I can show how to live forever”. As you can see he has depicted the two moiety by painting two camps. One group is Yellow ochre (Dua) and second group is Black (Yirritja). Well of course, no one believed that you could live forever. At this point Paddy explains that Aboriginal people always believe that their lives continue through to a Totem and then to Spirit and back to Human again. “You see this stranger was like our Jesus, that’s why I put the cross there. He died and then he still lives” says Paddy. The stranger said to them “Look at you when you die, you smell and turn rotten and finally turn into your totem. I can show you a way where you don’t have to change form at all.”. So Gurrdunyu challenged the Rembarrnga people and said to them “Why don’t you kill me and I will show you”. He called out to Wamut and gammarrang to kill him as Paddy shows us at the bottom left of the painting. Soon after this stranger was dead as shown in the middle between the two groups. He was then entombed and left to see whether he would come alive again. The Rembarrnga people believe that this Balang would never appear again until they saw him rising, in the air one night. They called out to him “Hey stranger (Balang). You are alive”. He replied “Yes, as you see my form has not changed”. Everyone was calling him to come back and show them the secret of eternal life but he said “It is too late. You did not believe and so you must continue your transformation to Totems as it is important for the culture and knowledge to live on.” Gurrdunya went further and further into the night sky until all you could see was the Moon. Today, this story is known only by “The Moon Man”.