Philip Gudthaykudthay

The Wagilag Sisters The Wagilag Sisters are central to the four important ceremonies of the Dhuwa moiety, the Djungguwan, the Gunabibi, the Ngulmarrk, and the Mandaialla. The story is primarily an account of how in the distant past the two Wagilag sisters came out of the southern interior and came across the countryside to the Liyagalawumirr waterhole at Mirarrmina. There the younger sister profaned the pool of the great Python by accidentally allowing her blood to fall into the waterhole. Because of this the women and the children were swallowed by the Python amidst thunder storms and rain, the first wet season. The great flood covered the land and all the other sacred Pythons stood up with their heads in the clouds and talked to each other with voices like thunder. The Python from Guruwana was one of those. He lives in a rocky mud bank where there are many oyster beds. The Pythons discovered that they had different languages and ‘skins’. The Mirarrmina Python confessed to eating the two women, his own moiety and fell to earth making a big depression in the ground. The big wind blew across the land making the first dry season. It vomited the women up but swallowed them again before going back into the waterhole.