Mooie's Stories

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

Teachers' notes available here

Ros Dodson 'BurWhela' is a descendant of the Bangarang and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples of Victoria and the Worimi and Birpi peoples of the Great Lakes area of NSW.

As a child, Ros's family called her 'Possum' in Dja Dja Wurrung language - this means 'Whela'. When she became a mother, Ros took on the kin name of 'BurWhela' meaning 'mother possum'.

'Being able to know my oral history through the privilege of storytelling, passing this historic account from my "Apical Ancestors" to my children and grandchildren, I have been entrusted to preserve our "cultural stories" as told to me by my mother and my grandmother before and her mother before in the passage of time.'

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