Yajarlu kurlu

15 November 2010

Story about two mothers and their babies
A long time ago in the dreamtime there lived Napurrurla. Napurrurla would dig way down deep under the ground, digging for bush potato, and she would put her baby down and the baby would crawl around day after day.

While Napurrurla was busy digging under the ground, another woman came with her baby and she saw the baby and said to herself, "What a beautiful baby. What shall I do? I'll take this baby and put my baby in his place." So the woman took the baby south of Yajarlu to a place called Karnilpa near Mt Leibig and she left her baby by Napurrurla's hole. When Napurrurla came out from the hole and looked for her baby and saw another baby she said, "Where is my baby and where has this baby come from and who put her here? Where is my baby? Where did she come from and where are the footprints? I'll take this baby back to the mother who left her." So Napurrurla found the footprints and followed the tracks and said, "the tracks came from the south".

Napurrurla went south to Karnilpa which is near Mt Leibig. Karnilpa is a big mountain which is south of Mt Leibig (Yamurnturrngu). Napurrurla took the baby to the woman and said to the other woman, "Here is your baby. I want my baby back because you stole my baby". The woman who stole the baby felt ashamed. Napurrurla said, "Here is your child". She gave the baby back to the other woman and she took her own baby back to Yajarlu.

This is the place where Napurrurla and her baby stayed and is where Napurrurla and her baby went down the hole. So there is a small soakage there at Yajarlu.

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An audio book produced from a Warlpiri reader developed by the Yuendumu Bilingual Resources Development Unit.   ■■■