[RNLD] Animals regarded as lawgiver

[Margaret Sharpe]

Hi all, I am wanting to find out if any of you have, for groups you know, evidence of a particular animal being regarded as the lawgiver for initiation. I know this is the red kangaroo in Ngalia in WA, and ‘old man kangaroo’ (i.e. the mature male Eastern Grey Kangaroo) in the Yugambeh-Bundjalung area. I have ascertained from John Bradley it is the dingo for the Yanyuwa, and understand that it is the red kangaroo from Bill Harney jnr. I am particularly interested in groups that identify one of those large kangaroos as lawgiver, and what indications there are in the language of the connection with the initiand, as we have in these western and eastern areas. We can also include the Wardaman, and the dark clouds in the Milky Way identified as the kangaroo and the hairbelt.
Because of bushfires and COVID-19 outbreaks, I did not do a trip to AIATSIS to see what else can be found or to hunt down any of you there. I contacted a couple of you, but got no further information. I am working on a paper on this, which started from my astrophysics work.
Cheers from glorious self-imposed isolation in Armidale. Margaret
0428 668 988
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