Namondjok

Aboriginal people from different clan groups have different stories associated with Namondjok (pronounced nar-mon-jock).

For some, he is a Creation Ancestor who now lives in the sky and can be seen only at night, when he appears as a dark spot in the Milky Way.

For others, he is a Creation Ancestor who broke the kinship laws. The story goes that Namondjok travelled through the Burrunggui (Nourlangie Rock) area and broke the kinship laws with his 'sister'. (Some Aboriginal people attribute this story to Nabilil rather than Namondjok.)

[Kinship laws dictate who Aboriginal people may and may not marry-Aboriginal people have a much broader and more complex kinship system than do people of European descent. An Aboriginal person's 'sister' also includes their mother's sisters' children and their father's brothers' children (cousins). Just as marriage between brother and sister is unacceptable in non-Aboriginal society, so it is in Aboriginal society].

A solitary boulder on Burrunggui is a feather taken from Namondjok's head-dress by his 'sister', after they had broken the kinship laws. The boulder is visible from Gun-warddehwardde lookout.

Namarrgon

To the right of Namondjok is Namarrgon, the Lightning Man. Namarrgon (pronounced narm-arr-gon) is an important Creation Ancestor who is still active today. He is responsible for the violent lightning storms that occur every wet season. The band around him from his left ankle, joining his hands and head, and down to his right ankle represents the lightning he creates. He uses the axes on his head, elbows and feet to split the dark clouds and make lightning and thunder.

Namarrgon's story in this area is part of a longer story, covering a journey beginning on the coastline of the Coburg Peninsula and ending in a rock shelter in the sandstone country of the Arnhem Land plateau, where he remains today. During his travels he left his power behind at many places. On his last journey, when he approached the escarpment from the east, he looked over the sheer wall, then took out an eye and placed it high on the cliff at Namarrgondjahdjam (Lightning Dreaming), where it sits, waiting for the storm season. Lightning Dreaming can be seen from Gun-warddehwardde lookout.

Barrginj, Namarrgon's wife

The female figure is Barrginj (pronounced barr-jeen), Namarrgon's wife.

Their children are the Alyurr (Leichhardt's grasshoppers), who are very important to local Aboriginal people because they gave them their language, beliefs, values and the structure of their society during the Creation Time.

Alyurr, striking blue and orange grasshoppers that live on a particular plant, Pityrodia jamesii, that grows in the stoney country, are quite rare. The first specimens were collected by J.E. Dring, purser on HMS Beagle during surveys of the northern Australian coast, probably around 1839. The next specimens were collected by Ludwig Leichhardt on his journey through the region in 1845. Alyurr were not rediscovered by non-Aboriginal people until the 1970s. They are generally seen just before the wet season, when they come out and call to their father to bring on the wet-season storms.

Family group

Beneath these three Creation Ancestors is a large group of men and women. Their elaborate dress suggests they are probably on their way to a ceremony. You may notice that a couple of the women have dashes painted on their breasts; this shows that they are breast feeding.