Baiame and Birrangulu
Sky father and earth mother whose union created the laws of kinship and ceremony.
When the world was still unshaped, the vast sky held silence. Then descended Baiame, the Sky Father, radiant as the sun and vast as the clouds. With him came Birrangulu, the Earth Mother, whose breath stirred plants from the soil and whose touch softened the land for life.
Together they walked the empty country. Where Baiame’s feet pressed, rivers flowed, carving paths across the plains. Where Birrangulu laid her hands, seeds sprouted and trees rose tall. Birds filled the branches, kangaroos leapt across the grass, and fish darted in streams. Life unfolded, guided by their union.
But Baiame and Birrangulu did more than shape the land. They gave the people law — the ways of kinship, the songs of ceremony, the duties of care for land and water. Baiame taught the sacred dances, Birrangulu taught the nurturing of children and the honoring of food. Together they bound the people into harmony with earth and sky.
From their union came Dharamulan, a being of mystery and power. He became guardian of initiation, teacher of sacred lore, the bridge between divine parents and human kin. Through him the people received deeper truths, and through him they renewed their bond with the ancestral pair.
Yet Baiame, as Sky Father, was also stern. He warned that the laws must be kept, that greed and neglect would bring imbalance. Birrangulu’s love tempered his firmness, reminding him always of compassion. In their balance of strength and gentleness, discipline and nurture, the people saw the model for their own lives.
When their work was done, Baiame returned to the sky, his gaze watching from above. Birrangulu, bound more closely to the earth, remained in the fertility of rivers and fields. The people looked upward to the stars and downward to the soil, knowing their ancestors were with them in both.
So the Wiradjuri told of Baiame and Birrangulu, Sky Father and Earth Mother, whose union gave law, life, and ceremony. Their story was sung at corroboree, painted upon rock, and carried in the rhythms of the land itself. In it lay the reminder that the people, like the earth and sky, must live in balance, honoring both strength and tenderness, both law and love.
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