This book is based on a story told by David Mowaljarlai a respected Elder of the Ngarinyin people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
It tells of a time long ago when there was a fat mother Sun and a daughter Sun living in the East behind the world. When they came out to bring light, they were so bright they burnt the land and dried up the rivers and the animals began to die of thirst.
The Mother Sun grew too fat to move and sent her daughter alone. The daughter Sun moved across the sea to an island where two men lived, one good and one bad. The bad man chased the daughter Sun and she was afraid he would kill her and live the world in darkness. She climbed up into space to escape getting hotter as she climbed. Up there lived a snake who attacked and bit her and injured she fell towards Earth becoming snagged in a tree where the sky turned red from her blood. She managed to slip away to her mother leaving the world in darkness. She recovered but ever since that time the daughter Sun makes her journey each day from east to west to give the world day and night allowing the Earth time to cool and rest.
David Mowaljarlai is an elder Ngarinyin people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. He was a member of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee of the West Australian Museum. Mowaljarlai was Aboriginal of the Year in 1991, and he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993.
Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Resource
