Dave Edgren reads an Aboriginal myth from Daisy Utamora about Dunbee the Owl. Children torture the first owl until his father, the great Waanjina, floods the earth and kills the tribe. Only two survive by clinging to a kangaroo's tail. The story forbids harming owls.
Chapters
Hi, my name is Dave Edgren, and I'm going to read you Dunbee the Owl, an Aboriginal story told by Daisy Utamora, compiled by Pamela Loftus. Dunbee the Owl. In the time before time began, a tribe of people lived on their land near the coast. Every day the children would play beside the river. "Look what I've found!" called a boy from high up in a tree. It was Dunbee, the first owl. The boy tossed the owl out of the tree. The children grabbed Dunbee and bounced him into the air. They pulled out his feathers. They bounced him up again. Then they stuck sharp blades of spinifex grass into him. They threw him up once more. "Go on, use your new wings. Let's see you fly now, Owl." Higher and higher went Dungbee. 'til he disappeared over the clouds. The children waited. Then they heard a roar. Waaniliri, the great Waanjina, saw what they had done to Dunbi, his son. Waaniliri shook with rage. He commanded the lizard to paint himself and dance about the plains and gather up all the clouds. The angry Waanjina blew a great wind and thunder rolled around the clouds and lightning split the sky. It rained and rained and rained, and the flood reached all the people below. They tried to escape, but it was too late. They all drowned in the swirling water. All that is, except for one man and one woman who grabbed the tail of a kangaroo. They clung to the kangaroo as it swam till it reached high ground. There they climbed to safety, and the man and the woman became the first of the new tribe. So that we were born, so we go on being born. And still today we are forbidden to harm owls, because we remember what happened in that long ago time.
