In this narrated YouTube video, Dave Edgren reads an Aboriginal Dreamtime tale titled “The Kangaroo and the Porpoise,” originally told by Agnes Lippo and compiled by Pamela Loftus. The story, passed down from the narrator’s grandfather, describes how a kangaroo and a porpoise each cared for the other's baby while hunting. A dispute over the porpoise’s baby leads to a violent fight: the kangaroo strikes the porpoise’s head, creating a hole, and the porpoise breaks the kangaroo’s fore‑arms with a stick. As a result, the kangaroo can only hop on its hind legs, and the porpoise lives permanently in the sea, identifiable by the head wound. The kangaroo takes the porpoise’s baby, which later transforms into a white frog that inhabits pandanus trees. The tale serves as an origin myth explaining physical traits of these animals and conveys a moral about greed and the consequences of conflict.
Chapters
Hi, my name is Dave Edgren. I'm going to read you The Kangaroo and the Porpoise, an Aboriginal story told by Agnes Lippo, compiled by Pamela Loftus. The Kangaroo and the Porpoise. My grandfather told me this story one day when we were sitting under a shady tree. A long time ago, In the Dreamtime, in the country around Bulgo, there lived a kangaroo and a porpoise. Both kangaroo and porpoise had babies and they used to go hunting. One day kangaroo asked porpoise if she would look after her baby while she went hunting for bush tucker. "All right," said porpoise. I'll look after him. So Kangaroo went off on her own to look for Bush Tucker, some long yams, goanna, and emu. When Kangaroo came back, she said to Porpoise, "Alright, it's your turn now. You can go hunting and I'll look after your baby." So Porpoise went off looking for Bush Tucker and Kangaroo stayed behind. To look after the babies. Porpoise was away for quite a long time, and her baby started crying because she was hungry. Porpoise heard her crying and rushed back to feed her. "Give me my baby," Porpoise said to Kangaroo. "She's hungry and I want to give her some milk." Now, that porpoise baby was a really pretty baby. And Kangaroo wanted to keep her for herself. "No," said Kangaroo. "She's crying for me, not you." "No, she's crying for me," said Porpoise. "No," said Kangaroo. "She's my daughter. Give her back." And so they started to argue. Kangaroo grabbed a nula nula. She hit Porpoise and made a hole in her head. Porpoise got wild and grabbed a stick too. She hit Kangaroo on her two arms and broke them. Now Kangaroo couldn't pick up her baby and could only hop on her back legs. She hopped away into the bush with that porpoise's baby tucked into her pouch. Porpoise was really sad. "I don't want Kangaroo's baby," she said. "He's too ugly." And she threw him into the pandanus trees. Then she ran down to the beach and jumped into the salt water. She dived down under the water and swam about for a while. When she came up again, water spurted out of that hole in her head. "I will stay like this forever," she said. "I'll live here in the sea." And she dived down again. She is still there today. Next time you see a porpoise, look for the hole in its head. That's where Kangaroo hit Porpoise. Kangaroo still has little bent arms from that time Porpoise hit her with the stick. And that little kangaroo baby turned into a white frog. You can still see him today, living in the pandanus trees.
