Gamilaraay The Gamilaraay, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Aust ...

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

), Yhi (sometimes also rendered Yarai/Yaay) is a female creator spirit and personification of the sun. She chases

Bahloo In Gamilaraay mythology, Bahloo is a male spirit representing the moon. The most known tale about him is a story about the origin of death. Myths Bahloo and the Daens The most notable myth seeks to explain both man's mortality and the hatred ...

(the moon) across the sky;

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

s are said to happen when she catches up to him. According to a creation story associated with her, Yhi slept until a whistle awakened her. When she opened her eyes, light fell on the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s grew where she walked. She decided that, in addition to plants, she would make something that could

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

. Searching for such an

organism In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...

, Yhi found evil spirits beneath the earth who tried to sing her to death. But her warmth chased away the darkness, which was transformed into insects. She brought them to Earth and then found some ice caves in a mountain. She shone her light on the being resting inside and fishes and lizards came out, along with many kinds of birds, mammals and amphibians. She then returned to her own world and blessed her creations with the change of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

s and promised that, when they died, they would join her in the sky. When she disappeared, darkness came back and covered the Earth. The organisms thought she was not returning and were sad, but then came the first sunrise and Yhi returned. Much later, the animals missed Yhi and she decided to return to ask them what was wrong. Kangaroo wanted to jump and

Wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adap ...

wanted to wiggle on the ground, while Seal wanted to swim. Lizard wanted legs and Bat wanted wings, and the

Platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal Endemic (ecology), endemic to Eastern states of Australia, eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypu ...

wanted something of everything. Yhi granted them what they wished, then returned to the sky and saw the Man, who had no woman and was unlike anything else she had created. While the man slept, Yhi turned all her power on a flower and soon, the man woke up and, joined by all the other animals, watched her. The flower then turned into a woman.

References

Australian Aboriginal goddesses Solar goddesses Creator goddesses Legendary progenitors {{deity-stub

See also

References