The story of the two sisters
As retold from Paddy Roe by Frans Hoogland
Two sisters, Naji people, spirit beings, who regularly come out of the ocean, on the beach, what is today "Reddel Beach" in Broome. They come from the reef and 'dry up' on the beach, then they look around.
One day, they are back on the beach and look for Njarri Jaari (native bush onion) - small bulbs in the sand, to eat. While they are busy digging, a bushman - one man living alone in the bush, no other person, only him - he sees the sisters, wel he never seen anybody else, and never women. So he is curious, but at the same time he knows that they are not from this world. They are still spirit beings, who can go and out.
Being human and curious he goes towards them. The sisters never seen another person either and freeze until he touches them, and at that moment they cannot go back to their world.
He gives them smell.
The sisters turn themselves into rocks and their spirits fly away in form of birds - white cockatoos, which fly away east, inland, until they see a big open field where they land. As soon as they touch the ground, they turn into women. A younger woman and an older sister.
They feel hungry and look for Njarri Jaari, as it is their last memory. The sisters split up. One goes one way, and the other the other way.
The older sister finds a large field of Njarri Jaari. Being greedy she thinks, how to keep them all to herself. So she tells her sister to make a fire (well, you can eat them raw or cook them).
The younger sister does not know how to make fire, so she tries everything: hits rocks together, tries different wood, until she finds one tree. Mekanine. From this tree, in a sawing motion, she makes fire. First time. She is very happy.
But while she was trying to make fire, her sister was thinking how to keep and eat all the onions herself. So she looked around, until she found a tree. Lirrigin. From this tree, she pulled the bark and made the shape of a snake.
A big long one. Where the mouth was, she put four sticks, upright, for the teeth.
When the younger sister came happily running towards her sister, she saw the big snake form on the ground. She tried to jump over it, but no luck. Then she tried to go under it, but no good. So she sang out 'sister, big snake, cannot come to you!'
At that moment, the two sisters and the snake went up into the sky. So today we can see them, at time when you can find the Njarri Jaari, the sisters are each a star on either side of the Milky Way.
The bushman, who had broken his own law by touching the two sisters, tried to run away but could not. He became very heavy, so he shed his heaviness into a rock formation. Then being much lighter, he tried to go further. However, he realised he had to punish himself. So he sat down, in meditation posture. As such he changed himself into a rock wallaby so he could have life, but had to be always worried to become food for animals and people.
