Myths that may be oral history of actual events

Australia: The Land Where Time Began

Myths that may be oral history of actual events

The Aboriginal people from the area around Lake Eacham have several versions of the story of the formation of the lake. Aboriginal People would have been living in the area prior to the eruption, so whether or not the stories are the actual events passed down the generation for more than 10,000 years, the eruption was probably seen by their ancestors.

In one version, 2 young men who were not initiated, so weren't supposed to be hunting, tried to spear a wallaby but missed and hit a tree. When they pulled the spear out it had bits of a witchetty grub on it, so they cut the tree down to look for more witchetties. This made the Rainbow Serpent (Yamini) angry. The sky turned orange and the ground under the camp opened and everyone in the camp was sucked in. The place where the camp had been became Bana Wiigina (Lake Eacham). (Warren Cannendo, Ngadjon-Jii)

Aboriginal People and megafauna

Sources & Further reading

Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, J. B. Publishing
Jennifer Isaacs, Australia Dreaming: 40,000 years of Aboriginal History, New Holland Publishers

Links