Oenpelli python

Story about Oenpelli Python (Morelia oenpelliensis) by Kodjok Jimmy Kalarriya, na-Wurrbbarn from western Arnhem Land. Recorded by Peter Cooke at Ankung Djang, Liverpool River region 2000. Transcribed and translated by Murray Garde and Joshua Rostron. Text © Warddeken Land Management.

JK: nawaran, nawaran ka-ngun kunj nabarlek kabaye. Nabarlek ka-baye ka-kukngun. Ya man-murlmu ka-kobun, manmurlmu kakobun kaddum kabidbun ku-rrulk ka-kongun. Kono ka-ngun ka-re ka-bamobakke. Bonj ka-rrurndeng, ka-rrurndeng kure nungan ka-yeddi-beh ka-ngimen ku-rurrk kure cave, ka-yo, ka-yo. Yika kuning ka-yime yekke ka-djangkan. Ka-re ‘hunting’. Yiman ka-yime ngad wanjh bininj ngarri-re ‘hunting’. Nungan ka-re. Ka-re mayh ka-bun and ka-ngun ka-worrkmen ka-rrurndeng ka-yo ka-ngimen cave. Kah-ni. All the way ka-kurduyime.

The Oenpelli python eats kangaroos and it attacks the nabarlek (Peradorcus concinna). It attacks the nabarlek and eats it. When the Melaleuca leucadendra  paperbarks are flowering, it climbs up the tree and eats the flowers. It eats the flowers and breaks of the fruit. When it has finished it comes back to its nest inside a crevice or cave and sleeps there. Sometimes in the dry season it goes hunting, just like we people go hunting. Off it goes. It kills its prey, eats its fill and goes back to where it sleeps in a cave. It stays there. It goes there all the way, that’s what it does.

Nakka ka-djalwohre kurrung, like this time cold weather nakka ka-djalwohre, nawaran. Ka-ngun kunj o sometime kuluban ka-ngun. Woh, nawaran kaluk duwa. Duwa djangno bedberre all the Durlmangkarr bedberre. Kondah Kudjaborrng ka-djangdi nani. Nani kah-di. Na-rrurlmangkarr-ken namekke djang ngarri-yime nawaran. Ka-djangdi kumekke na-rrurlmangkarr. Konda kabokaddum ngalengman na-mok, bad nawaran ka-djaldi ku-bolkwarlah-ken, ku-bolkwern.

They can move about in the build-up season but also like now in this cold weather time. They eat macropods or sometimes flying fox. Yes, the oenpelli python is of the duwa moiety. The duwa dreaming place (for the python) belongs to all the people of Durlmangkarr patriclan. The sacred site for it is at Kudjaborrng. That’s it there. We say that the oenpelli python dreaming is for the Durlmangkarr clan. The sacred site is in the Durlmangkarr clan estate. Here up on the upstream area of Mok clan, but also in a vast region in many places you can find them.