A Wiradjuri Dreaming connected to the Aboriginal creation ancestor Baiami, and enacted during a Burbung male initiation ceremony, was recorded by the Australian anthropologist R.H. Mathews in 1896. We investigate this further and conclude that the Dreaming most likely relates to the annual movements of the constellations in the Wiradjuri night sky, with Baiami represented by the stars in the Greek constellation of Orion, and the terrestrial emu featured in the Dreaming represented by the Wiradjuri ‗dark' constellation of Gugurmin the Celestial Emu, formed from the dust bands of the Milky Way. The Celestial Emu may also represent Daramulun, another important ancestral figure associated with the Burbung, whose spirit descends from the Milky Way in emu form to take part in the male initiation ceremony. The Dreaming narrative has parallels with the Greek myth of Orion and the scorpion, represented by the constellation of Scorpius, in eternal pursuit of each other in the sky throughout the year. The Dreaming narrative recorded by Mathews also suggests a reference to the orientation of Baiami in Orion. He appears to be oriented the same way in the sky as Orion from Greek mythology, which is upside-down as seen from a Southern Hemisphere perspective. This is consistent with rock art depictions of Baiami from the Sydney Basin, and that of Nyeeruna, a creation ancestor of the Kokatha and Ngalea peoples from the Great Victoria Desert, South Australia, which shares similar characteristics and attributions with Baiami. The alternative ‗right-side-up' orientation is also being investigated and will be the subject of a follow-up paper.
Warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People:This paper contains references to Aboriginal cultural practices surrounding male initiationsbut does not provide secret details about those ceremonies. It also contains historical archival photographs of people who are deceased.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.