In the quiet fold of Djarrakpi,
where sacred Country draws the ancestors close,
spirits linger in the shadow of bloodwood,
Milngiya River stirs – time-old and wise –
flowing with memory across Yol?u land.
River and sky travel together:
Milngiyawuy arcs above, a pathway for souls,
guiding the spirits – people, birds, fish,
all kin – returning softly to the stars.
Birrimbirr rises, spirit-light in the night,
reflections shifting on the water’s edge.
Above, the homelands of the ancestors shine:
a river of stars, crossing the dark,
crocodile Dreaming – Yingalpiya – resting there,
born from ancient fire, watching from sky and stream.
Guardians of the river, ancestral eyes
gleam quietly as embers after dusk.
Below, the Southern Cross marks its place –
Yi?alpiya, the gentle one,
body outlined in stars,
flanked by Munuminya and Yikawa?a,
koel ancestors, guiding by wing and story,
echoing journeys beside Milmooya –
canoes sliding, spears set for fish,
all woven into place by Law.
But stories carry the sadness too –
the Guwak men, led by the cuckoo’s call,
venturing to other lands,
leaving behind law and kin,
finding new belonging in the embrace of Blue Mud Bay;
their spirits lift with the tides,
returned in sorrowful song to the Milky Way’s river.
So river and sky remain entwined,
their margins marked by clan and kin:
bones, bark, design, light –
the Mangalili journey spoken in pattern and star,
creation stories circling between water and universe,
ancestors resting in scales and feathers,
always guiding, holding the balance of earth and sky.
The Milngiya River is the terrestrial version of the Milky Way.
‘Milngiyawuy’ as the Milky Way is also looked upon as the nesting place for the ancestral crocodiles Yingalpiya.
