Everything about Baiame totally explained
Baiame (Baayami or Baayama) is a creational ancestral hero in the
dreaming of several language groups (for example
Kamilaroi,
Eora,
Darkinjung, and
Wiradjuri), of
Indigenous Australians of South-East
Australia.
Baiame came down from the sky to the land, and created rivers, mountains, and forests. He then gave the people their laws of life, their traditions, their songs, and their culture. He also created the first initiatian site (called a
bora).This is where boys were initiated to become men. When he'd finished, he returned to the sky, and people called him the
Sky Hero or the
All Father.
He is said to be married to
Birrahgnooloo (Birran-gnulu), who is often identified as an
emu, and with whom he's a son
Daramulum (Dharramalan). In other stories, Daramulum is said to be the brother of Baiame.
It was forbidden to mention or talk about the name of Baiame in public. Women were not allowed to see drawings of Baiame, or approach Baiame sites, which are often male initiation sites (boras)
When Baiame is seen in rock paintings he's often represented as a human figure with a large head-dress or hair-style, and lines of footsteps are often nearby. He is always painted in front view, whilst Daramulum is drawn in profile. Baiame is often shown with internal decorations such as waistbands, vertical lines running down the body, bands, and dots. The dots are said to have given him power over
smallpox.
In a famous
Wiradjuri rock painting near
Singleton, he's depicted with large staring eyes and enormously long arms.
The missionary
William Ridley adopted the name of Baiame for the
Christian God when translating into
Gamilaraay (the language of the
Kamilaroi).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Baiame'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://baiame.totallyexplained.com">Baiame Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
