Giants

Giant grubby toes appear over your head. You gaze upwards at a pair of enormous HAIRY legs. Argh, this feels like a disgusting dream! This is what you get for following the spirit giants! The legs start moving and what’s that? They seem to be on fire, yes… you can feel the heat bouncing off them! Quick, out of the way, you’ll get trampled! As you follow the giants you see Uncle Rick at their enormous feet. He doesn’t seem to be scared at all and doesn’t seem to be in danger either. If anything he seems to be teasing you.

“C’mon, c’mon,”

“Remember the mystery! Why believe in only half the story?”

You follow him, feeling you’re in safe company. The path circles right around this tract of forest but as you enter the forest, you realise Uncle Rick has disappeared and you feel a little scared. You hope the giants don’t spot you. You’re wondering about the fire that seemed to be burning from within them. You catch up and just as you reach them they notice you and stop. You feel very hot right now and start sweating profusely as you almost collide into them but then you feel a familiar electric buzz and just like Bunjil and Gurri, they disappear. As soon as the spirit giants vanish, your temperature returns to normal and you notice the mountains in the distance moving. You hear Harley again and he appears to be talking to the mountains and introducing you to a Djaara Knowledge Man.

“Lalkambuk and Tarrengower! What’s going on? You scaring people off again? Can you please let our story seekers know why there’s nothing to fear?”

“A long, long time ago, long before anyone but the Traditional People walked our Country, our lands, rivers, mountains and animals alike, all had magical life. They had personalities, purpose, speech, and they could think for themselves.

This is a story of two volcanoes named Tarrengower and Lalkambuk.

Tarrengower in the Dja Dja Wurrung language means to be big and heavy and indeed he was just that; big, bold, wise and a very proud old volcano who had become very tired throwing out rocks and lava and preferred to sit humbly watching over the plains.

Another volcano called Lalkambuk was a young, loud, and cheeky volcano that started to challenge old Tarrengower’s wisdom and authority, and began grumbling and building up anger towards the old volcano. But Tarrengower, being the wise old volcano that he was, decided he should just try to ignore this cheeky little volcano.

Lalkambuk grew even angrier that Tarrengower wasn’t acknowledging his threats and started to put on a display of smoke, ash and brimstone to impress the land and animals who were also watching, but this didn’t intimidate the wise old Tarrengower. Instead he just laughed at Lalkambuk.

Lalkambuk became so frustrated that he began to throw large rocks at Tarrengower who grumbled with annoyance at this cheeky volcano and Tarrengower now began to taunt young Lalkambuk by telling him he wasn’t very strong at all because the rocks couldn’t reach him.

Lalkambuk exploded with great fury, spurting out lava and smoke high into the sky and hurled larr (meaning rocks) in Tarrengower’s direction, but still could not reach him. This caused Lalkambuk to completely blow his core!

Eventually Tarrengower’s anger eased and he just grumbled at this cheeky little volcano who was now just coughing and spluttering with no energy left at all.

All the rocks thrown by Lalkambuk at Tarrengower can still be seen today and have formed what is known in the present day as the Guilford Plateau where the Jaara people would perform ceremonies on the Bora grounds also known as Yapene.

***

“That’s why today we have big mountains and small ones. This is a story aboutbeing wise, patient, and kind; that it’s better than being impatient and destructive. And that’s why there’s nothing to fear.”

After hearing Harley say this you don’t feel scared anymore. You wonder where he is and why you can only hear him but not see him. You wonder about the story, and realise that these mountains are visual reminders every day to strive for wisdom and patience, as opposed to anger. Then for some reason, that thought you just had disappears. Soon even the memory of Harley’s voice vanishes. All you are aware of, right at this very moment, is that a bird is laughing.

You peer up to the sky to see if you can catch sight of this bird but you notice a movement out the corner of your eye. Someone is chuckling. Hold on, is that Uncle Rick? Yes! You haven’t forgotten him!

‘Hmmmm…I can sense something is wrong. Your memory’s not so good, eh? Just a few more and I think finally you will see,’

You ask him, ‘A few more what?

Revelations?’

‘What do you choose to remember?’

Will you find your answers in the land? The fire? Or the sky?’

Land: In the land you’ll hear the mystery of Why Country speaks…

Fire: In the fire you’ll learn the mystery of How fire turned cold…

Sky: In the sky you’ll see the mystery of Why the emu flies…

Select a word on the screen to choose a mystery. Then turn left at the end of the path. Follow the path until you see another path then turn left.