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Aboriginal peoples along the South Australian coast have featured whales in their dreaming stories for generations. Kondole the whale is one story.
One hot day, many Aborigines gathered at Encounter Bay for a large ceremony. The participants wanted to hold the ceremony through the night, but they did not possess any fire to enable them to see at night. Two messengers were sent to find Kondole, a large and powerful man who owned fire. Kondole was only invited to the ceremony for his fire. Kondole hid his fire, however, and thus infuriated the other participants. They determined to obtain the fire by force, but no one dared approach him. Finally Rilballe decided to wound him with a spear and take the fire from him. Rilballe threw the spear and wounded Kondole in the neck. The participants laughed and shouted after this and most were then changed into different animals. Kondole ran into the sea and became a whale, and now blows water out of the wound in his neck.
'In the
Dreamtime'
Reference: Southern Right Whale brochure DELM, March 1993
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| This page was last modified 2002-10-17 | ||
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