What Makes the Waves (Australian Aboriginal myth)
"What Makes the Waves" is a myth from the Kamilaroi people of New South Wales, Australia, exploring the origins of ocean waves through a narrative steeped in cultural significance. The story centers on Arrilla, a knowledgeable member of the Kamilaroi who discovers a dark figure atop a mountain, believed to be supported by a malevolent spirit. As Arrilla navigates the challenges posed by this figure, he learns from another Aboriginal traveler that the ocean is perceived as a fallen sky, a belief rooted in their mythology. This traveler recounts how an ancestor's struggle to keep the sky from returning to its place above led to the creation of waves crashing on the shores.
The myth reflects the Kamilaroi people's connection to their land and the broader themes found in Aboriginal mythology, which often seeks to explain natural phenomena through ancestral narratives. Myths like "What Makes the Waves" are part of a larger tradition known as Dreamtime, a sacred era that encompasses the creation of the earth and its inhabitants. This story, along with others in Aboriginal culture, highlights the deep spiritual relationship that Indigenous Australians maintain with nature and reinforces the role of storytelling in preserving their cultural heritage.
What Makes the Waves (Australian Aboriginal myth)
Author: Traditional
Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE; 1 CE–500 CE
Country or Culture: Australia
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
Arrilla is the brightest member of the Kamilaroi people. He spends much of his time roaming the coast and jungle areas of the land, examining flora and fauna. One day, while Arrilla is examining a lagoon, a dark figure is spotted on top of a tall mountain. The figure waves spears and shouts down at the Kamilaroi people. The stern king calls for a council of his people in order to find out who the dark figure is. Arrilla does not answer the call right away, so the determined king sends two strong men out to retrieve him.
When Arrilla is brought before the king, he explains that, while wandering earlier that day, he had seen an unfriendly spirit on top of the same mountain where the figure was spotted. He states that the dark figure was receiving courage from this wicked spirit. The only way to overcome the figure, Arrilla explains, is through cunning strategy, not brute force. The rest of the tribe acknowledges that Arrilla is the only one crafty enough to overcome the figure and the spirit, but the king is not convinced. He adjourns the council until nightfall, when he will decide what to do with Arrilla and the spirit.
Arrilla returns to his family’s hut and, seeing that they are low on food, goes hunting until nightfall when the council will be called to meet once again. Fearing further disfavor from the king, Arrilla arrives promptly. The king then orders him to climb to where he had earlier seen the spirit and to ask it questions. Arrilla knows that he must obey, so he spends the rest of the night planning his travel to the high point.
He begins his arduous journey in the morning. Though it exhausts him, Arrilla manages to climb through many vines and other vegetation to reach the mountain peak. It is quiet at the top, and the sky is dark and cloudless. A shadow approaches him, and despite being afraid, Arrilla makes a signal in the Kamilaroi language. He is relieved to see that it is another Aborigine, one with a language similar to his own.
The Aborigine explains to Arrilla that he is traveling to the ocean because he has never seen it before. His people believe the ocean to be a sky that has fallen down and is gradually taking over the whole world. The Aborigine tells Arrilla the story of how a great ancestor left the earth and drove a hole right through the sky; when he tried to return, the hole had closed up so he beat upon the sky until it collapsed. The sky wanted to return to its home above, but when it tried to rise up, the ancestor continued to beat it back. The sky was only able to sink down and break itself upon the shores—the roar made by the waves is the voice of the ancestor refusing to give in to the sky. Despite being beaten, the sky is managing to spread and grow upon the shores, until one day it will consume the whole earth.
Arrilla is pleased with this story, for he had not known what made the waves. He asks the Aborigine to follow him back to his people and share the information from the spirit about the sky. The Aborigine is then given a wife from the Kamilaroi people and remains with them until his death.
SIGNIFICANCE
Australian author and compiler C. W. Peck suggests that Arrilla may have been a composite character developed by Aborigines in order to convey their traditions, rather than a representation of just one man. Peck’s Australian Legends (1925) was the first noteworthy work concerned specifically with the Aboriginal folklore of eastern New South Wales. This version of “What Makes the Waves” is featured in that book.
The Kamilaroi people were indigenous Australians from New South Wales. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers who depended on a variety of fish for a good portion of their diet. Their mythology included a belief in a deity known as the All Father, who took the souls of dead Aborigines up to the sky. Kamilaroi people believed that each person has a soul, a dream spirit, and a shadow spirit. The dream spirit refers to the Aboriginal belief in the dreaming—the spiritual concept that creation is a perpetual cycle that helps various aspects of Aboriginal society. That is why their myths are frequently referred to as dreaming stories. Another aspect of the dreaming is Dreamtime, which is the sacred era before time, when their ancestors came to the earth and created the land, plants, animals, and humans. Aborigines used certain sacred rituals to recall the events of Dreamtime and to reenact the adventures of their ancestors.
Like other Aborigines, the Kamilaroi people’s dreaming stories are heavily linked to the earth, plants, and animals. Similar to other ancient cultures, Aboriginal myths also provide accounts of how specific things came to be. For instance, this particular myth looks at why waves beat against the shores every day, while others explain how hills came to be or why possums do not have hair on their tails. Other Aboriginal tribes have similar myths in which the ocean falls from the sky. The Paakantji tribe of New South Wales had a story about the sky falling, and in South Australia, there is a story telling of the stars falling to the earth, creating lagoons along the coast.
Geographic evidence in New South Wales has led experts to believe that a tsunami once struck the southern coast. As the tsunami wave poured overhead, Aborigines may have believed that the sky was falling.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cowan, James G. Myths of the Dreaming: Interpreting Aboriginal Legends. London: Prism, 1994. Print.
Masse, W. Bruce, and Luigi Piccardi, eds. Myth and Geology. Bath: Geological Soc., 2007. Print.
Parker, Katie Langloh. The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia. London: Constable, 1905. Print.
Peck, C. W. Australian Legends: Tales Handed Down from the Remotest Times by the Autocthonous Inhabitants of Our Land. Sydney: Stafford, 1925. Print.
Wardrop, Martin. “Dreaming and the Dreamtime.” Aboriginal Art Online. Aboriginal Art Online, 2000. Web. 1 May 2003.