Bram-Bram-Bult

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE; 1 CE–500 CE

Country or Culture: Australia

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

One day, a mighty spirit named Doan, who has taken the body of a gliding possum, sets out to hunt a kangaroo. The kangaroo, named Purra, manages to elude Doan for some time. Just as Doan closes in on Purra, he crosses into the territory of an echidna spirit known as Wembulin, who attacks him. Doan manages to escape, but Wembulin soon catches up with him and kills him. Wembulin and his two daughters eat Doan and then begin to pursue Purra.

Shortly after Doan goes missing, his maternal uncles, Yuree and Wanjel, renowned warriors also known as the Bram-Bram-Bult, go in search of him. During their search, they come across ants carrying small bits of Doan’s body back to their nest. Nearby they find the site where Wembulin killed Doan and discover the remainder of his body.

Realizing that the echidna had killed their nephew, the two men, who are also highly skilled trackers, set off in pursuit of Wembulin. After three days, Yuree and Wanjel find Wembulin and his daughters. Catching Wembulin by surprise, the two warriors slay him and marry his daughters.

As they return to their home, Yuree and Wanjel become suspicious of the daughters and begin to fear their anger over the death of their father. Worrying that their new wives will take revenge against them, the two warriors kill Wembulin’s daughters. They then journey through the countryside, naming all of the plants, rock, rivers, and other aspects of the landscape they come across and thus bringing the surrounding world into being.

One day, Wanjel is bitten by a poisonous snake named Gertuk and dies. Yuree carves a wooden representation of his dead brother and magically gives it life. This revives Wanjel, and the two brothers continue their journey until finally settling in a cave. When the two die, they ascend to the sky and live on as stars.

SIGNIFICANCE

Like many stories in Australian Aboriginal mythology, the story of the Bram-Bram-Bult directly concerns the Australian landscape and its creation. The brothers Yuree and Wanjel name many aspects of the landscape, thereby creating them. When they die, the brothers become stars in another act of creation.

The sky, particularly the night sky, is crucial to Aboriginal mythology. In one tale of Yuree and Wanjel, the brothers defeat a savage emu that is attacking a man named Bunya, whom they then change into a possum. Some Aboriginal Australians believed that the four-star constellation known as the Southern Cross represents this myth; the four stars represent the emu, the possum, and the brothers’ spears. In northwestern Australia, Aboriginal peoples saw the Southern Cross as a representation of the origin of fire.

As Philip Wilkinson notes in Myths and Legends, Yuree and Wanjel are just one of many pairs of siblings in Aboriginal mythology. Siblings, particularly brothers, are prevalent in the mythology of many Aboriginal peoples, although the relationships between the mythological siblings vary widely. While Yuree and Wanjel are said to be close brothers who fight and travel together, other siblings are said to clash with one another, at times with disastrous consequences. For instance, one Aboriginal myth concerns two brothers who argue over the rights to water. One brother wisely fills up a leather bag with the water he finds. When the other one becomes thirsty, he fights with his brother and spills the water in the bag, causing a large flood. Another sibling myth concerns the Iguana Men, who rescue a woman from an attack. Like Yuree and Wanjel, these brothers work together, and they ultimately ascend to the sky.

Many figures in Aboriginal mythology are eternal spirits that take the form of animals. Aboriginal Australians believed that their ancestors lived on as these spirits, which were given the physical traits of animals and human characteristics. In the myth of the Bram-Bram-Bult, a gliding possum chases a kangaroo in the hope of killing it. Of course, a typical possum cannot accomplish this, but in the story, he can because the possum is an ancestral spirit. Doan is unable to achieve his goal not because of his body’s small size and limited hunting ability but because of the actions of Wembulin. The role of the kangaroo as prey in this myth is unique; in most Aboriginal myths, the kangaroo is a heroic ancestor spirit.

In the myth of the Bram-Bram-Bult, Yuree revives Wanjel by carving a figure of him out of wood. Such carved figures and totems representing animals and ancestral figures were an important part of Aboriginal Australian art. Many Aboriginal groups believed that living animals were their ancestors, so much of their art consists of carved, painted, or etched images of these animals. Regardless of the medium, nearly all Aboriginal art has some kind of mythological undertone concerning the spiritual concept of Dreaming or Dreamtime. This concept refers to the period of time when the world was created and the subsequent perpetual creating. Many Aboriginal ceremonies, such as the borah rite in which boys transition to manhood, involve the use of art to create a close connection with the spirit world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Tony, et al. Journeys through Dreamtime: Oceanian Myths. Amsterdam: Time-Life, 1999. Print.

Lawlor, Robert. Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Rochester: Inner Traditions, 1991. Print.

Mudrooroo. Aboriginal Mythology. London: Aquarian, 1994. Print.

Sutton, Peter, ed. Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia. New York: Viking, 1989. Print.

Wilkinson, Philip. Myths and Legends: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.