Snake and Moon ‘Right Way Marriage’ Stories on Stone and Bark

Abstract

In northwest Australia, boab trees hold significant cultural values for First Nations people. Their leaves, bark, roots and nuts are important as traditional resources for food, medicine, fibre, water and shade and serve as reference points in the landscape. Some of the tree trunks are inscribed with images and symbols which tell of events and narratives that took place during the time when the landscape was created. One boab tree, at Karunjie Station on Nyaliga Country in the Kimberley, is carved with images of a black-headed python and the moon which are associated with a narrative that is a reminder of cultural law about forbidden love. This narrative is widely related across the central and eastern Kimberley and provides a means of selecting marriage partners over a culturally diverse landscape. On Karunjie Station images associated with this narrative are also painted on two rock shelter walls suggesting the importance of maintaining marriage laws at this location. Adhering to these laws may have been particularly important when European and other foreign colonists disrupted the economy as they appropriated First Nations peoples’ land. Carvings on the Karunjie boab tree demonstrates another way in which First Nations people incorporate boab trees into their culture.