KATIE LANGLOH PARKER GREW UP ON HER FATHER'S PROPERTY, MARRA STATION, NORTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES. MARRIED AT THE AGE OF 18 SHE STARTED COLLECTING STORIES AND VOCABULARIES FROM THE LOCAL BRANCH OF YULAROI PEOPLE, WHICH SHE SUBSEQUENTLY PUBLISHED IN SEVERAL COLLECTIONS BETWEEN 1896 AND 1930.

IT IS BELIEVED THAT PARKER'S APPRECIATION OF ABORIGINAL CULTURE PARTLY HAD ITS ROOTS IN AN EVENT OF HER CHILDHOOD, WHEN SHE WAS SAVED FROM DROWNING IN A RIVER BY AN ABORIGINAL GIRL AT THE AGE OF SIX. PARKER'S COLLECTIONS OF YULAROI STORIES

Katie Langloh Parker

Meamei the Seven Sisters prose Indigenous story Author: K. Langloh Parker First known date: 1896-1897

Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members "of the Aboriginal race of Australia" (indigenous to the Australian continent—mainland Australia or to the island of Tasmania

Aboriginal Australians

Book of Australian Legendary Tales, by K. Langloh Parker (1897) entitled:

Meamei The Seven Sisters

The theme of the Seven Sisters stars was familiar to the tribespeople in many parts of the continent. In South Australia one of the sisters is Pirili. The legend of Wahn the Crow and the Seven Sisters and many others.

Wurrunnah had a long days hunting and he came back to the camp tired and hungry. He longed for a feed of grass-seed cakes. In spite of repeated requests, no one would give him any, so he decided to leave the camp.

Wurrunnah had many adventures in his journey far away to the camp. He met a Mooroonumildah, who had no eyes but can see through the nose. Days passed until he met the seven beautiful women. They were quite friendly towards him. They were named Meamei. They would stay for a while to see what it was like in the country and return whence they had come.

PLOT

The next day, he made a fresh start, and left the camp of the Meamei, as if he was leaving for good. He made a plan. It was long since he had seen a woman.Two of the seven women were carried by Wurrunnah and ordered to be his wives. On the following day, Wurrunah ordered the two women to strip the bark from a tree to cover the saplings he was gathering, in order to make a humpy. The two women went each to a different tree, and each with a strong hit, drove their combos into the bark. As they did so, each hit on the trees bearing them upward with it. Higher out of the ground, higher grew the pine trees, carrying the two women with it.

Wurrunnah was helpless. The real nature of the seven sisters suddenly dawned on him. They were sky women who had been visiting the Earth to satisfy their curiosity about the ways of men.Wurrunnah, all men, still see the Seven Sisters every night, when the sky is clear, for they are the Seven Sisters that white men call the constellation of Pleiades.

1. Wurrunnah – hunting man, pursued Seven Sisters to their destinations.2. Meamei- the Seven Sisters; Pleiades.3. Mooroonumildah4. Wurrunnah’s Mother5. Tribesmen

CHARACTERS

- Ominiscient ( the author narrated the story, using they, she, he and it.)

POINT OF VIEW

- The high visibility of the Star cluster Pleiades in the night sky has guaranteed it a special place in many cultures, both ancient and modern.- The Pleiades have inspired a wealth of mythology and legends: fascinating as these are the reality the star cluster is profoundly more wonderful. Historically the Pleiades were seen as a group of Seven Stars – its brightest Stars: Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta and Pleione.

SIGNIFICANCE / IMPACT (History, Reality, and Literature)

- At a distance of about 440 light years from the earth, the Pleiades are one of the nearest galactic open clusters.

 In the clear and unpolluted night skies of antiquity the Pleiades star cluster was an object of wonder and interest. It was the subject of myth and legend in almost every culture on the planet. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1936)

Thank you… 3/09/2016 Reporter: RICHARD G. PERELONIAReference: www.google.com.ph