Bat teaches Kelly Ann Blake about the need to protect the night sky which can be lost due to light pollution.
(A message to the reader.)
Lola budj yea-bengadak Wadawurrung Dja. Matnyu-ben-gadak Wadawurrung Dja
We are here on Wadawurrung Country, this is Wadawurrung Dja/Country.
“Nganin Nganitj -Cry to protect the Night Sky” As told by Nganin Nganitj, Bat of Lakorra Murrkal Dja-Dark sky Country.
I am Nganin Nganitj. I am a bat. I carry in my bones and being, the memory of Balyang, the great Bat Creator spirit of Lakorra Murrkal Dja -Dark Sky Country.
Balyang is law/lore keeper and protector of Dark Sky County. He is my ancestor, not just in blood, spirit, but in story, song, and Sky. When the old people were looking up to the stars, and the spaces in between, long before there were towns and skyscrapers, Balyang flew across the night sky with his great wings, shaping rivers, creating women singing stars into space and place, while creating balance and setting the rhythm between light and dark, while Country sleeps….but is Country really sleeping? Some of Country is, but as day turns into night Dark Sky Country is wide awake.
Let me tell you something. Please rug up, it’s cold outside in Ballaarat, and I need to take you on a journey—a journey which we will fly through Dark Sky Country and with Balyang, the flying fox.
Balyang is brother to Bunjil, Creator of all, Eagle spirit, the creator being and kin to Waa law/lore keeper of the low skies. Balyang’s care for Country is not done in sunlight or daytime. No. He watches over shadow. He keeps the laws/lore of Dark Sky Country, protector of moonlight, of owls, of moths, of creatures who rise when Mirri the sun travels beyond the horizon to sleep, and where horizon is blended into darkness. And I, Nganin Nganitj, am one of them. I am guardian of flowering trees, dreamer of dark skies.
As we fly together tonight, I tell you I am troubled. I flap through the trees and I do not feel the rhythm I once knew. I see confusion in Lakorra Murrkal Dja-Dark Sky Country. There are unusual stars that look like robots and there is light that is not of the sun, stars or moon. I try to find star songlines, but it’s drowned in a haze of brightness. There are strange glows that are brighter than any campfire I have seen, the humans call them lights. They are everywhere and my inner compass, my natural navigation system, echolocation (my natural way of knowing), is shifted into overdrive, and I get confused because I am fighting against the bright lights and need to rely on sound more. I know I can adapt, but I have to adapt so quickly and without warning. The only peace I get is when I journey far, far away from those bright lights humans have brought to Country, the easy flame, the brightest flame that emits no heat, no other benefits except to light the night for humans to see better, for their convenience, for their benefit. While they are busy looking down and around, they are forgetting to look up and remember us, those who thrive in darkness in Lakorra Murrkal Dja-Dark Sky Country.
Even my brothers and sisters, the owls, the possums, moths, ancestor spirits of night, they wander in circles. We don’t know when to wake or when to sleep. The day does not end. The night does not begin. Bring back Law/Lore, Balyang? “Oh ancient one, please hear our cry”. Where is the beat of your wings that once stirred the mud and made the rivers flow, protector of waterways, the creator of women? Where are the whispers that told the trees to bloom for us?
We are still working. We still try. My brothers and sisters of the day, brother bees and sister birds, they fly, they pollinate, they heal Country. But when my time comes, it feels like I’m too late. When does my time begin to do my share of caring for Country, our mother? When do I get to do my work, our cycles are not in sync, where is the balance? Things have changed. The lights confuse us. Is it night? Or is it still day? Or something lost in between?
The younger ones, they get tired, the older ones are vulnerable. They miss their flowering trees. They fall from the branches in heat, the hands of our grandmother trees who are there to hold and support us, we sometimes can’t hold on to them anymore and just… let go…
We travel to different places and make our camps in Djilang (Geelong), Ballaarat (Ballarat) Botanical Gardens, Castlemaine Botanical Gardens and Rosalind Park Bendigo, flying foxes now go to places they were never meant to camp. But perhaps, even that is a message.
Maybe you sent us there, Balyang. Maybe you sent us into the gardens so the people would see us. So they would wonder. So they would ask why are they here? What are they trying to tell us?
I want people to know we are not pests. We are not monsters of the dark as it has been told in scary storybooks. Like our cousin Darrwal, dingo, we have been wrongly feared. But we are guardians. Carers. Pollinators. Teachers. I carry your story, Balyang. I remember how you flapped your wings into the creek and stirred the clay. How you made women from that mud and gave them to the men for companionship. How you balanced spirit and water, creation and love. I remember. And I speak of it now.
But this world feels out of balance. The light never sleeps. The stars go unseen.
And we, your family of the Dark Sky Country, can’t do what we came here to do. So, I am asking you now, great Creator Spirit Balyang, law-keeper of the Dark Sky Country, Help us please. Show the people how to see again. Teach them to look up into the night sky again, love us again, protect us, all our dark sky animal kin and dark sky Country.
Help them understand the rhythm not just of day and night, but of rest and action, of silence and song. Bring back the balance, so we may all do our part to care for all of Country, from ground, water, mountains and Sky and everything belonging to Country including you and I.
I am Nganin Nganitj, please hear my cry to protect the night sky.
Kelly Ann Blake, Kaal Kaal Murrup (Dingo Spirit)
Statement from the heart for Larkorra Murrkal Dja.
As what is above Country, is also below Country. Since the first sunrise our old people have looked to the stars for our way across country, as indicators of seasonal movements and looked at Dark sky Country as a protector and guide across Country as we walked our sacred songlines through Country across this continent.
We are, and our old people were, protected, as our path is illuminated by toort-barram (stars). Sky country told us tell us the weather patterns, show us the migration movements of our winged brothers and sisters. Sky Country is a great teacher and we have not forgotten Sky Country.
Dark Sky Country teachings and knowledge vary from mob to mob. We acknowledge the work needed to heal Country on terrestrial lands as we recognise the work to heal and protect Dark Sky Country. Whether we realise this or not, Sky Country across the world is being impacted. Satellites, space junk, current air traffic, some renewable energy initiatives and light pollution occupying Dark Sky Country are interrupting active songlines, storylines and the way we learn from Country. This interruption affects our physical, emotional and spiritual health of our people and animals.
Wider society may have forgotten about the importance of ‘Looking up’! As we remember and reawaken the teachings of Dark Sky Country, we ask that you too recognise and koling wada njigt (walk together) with us in supporting the protection, recognition and acknowledgment of Dark Sky Country.
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- Stringy bark, painted in charcoal and wattle resin. White and yellow ochre, with riverbed clay/mud. The black background is ground charcoal mixed with resin (wattle sap).
About Kelly Ann Blake
Kelly Ann Blake is a Proud Wadawurrung woman living on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Kelly Ann (Kaal Kaal Murrup-Dingo Spirit) is passionate about the protection of Dingoes and all creatures belonging to Country. Her work is focused on reawakening sleeping Cultural knowledges most significantly through her work with Darrwal/Kaal Kaal Murrup (Dingo Spirit). She has a passion for Truth Telling and is an active researcher in academia and an adjunct Research fellow at La Trobe University and holds a Masters degree in Professional Archaeology.
