Baiame

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wiradjuri painting of Baiame, near Singleton, NSW. Note that his arms extend to the two trees either side.

In the dreaming of several language groups (e.g. Kamilaroi, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri), of Indigenous Australians of South-East Australia, Baiame (Baayami or Baayama) is a creational ancestral hero. He came down from the sky to the land, and created rivers, mountains, and forests. He then gave the people their laws of life, their traditions, their songs, and their culture. He also created the first Bora at which young boys were initiated to become men. When he had finished, he returned to the sky, and people called him the Sky Hero or the All Father.

He is said to be married to Birrahgnooloo (Birran-gnulu), who is often identified as an emu, and with whom he has a son Daramulum (Dharramalan). In other versions, Daramulum is said to be the brother of Baiame.

It was taboo to mention or discuss the name of Baiame in public, and in the Sydney region, women were not allowed to see images of Baiame, or approach Baiame sites, which are often male initiation sites, or Bora.

In the Sydney Rock Engravings, Baiame is often represented as a human figure with a large head-dress or hair-style, and lines of footsteps (often outsized) or mundoes are often nearby. He is always depicted in front view, whilst Daramulum is depicted in profile. Baiame is often shown with internal decorations such as waistbands, vertical lines running down the body, bands, and dots. The dots are said to have given him power over smallpox, which is thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of indigenous Australians after the British settlement in Australian in 1788.

In a famous Wiradjuri rock painting near Singleton, he is depicted with large staring eyes and enormously long arms.

Missionary William Ridley adopted the name of Baiame for the Christian God when translating into Gamilaraay (the language of the Kamilaroi).