Baiame

Kamilaroi · deity · dreaming creator era · deity

Sky-father creator deity of the Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay), Wonnarua, and Eora language groups of southeastern Australia. Per canonical-Wiradjuri narrative, emerged from his stone home, traveled across Country shaping the landscape and instituting the law, then returned to his sky-home. Extensively documented by Howitt (1904) as one of the most-cohesive regional Dreaming-frameworks of southeastern Australia. The Baiame Cave rock-art panel at Milbrodale (Hunter Valley, NSW) — large-scale ochre-painted figure with extended-outstretched arms — is the canonical iconographic anchor and one of the most-iconic Aboriginal Australian Dreaming-rock-art images. Mount Yengo (NSW), a flat-topped mountain in the Hunter Valley, is canonically the spot from which Baiame ascended to the sky after completing his creator-work — flat-top visually preserved as the mark of his departure. Continues as central cultural-religious framework for contemporary Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi, Wonnarua, and Eora communities.

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