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Eaglehawk and Crow

09/07/2001 By Dreamtime 23 Comments

This is another Ngiyaampaa story and it’s about Eaglehawk and Crow.

Long, long time ago Eaglehawk, it was his turn to go hunting. So Eaglehawk had a little baby, and he asked Crow, he went over to his neighbour Crow and asked Crow if he’d look after his baby while he went hunting, because food was getting much scarcer now and they had to go much further and further away from the camp.

So Eaglehawk, he went to Crow and asked him. Crow didn’t want to look after the baby, he said “No, no I don’t want to look after the baby, he’s crying too much, he’ll cry all the time and disturb the camp”. But Eaglehawk said, “No, he’ll be right, Crow”. He said, “You take him away and you sit down there and talk to him, or sing to him and he’ll quieten down”. Crow was still reluctant to take the baby, he said, “No, I don’t want to look after the kid”.

So anyway, Eaglehawk just handed the baby to Crow and said, “Okay, when we come back, whatever meat we get we’ll bring it back and we’ll share it with you”. Crow had to be satisfied with that and Eaglehawk just went off with his young men and of course they had to go a long, long way from the camp.

But Crow, after he got the baby, he took it into his gunyah, his hut, and he sat down there with the baby and he was singing to it and talking to it, but the baby wouldn’t stop crying. Just kept on crying and crying and crying.

So Crow was getting really annoyed, no way he could stop the baby. So Crow went out and he got his boondie-his hitting stick-and banged the little fella with the hitting stick and killed him. Then he got the baby and he put it up the back of his camp, right in the back of the gunyah. He put all the leaves around it, and a bit of bark and a kangaroo skin. He had a kangaroo skin, a cloak, so he put that over the baby. And anyway, everything was quiet then so Crow went away from his camp and started doing what he wanted to do then.

So after, when Eaglehawk came back late in the afternoon, Crow ran back into the camp and he was sitting at the doorway and he was making out he was singing to the baby. Crow’s sitting there and Eaglehawk came up to him and said “I’ve come to pick my baby up now Crow. He’s very quiet, you must have sung him to sleep.

And Crow said, “Yeah, he’s right in the back of the gunyah there, he’s right in the back of the camp. He’s sound asleep. Don’t wake him, leave him there. Eaglehawk said, “No, I’ll take him home now and look after him”.

So when Eaglehawk walked into the camp, the gunyah, to get his baby, he noticed that everything was really still and too still around him. So once Eaglehawk walked into the back of the camp and picked the baby up, Crow took off and he ran out and hid in the mallee, the thick scrub.

So Eaglehawk he started yelling, “My baby, Crow killed my baby”, so all his other hunters came up to him with their spears and he said, “Go after him. Chase him into the thick mallee and get him. We’ll kill him”. So they ran after Crow, but he got right into the centre of the mallee and they couldn’t find him. So Eaglehawk said, “We’ll set a light to the mallee and we’ll burn him out. He’s got to be punished for what he did to my baby.”

So they set a light to the mallee, and they went right back, away from the fire and they’re sitting right out there, waiting for all the smoke to go away. And then they saw this bird flying out of the smoke, at the end of the smoke this black bird came out. And Eaglehawk said, “That’s him. That’s Crow. He’s been punished now, his spirit turned into a black bird.”

And today, Eaglehawk and Crow still carry on the fight after that. They’re birds today and they still carry on the fight. Crow will still go up to Eaglehawk’s nest and try to pick at his babies, the eyes of his babies. And in the air when Eaglehawk’s circling for food, Crow will go after him again and try to pick at him. So they still carry on the fight after what happened when they were people years ago.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Crows son says

    19/11/2018 at 11:44 pm

    i think it was wrong what crow did but Y a bird! Y couldn’t I be a kangaroo or something

    Reply
    • Ivy says

      06/04/2019 at 3:39 am

      I think that Crow turned into a bird so one, he could fly away and think about what he did or else the hunters would get him, and two, I think that he was scorched by the fire so that his feathers are now black.

      Reply
      • Shaneli says

        17/05/2020 at 11:59 pm

        that is sooooooo rude to kill someone eles baby

        Reply
    • Bob the robber says

      05/09/2019 at 1:53 am

      I am an elephant

      Reply
      • QWERTY says

        06/11/2019 at 4:40 pm

        No your not a elephant

        Reply
    • nevaeh says

      21/01/2020 at 2:04 pm

      i would be a tiger 🙂

      Reply
    • BigT says

      19/02/2020 at 12:57 am

      Because it is a original story

      Reply
    • Lee says

      19/05/2020 at 2:38 am

      Yes you are correct this is totally wrong

      Reply
  2. Eaglehawks little baby says

    19/03/2019 at 12:34 am

    oof

    Reply
  3. Sahib says

    20/03/2019 at 2:08 am

    what I learned from this story is that you shouldn’t trust everyone and that you should handle everything by yourself. An aspect that is displayed in this story is beliefs as the eaglehawk believed the crow take care of the baby as but she didn’t. And another example related to the aspects is Ethics as the eaglehawk didn’t make good decisions and shouldn’t have trusted the crow. Made me believe that I should do more things on my own. Moral of the story is to trust no one, an example showing us this is how the crow didn’t take good care of the baby

    Reply
  4. chris M says

    20/03/2019 at 2:08 am

    aboriginal spirituality is are myths that have very special meanings that relate to life. the message was not to trust everyone and that you should do important things by yourself.
    two aspects of religion displayed in this story are belief as the eaglehawk believed the crow would take care of the baby but she didn’t and as well as ethics as the eaglehawk didn’t make good decisions that ended up in her trust being broken by the crow. this stoy made me feel upset and frustrated that the eaglehawk trusted the crow and that was a bad decision as the eaglehawk didn’t properly know the crow. the moral of the story is to not trust everyone. an example is as the crow didn’t take care of the baby.

    Reply
  5. Funny Dogs says

    20/03/2019 at 11:37 pm

    I LOVE THIS ONE

    Reply
    • Flynn hewitson hodder says

      03/04/2019 at 6:01 am

      Its a cool story

      Reply
  6. Kendra says

    15/04/2019 at 8:10 pm

    I’m tired of everyone complaining, this is their beliefs! What if someone told you Jesus was stupid, or, why was it wine? Please do everyone a favor and respect their belief.

    Reply
    • kitty says

      19/04/2020 at 10:57 pm

      ikr I am christan and people never respect my belief, we have already taken their land, why should we mock them?

      Reply
  7. decki says

    17/06/2019 at 12:59 am

    why is there so many conmmets

    Reply
    • bbbbb says

      28/08/2019 at 2:17 am

      idk

      Reply
  8. Mike ox Small says

    25/06/2019 at 12:23 am

    This was butyfill.

    Reply
  9. crow says

    04/07/2019 at 12:13 am

    good story

    Reply
  10. Eaglehawks hunter friend says

    30/08/2019 at 1:58 am

    I like to sharpen my spear while burning malle

    Reply
    • a says

      09/10/2019 at 10:42 pm

      Yes mom

      Reply
  11. ill says

    27/11/2019 at 6:41 am

    oh boys

    Reply
  12. A PERSON says

    19/04/2020 at 11:01 pm

    What I don’t understand is how my teacher doesn’t let us watch the muffin song but she encourages us to read this story about people killing other peoples BABIES?

    Reply

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