THE STORY BEHIND KURTARRA
The Kurtarra Painting Black Goanna Story
In the Dreamtime, all the goannas began painting one another with dot paintings. The black goanna, who was the biggest of them all, had the privilege of painting all the other goanna's first. He promised to paint them all very beautifully.
He went about painting each goanna carefully, one colour at a time.
When he had finished painting all the goannas, he felt the joy of seeing them dancing with their beautiful new dot paintings. He felt very proud.
Then it was time for the other goannas to paint him. He would be the last goanna to be painted, the final masterpiece.
But little did he know that the other goannas had something else in mind for him.
Because he was the biggest goanna of them all, they painted him in odd colours, black first, then yellow with white spots.
The black goanna felt very proud to have the other goannas paint him. He believed that he, too, would be painted as beautifully as the goannas he had painted.
When all the other goannas had finished painting him, the black goanna went straight down to the waterhole to look at his reflection in the water.
But when he saw his reflection, he noticed that he didn’t look anything like the other goannas. He looked different. He wasn’t as beautiful or as pretty as the rest of them. He looked ugly, with odd colours.
“Why did you paint me like this?” he asked.
“That’s the colour we wanted to paint you, and now you have to stay like that,” the other goannas replied, laughing.
The other goannas had done wrong by painting him ugly with these odd colours.
The black goanna became so angry and upset that he fought with them. He then moved away from them all and into the rocks, never to speak to them again.
From that day on, he never liked any of the other goannas or any other kind of lizard.
He has lived alone ever since, around and on the rocks, always standing up and looking out for the other goannas who painted him that way—ugly, with odd colours.
This Dreamtime story was taught to me by my old people, from the desert to the Pilbara.
This story is also told throughout Australia in many different ways and versions, reflecting the many languages and dreamings within our Aboriginal culture.
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