Yarran
Authors: Youla Azkarrula, Susanne M Hoffmann, ASE Tech Team
Yarran, The Root, is an Australian name for the asterism of Crux from the Kamilaroi/ Euahlayi people.
Etymology and History
Yarran (also called mingga) is the roots of the Yarran tree, an Acacia, which is the tree that Byaame took up to the Warrambul with the first man to die (and the Cockatoos). It is actually centred on the Coal Sack, and the dark nebula is the hollow of the tree seen from below, with the roots spreading around. When someone dies and goes to Bulimah, they go through the hollow of the Yarran.
Variant Spelling
- Yarran (Kamilaroi)
- Gulabaa (Euahlayi)
- Coolabah (Euahlayi)
- Nguu (Ngemba, a tea-tree)
Mythology
Two Men and a Woman
In the Creation time, two men and a woman came from the red country and had been shown which plants they could eat to stay alive. They did this for a long time, but then a big drought came, and they were hungry. One man killed a wallaby, even though he was told by the other man that he should not, as he did not know the law of that totem (the wallaby). He and the woman ate some of it. The other man refused, and walked across the sandhills and the river until he came to a big white gum tree. He lay down and died there. A spirit saw that he did not break the law, and put him in the hollow of the tree, and then lifted the tree into the sky, followed by two white cockatoos screeching, because their roosting place was in the tree. The tree was placed in the southern sky, where it faded and only the eyes of the spirit and the man could be seen, forming the Southern Cross. The two cockatoos still fly after the Southern Cross, and are the Pointers. This is the story of the first death of man. The she-oak trees sigh in the wind, and the gum trees cry tears of blood (gum) to mourn for the first death of Aboriginal people.
The meaning of this story isː
- how the Southern Cross was created;
- why the gum tree bleeds a resin;
- why the she-oak sighs in the wind;
- the first death and the law about burial (in a tree);
- the law about not killing a totem animal;
- how the spirits take the people to the sky.
Baayami and His Wifes
Extending stories to the ceremonial, the sky can be turned into a totally different map. The sky can take one from the northeast in the sea (Pacific), down the coastline to Byron Bay, over Lake Eyre, Warburton, Pilbara, Kimberleys, back down through the Tanami Desert, to Uluru, and back to Lake Eyre. It’s a complete roadmap. Lake Eyre is where Baayami finished the creating, when he and his wives were travelling. On the way, one of his wives, Birrangulu, died, and her spirit stayed at Uluru, to sleep. Her physical body went to Lake Eyre with Baayami and his other wife, Ganhanbili. At Lake Eyre they went south, and the Southern Cross is a coolabah tree. In Angledool (NSW) is the largest coolabah tree; that tree represents the Southern Cross. That is a dead coolabah tree. That’s where Baayami and his other wife camped on the way to Bulimah. Down here, we’re looking up at the black hole on the side of the Southern Cross [Coalsack]; that’s the hollow/bottom of the coolabah tree. Go up the hollow tree, and when you come out the other side you’re home (Bulimah), all the people are there. The big star to the east of the Southern Cross [Alpha Muscae] is a fireplace, and all mothers on Earth who have children go to that place when they die. They make camp, and stay there until their last child comes, when they leave for Bulimah. Their female children who have children will stay until their last children arrive, and then they will join their mother in Bulimah.
IAU Working Group on Star Names
The name was discussed by the IAU WGSN in 2023. Since it refers to the collective of Crux, we must not apply it to a singular star.
