Dancing Brolga Story by Manuel Pamkal

Young girl Mimi and her mum lived far away in the bush from other Mimis.  One day the mother said, “ we are going to have to move closer to the others so we can watch corroboree and be with other family and friends.” So they moved to live with the other Mimis.   Every time there was a full moon they would have a corroboree.  The young girl would watch the other girls dance. Because she lived away from them for a long time, she did not know how to dance like they did.  After watching the them for a while, she wanted to join in and learn how to dance, but she was too shy to dance in front of anyone.  One day her mum said they were going to go and camp out bush again.  When they found a good spot to camp they stopped.  That afternoon the young girl heard a strange sound gooodeeeeerk  goooodeeerk . She left the camp to find out who was making the noise.  What she saw were two birds dancing in the middle of a dry flood plan.  They had their wings open and were kicking their legs in a rhythmic pattern.  It was getting late so she went back to her camp.    Early in the morning while her mum was still sleeping she went back to where she saw the birds dancing.  They were still there dancing.  The birds could not see the girl as she was far away hiding behind a gum tree.   While the girl was watching the birds she found herself copying the dance of the birds.  She danced for a long time until she thought she better get back to her mum at the camp.  Her mum asked her what she had been doing but the girl did not tell her mum about the dancing birds, she just said she had been walk-about looking for food.  The next day the girl got up really early and went back to see the birds again. The birds were there and dancing,  so she started to copy then again as she really wanted to be able to dance as gracefully as they did. This went on for three more days.  The last night at their camp, her mum asked her if she wanted some bush tucker to eat, but the girl said no and just wanted to go to sleep.  The mother was getting concerned because she thought her daughter was starting to look strange.  The next morning when the mother woke up she got a shock when she looked at where her daughter had gone to sleep as there was a grey bird lying where her daughter had been the night before.  The bird opened its eyes and stood up. The mother realized then that her daughter had turned into a Brolga.  The bird turned to the mother and said gooodeeeek gooodeeerk and flew away.