A long time ago the Minyma Birnee (the Seven Sisters) lived in the Yindidi and they came to Earth, bringing with them cosmic eggs and seeds for planting to create the Earth. They were the first botanists. They sang and danced the map of their journey, seeding life right through the country around places known today as Menzies, Coolgardie, Leonora, Mt Margaret and Kookynie. Every morning the Seven Sisters rose in the darkness to dance and sing the sun up and to celebrate its power. From the sun they got their direction, where to plant the seeds, how to harvest and how to live so that life could be sustained eternally. The Seven Sisters lived in this beautiful country in the amphitheatres of caves, around dancing grounds and rock-holes filled with sweet, fresh water. In one place they pounded seeds to make 'namili' (the first bread) and in another they did healing with medicine plants and stones.
After preparing the Earth for 'midgarn' (birth), they returned to their starting place to find that the rock-holes had dried up. So they sent the youngest sister off to get some water in the direction of where the two men had come from, they had been following the Seven Sisters from a distance. One of the men touched and claimed the younger sister and together they bore the first children of the Wongi people. The six sisters returned to the Yindidi, leaving their mortal sister to catch up with them later.
When you look up into the Milky Way, you can see that fainter, younger sister behind the other six. And those two men, the Wadi Guthara are two clouds outside the Milky Way.
Seven Sisters Story
"Yindidi is what we call the Milky Way in my mother's Aboriginal culture",
says
Wongi story teller, Josie Boyle.
"This Seven Sisters story was her religion".