For the Wardaman people south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory, three major ancestors sang the world into being. Way back in the beginning of time, the Dreamtime, the Buwarraja (dreaming) created the land and the people. Before this creation time there was just flat land, there were no trees, it was bare land. The Burrawa created the physical world. It’s how everything like language, ceremony, medicine, plants, insects and animals all came to be. It made songlines and taught people laws about caring for country. The three major Wardaman ancestors came from the sky, the ground and the sea. Nardi is the sky boss. Frog lady is the mother of earth. Gorrondolmi, a snake, created the water and he brings the rain. Rainbow married Dungdung and they had many children in the water — the fish and turtles and everything in the water. Dungdung created the land and moved onto it. Dungung marries Nardi, the boss of the stars, who came down from the sky. So she had two husbands. Dungdung and Nardi had a lot of kids on the land. They made up all the songs; Nardi created the men’s songs and Dungdung made the women’s songs. Nardi could sing a song that brought the big rain, yarrindi. Dungdung and Nardi’s children became the lightning people, the ones that struck the land. Two of their children are the lightning brothers Jabirringi and Yajagbula who bring the big rain. Dungdung and Nardi passed songs on to the people to teach people about the laws. They taught them songs about how they named the plants and the soil, about how to eat, how to sing to the earth to make the fruit grow, about trade, about marriage, and inventing all of the tools. They made two strong laws — men’s law and women’s law — kinship, totems, initiation, ceremony, and how they come together, and they made all the songs and dance. They were singing and dancing and making a lot of noise. Old Rainbow, Dundung’s other husband, heard them and became angry. He wanted to have everybody underwater. Rainbow Gorrondolmi sang a big spiritual song and brought a flood to the land and the saltwater buried the whole country. They called that Ngubalngual and made a song about it. Jaliny-gi jaliny-gija means (wet muddy land), Gayirra jarlbanga (it was very shallow), Ngabarl ngabarla (when the water was flashing), and the water was rising with a little wave. The Lightning People went to the high ground. The willy wag tail bird, who made all the stone tools, built a high mound for them to live on and he made spear points to spear the old serpent with. The two lightning brothers tried to spear him first, but they didn’t kill him. The grey falcon threw a spear from high up on the mountain and hit him, cutting his neck off clean. The water went down. His tail and head are left nearby in the landscape, his eyes land further away and form rockpools. After their creation work is complete Nardi, Dungdung and Rainbow Gorrondolmi take multiple forms, going into the land or water and into the sky. The shadows of the three ancestors went up into the stars, into the black spaces in Yondorrin, the Milky Way, also known to many Aboriginal people as the emu. In front of Yondorrin is the emu’s footprints, the Southern Cross. The Wardaman people can always see their creator spirits. The ancestors look down from the night sky, watching to see how people are caring for country. Law is passed down to elders who are keepers of the law. The law does not change with a change of government. It is set for all time in the land and is written into the stars. The law teaches caring, responsibility and custodianship for all the natural world. The stories and songs carry the creator spirits within the songlines across the land and the night sky. They sing and perform the creation songs and they pass them on for thousands of years. In song, the Wardaman people and the spirits both live together.