Table of Contents
Billy Carson hosts elder Trudy for an oral account of the Seven Sisters, with Evan Strong and Steven Strong present. Trudy calls the stories songlines, a memory of blood, history, and the people before. In her family’s telling the sisters came for water ceremony when drinking water was scarce, carrying digging sticks that others dared not approach. A hunter in the sky waited until the sticks were set down, then seized two younger sisters. They told him he could not marry them, because they were already his sisters by blood. Elders, she says, reject any tale that is not tied to the stars. Farther west, seven hunters met the sisters under a tree and led them across the country. Later a man hid two of them through a cold so deep the land nearly froze. The other five called winter in to flush him, then traveled toward the sunrise for warmth rather than kill him. The tale is also a law about choosing a wife with care. She says every group knows this story because it is where things begin.
Key points
- Trudy treats songlines as the way a family’s blood, history, and ancestors are remembered.
- The sisters arrive for water ceremony, and a sky hunter seizes two of the younger ones.
- They refuse him because the kinship is already sister to brother, a line the family still repeats.
- A western telling starts with seven hunters under a tree who lead the sisters across the country.
- A later cold nearly ends life, and five sisters call winter in order to recover the two who were taken.
- The same story is a rule about choosing a wife, a sky map, and a lesson taught to children.
Short quotes
ancestors record everything we do through blood and water and spirit everything we do every thought
Trudy, Seven Sisters star teaching
She says deeds and thoughts are kept in blood, in water, and in spirit. Watch at 1:27
Australia there were seven Hunters they met under the tree and these seven Hunters took them all around
Trudy, Seven Sisters star teaching
Her western telling opens with seven hunters who meet the sisters under a tree and guide them. Watch at 11:45
Sisters story because it's the beginning it's the beginning of everything and that's why every tribe must know that
Trudy, Seven Sisters star teaching
She treats this one story as the start of the culture, so every group is expected to know it. Watch at 16:06
Video by 4biddenknowledge Podcast Network. Watch on YouTube.