Extract from "Astronomy and Other Seasons."

Pyerdeennme

This term has two distinct meanings. It also refers to a person who visited from the Pyerdeenme (black streak in the milkyway) to tell the Ancestors about the death of Palaway.

It is possible that Pyerdeenme was the name of the person who walked along the black streak in the milkyway, and is not just the name of the black streak at all. There is a short story that refers to both the Pyerdeenme and the Lawway Teeny. It is incomplete, and there are obvious aspects missing, but all the same, it is an interesting saga.

Long long ago when the land was very young Pyerdeenme walked for a long long time along the Lawway Teeny, or the white of the milkyway. It took a long long time until he reached the small island at the bottom of the Ocean called Trowena. Trowena is the Traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal People's name for Tasmania. After he arrived at Trowena he went down to the sea. For many days Pyerdeenme searched and searched until he found the Traditional People, and then after calling a great corroboree he spoke to the People and told them that Palaway and/or Parlevar were dead.

This is only a fragment of an obviously more detailed story. It is not recorded who exactly Pyerdeenme referred to as having died, or why it was so important that a sky person had to make such a very long special trip to the Tasmanian People, who lived in another galaxy so far away, just to tell them of the death or deaths of people who died in the Pormener (milkyway). The Ancestors obviously knew who Palaway/Parlevar was, and why it was so important for them to know they had died. They would also have known where and when in their history this meeting took place. They would have exactly where in the milkyway Pyerdeenme started his journey.

This story implies that Pyerdeenme traveled through space for a considerable length of time until he reached Tasmania where he continued to travel through to travel through the air until he reached the land. He then walked until he reached the coast and found the Ancestors. The great corroboree would have been a massive gathering of numerous if not all the Kinship Groups to tell them his news. Perhaps Palaway and/or Parlevar were the wives that were taken to the stars after they were brought back to life by the sting of the blue ants.

The full story and details of the information he is trying to share might never be known, but even as a fragment it still offers food for thought as to the extent of the knowledge that was known about the stars.

Footnote: The story of the blue ants is in the book "Traditional Aquaculture Methods" page 58. Manuta Puggalugglia Publishers 1999 ISBN 1 876260 13 0

"Beerger and Pineerner as seen in the southern night sky"