Aboriginal Australian TraditionsAncestral Being of the Waters (Kulin)
Pallian
Also known as Palian, Balayang (in some records)
- the waters: rivers, creeks, and billabongs (Kulin)
- the making of the first women
In Kulin tellings, Bunjil's brother, who had charge of the waters and who, beating the water with his hands, brought forth the first women.
About Pallian
Bunjil's brother
Pallian appears in Kulin creation stories as Bunjil's brother, who was given charge of the rivers, creeks, and billabongs. In a telling shared publicly by a Wadawurrung Elder, after Bunjil had made the first men, Pallian began to thump the water with his hands until the water took the shape of two women, who became the first women. Similar accounts were recorded in the nineteenth century in colonial Victoria.
Names and records
Colonial sources spell his name in several ways, and some associate the name Balayang, and the bat, with Bunjil's brother; whether these are the same figure in every Kulin tradition is not clear from the published records, and this site follows the public Kulin tellings in calling him Pallian.
Why he matters
Pallian's story makes creation a shared work between brothers, one with the land and one with the water, and it grounds the relationship between men and women in the first acts of making. Like Bunjil's story, it belongs to the Kulin nations, whose own tellings take precedence over any summary here.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Pallian
This site does not describe ceremonies, sacred sites, or practices associated with this figure. Only the publicly shared story is summarised here; custodianship of the story belongs to the people named, and their own tellings take precedence.
Family
Pallian's family at a glance
- Who are Pallian's siblings?
- Siblings of Pallian recorded in the atlas: Bunjil.
In the atlas
Where Pallian appears
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Wadawurrung Elder Bryon Powell's telling of the Kulin creation, shared by the National Wool Museum, Geelong
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.
Family relationships come from the atlas's kinship records. Ancient sources often disagree on divine genealogy.
Genealogy
Family tree
Pallian's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.