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Overview
Ouyan is sent to hunt emu by his mother, a hawk whose name appears as Bleargah and Beeargah in the chapter. Unable to find one and afraid of returning to the women’s ridicule, he cuts flesh from his own legs and brings it home as meat. The women unknowingly eat it on successive days and become ill. His mother notices that it differs from emu flesh and sends the other two women to follow him. They see the source of the meat and report it.
When Ouyan returns, the women expose his wounds and beat him. His mother declares that his legs will remain long, red and without flesh. He crawls away and is never seen again as a man; a bird with long, thin legs, red beneath the feathers, subsequently appears and repeats his lament at night. The ending explicitly names this bird Ouyan. The account links bodily appearance and voice to the ordeal, rather than presenting an ordinary observed bird as a monster. The mother’s accusation of laziness is her judgment within the story; the earlier narration describes an unsuccessful hunt and fear of humiliation.
Origins & earliest records
K. Langloh Parker, Australian Legendary Tales (1896), Ouyan the Curlew. Collection preface locates the Narran-region Noongahburrah and names contributors without assigning this tale to one individual.
Records & interpretation
The published English account provides the sequence and concluding animal identification. Parker’s collected version is a historical editorial witness, not a statement of all Australian traditions.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Australian Legendary Tales: Ouyan the Curlew
Complete selected narrative; mother’s spelling varies within the hosted text. No individual narrator identified for this chapter.
Family, evolution & connections
Ouyan and his hawk mother — Parker’s account
Complete Ouyan the Curlew narrative.
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- Bleargah / Beeargah, hawk mother
Opening expressly identifies Bleargah as Ouyan’s mother. Hosted text later spells the mother Beeargah. Other camp women are not assigned kinship, and no father is supplied. The tale’s animal names and bird-form identity are not a scientific genealogy.
Bleargah, also spelled Beeargah in the hosted text
The opening explicitly calls the hawk Bleargah Ouyan’s mother; later passages spell her name Beeargah. The two other women in her camp have no stated kinship and are excluded from this family.
The later bird bearing Ouyan’s name
After the man disappears, the narrative identifies a bird by the same name and corresponding cry and red legs. This story identity does not establish a biological hawk–curlew ancestry.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical collected narrativeParker: Ouyan the CurlewResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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