This
boomerang Dreaming was painted in 1983 by Paddy japaljarri Sims, a
walpiri man, as one of the series of Yuendumu School doors, now part of
the south Australian Museum collection. The english translation of his
explanation of this painting was published in a book of the Doors
painting.

The old men carved their boomerang in preparation for
battle.They were Dreamtime men and they sat carving boomerangs so that
they could go and attack other old men. The old men went and chopped
down a tree. They brought the roughly hewn piece of wood back home to
carve it into fine boomerangs. They made a great number of these big
splendid boomerangs. First they tried out one boomerang. It flew
through the air, turned around and came back to them. "It's a good one
! This is a good boomerang which has come back true" It was an
excellent boomerang which flew through the air, went right around and
come back to the person who had thrown it. They threw another small
one. It spun around and came back to its owner. They were ready to do
battle and so they tested out their boomerangs. I 'll throw this one
well. right on the target. it's a good, accurate boomerang. Indeed, it
flew through the air, swept around and came back to the starting point.
All the old men watched it. Then the fight started. They went after
each other with axes. They went a long way south. At the place where
they started fighting there are now rocky hills. They threw boomerangs
at each other; they fought with axes and boomerangs.
After having fought with the axes they buried them in the ground. At
the place where they buried them there is now a big rockhole. There are
many rockholes there, formed from those axes which the old dreaming men
buried at that place. There is also a high sandhill which is called
Kankarlarra. There is water there. The weapons of the dreaming turned
into Desert oaks which now grow in that sandhill country. The dreaming
men who fought at that place were Japaljarris and Japangardis. Those
old men turned into birds-falcons and kites. This is a true story of
what happened in the dreamtime. The story belongs to me and i have
painted it here.
The axes which those old men made were all wrong: they were crroked and
bent. And when they made the boomerangs they threw one which travelled
to another place where it fell down and became a soakage. It travelled
a long way. When the old men gathered to fight each other, they stormed
forward in ranks and they were very big men who had difficulty running.
They swayed from side to side. All the young men sat and watched the
old men fight each other. "Oh, look at those poor old men. They are
hurling boomerangs at each other".
The old men hit each with boomerangs and as they were struck they
turned into birds and flew away into the air- they turned into all
sorts of birds like falcons, kites, hawks. They are the birds which
still fly in our skies today.