To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe)
of Tama-rereti. The front and back of the canoe
are Orion and Scorpius, while the Southern Cross
and the Pointers are the anchor and rope.

According to legend, when Tama-rereti
took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself
far from home as night was falling.
There were no stars at this time and in the
darkness the Taniwha would attack and eat people.
So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe
along the river that emptied into the heavens
(to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles
from the lake shore into the sky. The sky god,
Ranginui, was pleased by this action
and placed the canoe into the sky
as a reminder of how the stars were made.

The slight bulge of the Milky Way
around Scorpius is also sometimes
pictured as a whale.

The Kaurna Aboriginal People
of the Adelaide Plains in South Australia
see the band of the Milky Way as a river
in the skyworld. They called it Wodliparri
(wodli = hut, house, parri = river)
and believe that positioned along
the river are a number of dwellings.
In addition, the dark patches mark
the dwelling place of a
dangerous creature known as a yura;
the Kaurna call these patches Yurakauwe,
which literally means "monster water."
Moreover, Aboriginal Groups
from the Cape York region of
Queensland see the band of light as
termites that had been blown into the sky
by the ancestral hero Burbuk Boon.
Further south the band of stars that
comprise the Milky Way are seen
as thousands of flying foxes carrying
away a dancer known as Purupriggie.

In addition, the Aranda who come
from central Australia see the band
of the Milky Way as a river or creek
in the skyworld. This stellar river
separates the two great camps of the
Aranda and Luritja People. The stars
to the east of this river represent the
camps of the Aranda and the stars to
the west represent Luritja encampments
and some stars closer to the band
represent a mixture of both.