The Albino Women of Amoonguna

While I was serving a mission in Australia I got to spend a lot of time out at a few Aborigine camps one was called Amoonguna. Every Monday night we were invited by Rosemary, the matron of the village, to spend Family Home Evening (FHE) with her and the rest of the women and children of Amoonguna.

Rosemary, Elder Baxter, & Regina

We would always have FHE outside around a camp fire where we would entertain the children with primary songs and simple lessons and then we would invite one of the grown-ups to share something.  One particular night one of the women named Regina told us one of her scary stories from the bushy outback.  This story she called the Legend of the Albino (she pronounced it albeeno) Women of this village. Here is her story:

“Three sisters lived in this village many years ago. They were spinsters and kept to themselves mostly.

One day they wanted to make some stew but were so poor that they needed to borrow a pot from their neighbor who happened to be the village’s witch-doctor. They were ungrateful and returned the pot without even cleaning it. This enraged the witch doctor who immediately cursed these three sisters which disfigured their bodies. They all turned ghostly white. They were unable to go out in the daytime because the sun would kill them. The worst thing about the curse was that they could never satisfy their hunger nor could they die of starvation.

The albino women moved into a cave nearby Amoonguna, and they always prowled the outback at night looking for flesh that they could consume.

Rumor has it that they kidnapped a young man who was touring around Alice Springs which is the tourist trap of a town closest to this cave. They took him to their cave but they could not eat him because he was so handsome instead they broke his legs and fed him the meals they made for him for the rest of his life.”

I heckled Regina by bursting out in laughter and saying, “Undead Albino women? What a load of hooey!” “I’m serious Elder.” Regina proclaimed “You shouldn’t tease, they might come for you.”

After I laughed at her story for a good four minutes she challenged me to go to the cave with her since she knew exactly where it was. I agreed to go with her on my next preparation day.

The following Thursday, I went with my three other missionary colleagues which included my zone leader to meet Regina at her home. We followed her car in our Toyota Tacoma about three miles east of Amoonguna, deep in the bush. She immediately pulled over on the road and led us out not even ten yards to what appeared to be three foot wide in diameter hole in the ground.  

Cave Entrance

“You see Elders now do you believe me? Here is where they live.” I peered into the hole which disappeared into darkness there was no guessing how deep it was.

“Elder Bennett,” I said, “back the Tacoma up over here and get the tow hitch.” Regina asked, “What are doing Elder?” I said “I am going  down that hole to meet the Albino Women!” “Oh Elder you are crazy!” The strange thing was that my zone leader nor my other companions were not the least bit concerned with what I was about to do. My zone leader actually had a camcorder and taped this whole ordeal. I am still trying to contact him for a copy of it. So I was lowered into the dark hole which turned out to only drop down 12 feet into a small cavern that was no bigger than small car. I had a flash light and looked for any other pathways or tunnels. There were none, the floor had a lot of garbage from people throwing litter down the hole. There were mostly empty beer bottles and cigarettes.

As everyone up above looked down at me I said “Albeeno women! Where are you? I am a handsome unsuspecting virgin that you can take and keep! What’s for dinner?”  I was laughing so hard that it angered Regina. She threw her lit cigarette at me. Elder Bennett immediately followed me down the hole with his camera to catch all of this footage.

Luckily, Regina and I were close enough friends that she didn’t hold a grudge for busting her urban legend of the Albino Women of Amoonguna. Have you ever done anything this crazy?