Featherfoot
A featherfoot or Kadaitcha man is a type of shaman or sorcerer in Australian Aboriginal spirituality. A featherfoot is usually a bad spirit who kills people. In most traditional Aboriginal beliefs, there is no such thing as a natural death. Every death is caused by evil spirits or spells. It is usually because of an enemy, who wants revenge for something.
A featherfoot is so named because they are believed to have supernatural powers, including the ability to fly and move inter-dimensionally when threatened as means of escape. He wears special shoes made of feathers (usually emu) and hair, stuck together with human blood. Scholars say that the shoes leave no tracks (footprints).
The Kadaitcha follow tribal law. They do not kill random people, only those who have broken traditional customs. They use a pointing bone, a form of spiritual weapon, and when someone has had the bone pointed at them, it weakens them, and the Kadaitcha will then track that person down and punish them.[1]
The Noongar people in the south-west of Western Australia have a local scary story to tell at night. When the featherfoot is hunting you, it waits until you are alone or in a small group at night walking to a destination. The person or the group will start to get a sense of foreboding, followed by a strong sense they are being followed. It is said that the person can usually smell burning emu feathers. The featherfoot is close behind, following. Its steps are silent and do not leave tracks. The only way to survive a feathfoot attack is to never look behind you until you get back to a light source. Keep walking and don’t look back, when the person looks behind them is when it attacks. Often the reason the spirit will follow and attack someone is because they have committed a crime, or something as heinous or evil. All that is said to be left behind after an attack is a single large unknown bird feather and a small amount of the victims blood.
One has been witnessed to live in the Western Australia, in the Albany and Narrikup region, where many animal remains are also found near its lair in bushland. It is said to be threatened by dogs.
Featherfoot Media
Aluridja men using a pointing bone
Kurdaitcha shoes displayed in the Northampton Museum
