Bila (also occasionally rendered Belah) is the personification of the Sun among the Adnyamathanha people. She is a solar goddess, as befitting the general trends among Australian aboriginal peoples, which largely perceive the Sun as female.Jennifer Isaacs (2005). Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History. New South Wales: New Holland. p. 142. .
Bila is said to be a cannibal, roasting her victims over a fire, the origin of sunlight. To do this, she sent black and red dogs to drag her victims, resulting even in an entire village being slaughtered. In a myth, the Lizard Men Kudnu ("Goanna") and Muda ("gecko") were appalled by these acts and attacked, prompting her to flee and cast the world in darkness. He then used a boomerang, catching her and making her move in a slow arc across the sky as it returned, it illuminating the world. For this act of heroism, lizards like goannas and geckos are respected by the Adnyamathanha.Patricia Montley, In Nature's Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 2005Patricia Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, New World Library, 01/04/2014
A similar, albeit likely unrelated, myth occurs in Woodlark Island.
See also List of solar deities
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