Images of Lightning Spirits can be found throughout Arnhem Land in caves and on rock surfaces. Some of these are sacred but can be viewed by outsiders, while others are both sacred and secret and cannot be seen by the uninitiated. The sacred site of Namarrkon, the Lightning Spirit for the Kunwinjku people living at …
Aboriginal people believe that Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent, created many sacred sites in Arnhem Land, including a large billabong near the artist’s camp high up in the Stone Country between Oenpelli and Maningrida, where he is supposed to rest in the dry season. Characteristics of Ngalyod vary from group to group and also depend on …
Towering into the sky and dominating the surrounding country, Nimbuwah is an outlier near the western Arnhem Land escarpment. Nimbuwah is a sacred site for the Kunwinjku people. In the time of nayubyungki, the First People, a tall young man named Nimbuwah came from the south, near Pine Creek, bringing with him Gularrmundidj, his widowed …
It is only recently that details of the Tingari Ancestral Beings have been revealed to outsiders, and even then many secret and sacred song and dance cycles were forbidden to be disclosed. At one time it was thought that the ceremony was for men only, but women now claim that they play a part in …
In the Dreamtime an Ancestral Being called Yingana came from Macassar across the sea to the shores of Western Arnhem Land, bearing in her body many strange creatures, half human, half/animal, bird, fish or reptile, which she deposited at various places as she wandered over the country. She had the ability, as had all Ancestral …
In the Dreamtime a man called Djanggawul, guided by the Morning Star, set out in a canoe with his two women (the trio is collectively called the Djan’kawu) and his pet goanna Djanda to cross the sea from Bralgu, the mystical Island of Spirits, to the shores of north eastern Arnhem Land. They intended to …
In the Dreamtime a group of Pintubi men went out hunting. They made camp near the secret cave site of Mitukatjirri, south-east of Kintore in the Western Desert. In the far distance they could see another camp fire and knew the people were not of their own skin group. So they sent a messenger over …
In the beginning of time magpie geese lived at a place called Gungimilawuy in central Arnhem Land. They left there to visit several other places, taking with them feathered string (marawurr) representing waterlily roots (kaliwurr) which was to be used in ceremonies. When they came to the Arafura Swamp near Ramingining they cut off a …
In the Dreamtime a man called Yirrwadbad took a young girl from a neighbouring camp as his wife, but she refused to sleep with him and ran home to her mother. Instead of sending her back to her husband, in accordance with traditional law, her mother protected her and allowed her to stay. Angry and …
There is a This practice goes back to the Dreamtime when the first hollow log was made by Muruyana, a mogwoi (spirit) with strong sexual desires, who is said to have always been chasing women. He cut down a flowering tree and hollowed it out. It was then placed in the middle of the sacred …
