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The Great Ancestral Being of the Nyungar

Aboriginal and Aborigine The words ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘Aborigine’ are used by the invaders to designate the indigenous people of Australia. They are seldom used by indigenous people themselves, who prefer their own words. These often simply mean ‘people’, such as Koori (south-east Australia), Nyungar (south-west Australia), Nanga (South Australia), Wonghi (Western Desert), Yolngu (Arnhem Land), Murri (south Queensland) and Yamadji (Pilbara region of Western Australia). There is no Australia-wide indigenous word for the whole people, so Aboriginal and Aborigine remain in use until such a word can be found and generally accepted.

Adno-artina the gecko lizard See Parachilna; Red ochre.

Adnyamathanha people The Adnyamathanha people are the traditional owners of the Flinders Range in South Australia. Although much of their traditional culture has been lost, or been changed drastically in response to the British invasion, a tribal revitalization programme centred on Nepabunna Aboriginal School began in 1984. The Adnyamathanha language (Yuru Ngawarla) and culture are being taught and in 1986 young Adnyamathanha people met at the Aboriginal keeping-place, Pichi Richi, in Alice Springs in central Australia, to learn about their Dreaming and associated stories.

The Adnyamathanha people are symbolized by the iga, the native orange tree (Capparis mitchellii). It is related by the elders that in the Dreaming the iga tree was a man who came from Yaramangga in Queensland. He gained a wife on his travels and engaged in battle with the mulga trees. Eventually, they settled in the Flinders Range and became the ancestors of the Adnyamathanha people.

Akngwelye See Arrernte landscape of Alice Springs.

Akurra serpent The Akurra serpent deity of the Adnyamathanha people belongs to the great corpus of snake mythology which extends across Australia. The serpent is sometimes known as the rainbow snake or serpent and the Adnyamathanha Akurra serpent is similar to our Nyungar creative ancestor, the Wagyal. Adnyamathanha elders describe it as a huge water snake with a beard, mane, scales and very sharp fangs. The Wagyal has been described to me as being a huge water snake, black in colour, with a hairy neck. In the Flinders Range, as in south-western Australia, the marks of Akurra’s passing are found all across the land. As with other serpents, Akurra is associated with the power of the shamans. Only they may go near him with impunity.

As in many other cultures, serpents are associated with water and rain. This association is brought out in the Adnyamathanha story:

Once the people were suffering from lack of food caused by a prolonged drought. They travelled to a cave in which the Akurra serpent lived and the shamans got Akurra out from his cave. They took his kidney fat and heated it to make rain by holding it over a fire and letting the melted fat fall onto the coals. A strong wind arose as the smell of the burning fat ascended into the sky. Rain clouds gathered and burst. Down came showers of rain. The creeks flooded and plant foods sprang up everywhere.

See also Rain-making.

Albert, Stephen See Baamba.

Aldebaran Aldebaran, a double star in the constellation Taurus, symbolized Gallerlek the rose-crested cockatoo for the Koori people of Victoria. In their myth he chased the female Pleiades when on Earth and followed them into the sky. Versions of this myth are found all across Australia, with the pursuer and the women identified with different beings.

Alice Springs See Adnyamathanha people; Arrernte landscape of Alice Springs; Arrernte people; Hermannsburg Mission; Molonga ceremonies.

Alinda See Death.

All-Fathers The All-Fathers, or the Great Father deities, form the basis of mythology in a number of Aboriginal communities and perhaps are a result of the influence of Christianity. They are primordial deities who are said to have come before the ancestors, although often the rainbow snake may be seen as the All-Father (or All-Mother) deity in the sense that all things stem from him or her.

All-Father deities have a number of features in common, for example each sent sons to Earth to carry out designs for humankind, to care for them and to punish evil doers. Some of these All-Father deities are: Biame, widely known throughout south-eastern Australia, and his son Daramulun (or Gayandi); Nooralie of the Murray river area and his son Gnawdenoorte; Mungan Ngour of the Kurnai community and his son Tundun.

See also All-Mothers; Creation myths.

All-Mothers The All-Mothers are similar to the All-Father deities and are often their wives or some of their wives. The most important All-Mother is Birrahgnooloo, the chief wife of Biame. Gunabibi (or Kunapipi) is another important All-Mother, whose worship is extensive in northern Australia (see Gunabibi ceremonies); another is Warramurrauungi. The great snake or rainbow snake is often seen as the mother of all things, though perhaps it should be seen to be androgynous.

See also All-Fathers; Creation myths; Gunabibi; Gunabibi ceremonies; Mudungkala.

Altair For the Koori people of Victoria, Altair, a star in the constellation Aquila, represented Bunjil, Eaglehawk, the moiety ancestor who, it seems, evolved into an All-Father deity under the influence of Christianity. The stars to each side of him were his two wives, the black swans.

Among the people of the Murray river, Altair was Totyerguil, the son of Neil-loan (Lyra), and the stars on either side were his two wives. He was killed when his mother-in-law made him fall into a waterhole. His body was recovered by Collenbitjik (the double star in Capricornus), who was his mother’s brother.

Altjeringa See Dreamtime.

Ancestral beings Ancestral beings are considered to be those Dreamtime beings who shaped the world and eventually transformed into human beings, the fauna and flora that we find today. They are the great archetypes of existence and can be contacted through dreams and ceremonies.

The Great Ancestral Being of the Nyungar people is considered to be the Wagyal, a primordial snake deity who formed everything and who is still with us.

See also All-Fathers; All-Mothers; Bandicoot ancestor; Creation myths; Dreamtime; Djanggawul and his two sisters myth; Dogs; Dreamtime; Wandjina; Walbiri creation myth; Walkabout; Women ancestral beings.

Animal behaviour Animals behaving in an unusual manner were considered by many Aboriginal communities to be the spirits of the dead or simply spirits who had possessed animal bodies in order to get close to human beings in order to harm them, though there were also friendly spirits who came in the guise of animals to warn humans of danger. These generally took the form of Dreaming (totem or moiety) animals. There are many stories of ghosts in the guise of animals.

It was widely believed that shamans could turn into animals, for example Paddy Roe, an elder and story-teller of the Broome area of Western Australia, relates the story of the shaman Mirdinan who escaped from prison by turning first into a cat, then an eaglehawk.

Antares Antares, in the constellation Scorpius, to the Wotjobaluk Kooris of Victoria represented Djuit, son of Marpean-kurrk (Arcturus), and the stars on either side were his wives.

To the Kulin Kooris, Antares was Balayang, Bunjil’s brother.

See also Totems.

Aragwal See Bundjalung nation.

Aranda people See Arrernte people.

Arcturus Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, to the Koori people was Marpean-kurrk, mother of Djuit (Antares) and Weet-kurrk (a star in Bootes). Marpean-kurrk was the ancestral being who introduced the larvae of the wood-ant as a food. During August and September, when they were in season for the Kooris, they were out of season for her and she was not visible in the sky. When Arcturus was in the north in the evening, the larvae were coming into season. When the star set with the sun (in the west), the larvae were finished and summer had begun.

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land in the far north of Australia is the home of the Yolngu people. Much of it was once a government reserve for Aboriginal people and, as it was away from the main areas of British influence, the Aboriginal culture there maintained strong links with tradition. Since the Northern Territory Land Rights Act of 1976, much of the reserve has reverted to Aboriginal control.

See also Barama and Laindjung myths; Bark paintings; Black; Bralgu; Death; Dhambidj song series of Arnhem Land; Djanggawul mythology and ceremonies; Djanggawul and his two sisters myth; Duwa moiety; Fire; Great Mother; Ground carvings and sculptures; Gunabibi; Hollow log coffins; Honey; Luma Luma the giant; Marwai; Mimi spirits; Morning Star song series; Nara; North-eastern Arnhem Land; Red ochre; Rom ceremony of Arnhem Land; Thunder Man; Wangarr; Yellow ochre; Yiritja; Yothu Yindi; Yuendumu.

Arrernte landscape of Alice Springs Alice Springs in central Australia in the country of the Mparntwe group of the Arrernte people is an example of how the Aboriginal landscape of Australia continues to endure under the buildings of a modem city.

Alice Springs is situated on a flat area surrounded by bluffs, two of which are Anzac Hill and Annie Meyer Hill. From the top of Anzac Hill to the south the Todd river passes through the city area to Ntaripe (Heavitree Gap), while eastwards there is a dip in the Heavitree Range called Anthwerrke (Emily Gap). This is the sacred djang place where the caterpillar ancestors of Mparntwe originated. It was they who formed the landscape around Alice Springs. There were three species of caterpillar, Yepereny, Ntyarika and Utnerrengatyre, which can still be found, though because of the city enclosing their djang sites, the increase ceremonies to keep up their numbers have been abandoned. The caterpillar ancestors came from Anthwerrke and created the small ridge, Ntyarlkarle Tyaneme, behind the Desert Palms Motel. Unfortunately, this sacred ridge has been desecrated by the municipal authorities and the road, Barrett Drive, has been renamed Broken Promise Drive by the Arrernte people of Mparntwe to remind them of what happens when the sacred gets in the way of progress.

Ntaripe has other sacred sites, including one sacred to the Dog ancestor, here called Akngwelye, who formed most of the features of the Mt Gillen range. The Dog fought a major battle here before transforming into a boulder embedded in the ground near Akeyulerre (Billy Goat Hill). This boulder now sits outside the entrance to a fast food outlet.

Within the Olive Pink Flora Reserve, towards the south-eastern end of the hill, near Lhere Mparntwe (Todd river), is a sign indicating the location of several Arrernte sacred places. The Arrernte people are striving to protect them in the face of determined opposition. from those who wish to exploit the area for tourism. The traditional owner of the area, Thomas Stevens, has written a book about the effects of British colonization on his country called Damaging our Dreaming Land, published by the Yipirinya School Literacy Production Centre in central Australia.

See also Arrernte people.

Arrernte people The Arrernte (Aranda or Arunta) people are a large community speaking a number of dialects whose country is centred about Alice Springs in central Australia. The western Arrernte groups were concentrated in the Hermannsburg Mission, which was founded in 1877 by German missionaries. Although they fostered the use of the Arrernte language, they were against Arrernte spirituality and exorcized the main keeping-place of sacred objects (tjuringa) at Manangananga cave, two kilometres north of the mission, in 1928. They conducted a Christian ceremony at this sacred place, which until then was forbidden to all but initiated men. This resulted in the disintegration for some time of Arrernte spirituality. Tjuringa were sold to tourists and sacred songs to anthropologists at a shilling a time. In the mid-1950s, however, there occurred a tribal revitalization movement which saw the resacralization of Manangananga cave. The elders of the Arrernte considered the devastating scurvy epidemic which swept the mission in 1929 to be the result of the earlier sacrilege. By the 1970s the sale of tjuringa and songs was at an end.

See also Arrernte landscape of Alice Springs.

Arta-wararlpanha (Mount Serie) Arta-wararlpanha in the Flinders Range is a sacred place of the Adnyamathanha people. In the Dreamtime it is said that it was created by two snakes. Two rocky points are said to be their heads. Arta-wararlpanha was one of the last areas of the Adnyamathanha people to hold out against the invaders and the ritual masters who led the resistance at the turn of the nineteenth century are buried there.

Arunta people See Arrernte people.

Assimilation policy The assimilation policy was formulated by the government in the 1930s to forcibly integrate Aboriginal people into the mainstream society of Australia. In order to do this, children were taken away from their parents and placed in institutions. This policy made many Aborigines alien to their own culture and traditions and it has only been since 1967, when the policy was officially abandoned, that the persons belonging to what we call ‘the stolen generations’ have been relinking to their heritage without government interference.

See also Namatjira, Albert; Papunya.

Aurora Australis The Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, according to the Kurnai Koori people of Victoria, is a sign of anger from the All-Father Mungan Ngour. A myth explains why. When Mungan Ngour laid down the rules for the initiation of boys into manhood, he placed his son Tundun in charge of the secret men’s ceremonies. Someone divulged them to the women and Mungan Ngour became angry and a time of great chaos ensued in which people ran amok, killing one another, and the seas rushed in, flooding much of the land. This ended the Dreaming period and after this Tundun and his wife became porpoises. The All-Father ascended into the sky, and if his laws and customs are disregarded he shows his anger by lighting up the sky at night.

Australian indigenous mythology Australian indigenous mythology serves many purposes and is land and people based. The mythology is encoded in stories which are handed down and if the stories are detached from the land and people, then the story is being changed to reflect other concerns.

The indigenous mythology gives the history of important places. The stories account for the origins of natural phenomena: they relate how natural features of the landscape were created; how species were created; the origins of stars, mountains, rocky outcrops, waterholes and minerals. Mythology accounts for things as they are. The mythological stories are also maps – it is through story, song and sacred objects (tjuringa) that the country of a people or community is mapped and the boundaries kept in mind. Mythology is also a way of passing geographical knowledge from generation to generation, thus where the thumping kangaroo first thumped there is limestone; the goanna is associated with sandy outcrops; the kingfisher with coal; the pigeon with gold; and the crested pigeon with grinding stones. It must be emphasized that often when we talk of animals, we are also referring back to the Dreaming ancestor from which they evolved and which they still symbolize. It is from such Dreaming ancestors that all the laws and the social organization of particular communities come. It is when this connection is lost that these stories become simple tales – ‘How the echidna got its spikes’ and so on. The mythology encoded in the stories is much more important that this.

Stories record the boundaries of tribal countries, and when the story or song line stops, that is the boundary. It is not that the travels of the Dreaming ancestors stopped, but that another community has custodianship of the next section of the journey and thus ownership of a particular tract of country.

Stories also contain blueprints for special rituals: for rainmaking, saving sick children from death, the customs for widowhood, initiation and so on and so forth. Without the mythological sanction of a story or a corpus of stories and song lines, customs and laws have no legality. Where Aboriginal traditional culture is upheld and the stories known by the community, they provide guidelines for living. They focus on social relationships and moral values and their preservation for social well-being: what was done in the Dreaming by the ancestors is to be done now. Mythology also embodies warnings for those who break the rules, gives courage in times of adversity and is a focus of community identity. A particular community has its own corpus of stories and these give social cohesion and identity. When these stories and songs extend beyond the particular community, such as the great myth circles like the Seven Sisters, the Two Men and the Melatji dogs, they unite all those communities having the same Dreaming ancestors or cultural heroes. This intertribal or intercommunity identification is stressed at the important ceremonies, such as the man-making ceremonies in which many separate communities participate.

Australites Australites are small stones which have fallen from the sky world and thus have magical healing properties which are utilized by shamans for curing aches and pains such as toothache. It is said that if they are thrown into running water, they will return to their homes, the place where they were found.

Auwa Auwa is the Wik Munggan people’s name for a djang or sacred place.

Aversion countries See Taboo countries.

Awabakal people The Awabakal people owned the area around the town of Newcastle in New South Wales. As with many of the peoples along the eastern seaboard, their culture has been drastically modernized, with many of the old traditions changing to accommodate the way of life which came in with the invasion, through tribal revitalization movements keep aspects of the ancient customs alive.

Ayer’s Rock See Uluru.