Djang'kawu
The Djanggawul, also spelt Djang'kawu or Djan'kawu, are creation ancestors in the mythology of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.
They are three siblings, two female and one male, who created the landscape of Australia and covered it with flora and fauna. They came by canoe from the island of Baralku, landing at Yalangbara. The sisters were the custodians of ceremonial law, and carried with them their digging sticks, feathered headwear and sacred objects hidden in their basket and mats. The objects changed into various landforms along their route, and they created freshwater wells at Yalangbara by plunging their digging sticks into the sand, after which the digging sticks turned into a variety of plant species.[1]
The Djan'kawu were eventually eaten by Galeru. The two female Djanggawul made the world's sacred talismans by breaking off pieces of their vulvas. They included Bunbulama, a rain goddess.[citation needed]
The Djanggawul myth[2][3] specifically concerned the Dua (Dhuwa) moiety of people, including about a third of the clans that lived in north-east Arnhem Land. The humans born of the two sisters are the ancestors of the Rirratjingu clan.[4][1]
The mythology was staged in early contact times by the Dua during several days of dancing, singing, and the manipulation of sacred emblems, on a stage of man-made holes and earth sculpture. The other moiety of the region, the Yirritja (or Yiritja), also participated in the dramatisation of the Djanggawul myth, although some of the rites were accessible only to initiated Dua males. Oliver, following R. Berndt (1952), suggests that the Djanggawul cycle is a dramatic enactment of Arnhem Land's monsoon cycle, which shaped Aboriginal food procurement activities.(1989:169)[citation needed]
The Yalangbara: art of the Djang’kawu touring exhibition, instigated by artist Banduk Marika and developed with the assistance of other family members and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at Darwin, opened at the National Museum of Australia from 7 December 2010. This was the first major survey exhibition of the Marikas' work, and covers around 50 named sites in the Yalangbara peninsula that were traversed by the Djang’kawu journey.[1] It followed a 2008 monograph of the same name, edited by Margie West and produced in partnership with Banduk Marika and other members of the family.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b c West, Margie (7 December 2010). "Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu". Western Australian Museum. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
- ^ Wells, A.E. (1971). This their dreaming. UQ Press, St.Lucia,Qld.
- ^ Berndt, Ronald M. (2004). Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-33022-0. (Originally published 1952)
- ^ Oliver, Douglas L. (1989). Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
- ^ Marika, Banduk; West, Margie (2008). Yalangbara : art of the Djang'kawu. Darwin, N.T.: Charles Darwin University Press. ISBN 9780980384673. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
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