Djang'kawu

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(Redirected from
Djanggawul
)

The Djang'kawu, also spelt Djanggawul or Djan'kawu, are

Dhuwa
.

Background

The Djanggawul/Djang'kawu myth

Rirratjingu clan.[3] According to Milirrpum Marika (1983): "The base, foundation, culture, our Djang'kawu, the base of the Dhuwa moiety only, of the Dhuwa moiety and its various songs".[4]

Story

The Djang'kawu are three siblings, two female and one male, who created the landscape of Australia and covered it with

clap sticks (bilma) turned into rock formations.[4]

At a site known as Balma, high among the

ngarra ceremony, which is now one of the major ceremonies of the region.[5][4]

The story includes a meeting with

Lalawuy Bay. The siblings ask them to leave their land.[4]

The Djang'kawu continue westwards, producing more offspring which gave rise to other clans of the Dhuwa moiety.[4]

In art

A collection of bark paintings by Mawalan Marika entitled Djan'kawu story (1959) is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[6]

Major exhibition

The Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu touring exhibition, instigated by Mawalan Marika's daughter, 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.[5] 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.[7] The exhibition featured not only contemporary prints and other items, but also works produced at the Yirrkala mission in the 1930s, bark paintings dating from the 1950s, drawings in crayon commissioned by anthropologist Ronald Berndt, and the Djang'kawu digging stick, borrowed from its usual place alongside the Yirrkala bark petitions in Parliament House in Canberra. The exhibition also travelled to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin and the Western Australian Museum in Perth in late 2011 and 2012.[8]

Official recognition of significance

The significance of the story is recognised in the forthcoming (2022) assessment of Yalangbara for inclusion in the

National Heritage List or Commonwealth Heritage List.[9]

See also

  • Baijini, a mythical or historical people mentioned in the Djang'kawu songline
  • Djanggawul Fossae, a feature on the planet Pluto

References

  1. ^ Wells, A.E. (1971). This their dreaming. UQ Press, St.Lucia,Qld.
  2. ISBN 978-0-415-33022-0
    . (Originally published 1952)
  3. ^ Oliver, Douglas L. (1989). Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "The Djang'kawu ancestors". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d West, Margie (7 December 2010). "Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu". Western Australian Museum. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  6. ISBN 9780980384673
    . Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Yalangbara: Art of the Djang'kawu". National Museum of Australia. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  8. ^ Australian Government. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (1 July 2020). "Finalised Priority Assessment List for the National Heritage List for 2018-19" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
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