Baralku

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{use Australian English|date=July 2021}} thumb|right|Nhumuy, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory '''Baralku''', also written '''Burralku''' or '''Bralgu''', is a place connected with creation ancestors in the mythology of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is referred to as island of the dead, and the place where the ancestors known as Djanggawul (Djan'kawu) originated,<ref>{{cite book| author =Ronald M. Berndt | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=a3WrtxazTRkC| author-link= Ronald Berndt|title =Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land | publisher =Routledge | year =2004 | page =1 | isbn =978-0-415-33022-0 }}</ref> before travelling by canoe to Yalangbara, where they gave birth to the Rirratjingu clan.<ref name=wam>{{cite web | title=Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu|first=Margie |last=West | website=Western Australian Museum | date=7 December 2010 | url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/yalangbara/background-essay | access-date=17 July 2021}}</ref>

Baralku is said to lie to the east of Arnhem Land and is where Barnumbirr the creator-spirit (represented by Venus, the Morning Star in Aboriginal astronomy) as she guided the Djanggawul sisters. Barnumbirr is also said to live on the island<ref>{{cite book| author =Raymond Haynes | author2 =David Malin | author3 =Richard McGee |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=XoeiJxMmXZ8C| title =Explorers of the Southern Sky: A History of Australian Astronomy | publisher =Cambridge University Press | year =1996 | page =14 | isbn =978-0-521-36575-8 }}</ref> and rises into the sky as Venus.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Australian Aboriginal mythology Category:Mythological islands Category:Afterlife places