{{Short description|Yolngu Aboriginal Australian creation myth}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2020}} The '''Djang'kawu''', also spelt '''Djanggawul''' or '''Djan'kawu''', are creation ancestors in the mythology of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the most important stories in Aboriginal Australian mythology, and concerns the moiety known as Dhuwa.
==Background== The Djanggawul/Djang'kawu myth<ref>{{cite book| author = Wells, A.E. | title =This their dreaming | year =1971 | publisher= UQ Press, St.Lucia, Qld}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| author =Berndt, Ronald M. |author-link= Ronald Berndt | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=a3WrtxazTRkC| title =Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land | publisher =Routledge | year =2004 | page =1 | isbn =978-0-415-33022-0 }} (Originally published 1952)</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book| author = Oliver, Douglas L. | title = Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands |year=1989 | publisher= University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu }}</ref> 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".<ref name=nmaancestors>{{cite web | title=The Djang'kawu ancestors | website=National Museum of Australia | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yalangbara/djangkawu-ancestors | access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref>
==Story== The Djang'kawu 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 (Burralku) in the east at night-time, guided by the Morning Star (the planet Venus), landing at Yalangbara.<ref name=wam/> The sisters, Bitjiwurrurru and Madalatj,<ref name=nmaancestors/> 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.<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> Their clap sticks (''bilma'') turned into rock formations.<ref name=nmaancestors/>
At a site known as Balma, high among the sand dunes, the Djang'kawu sisters gave birth to the first of the Rirratjingu clan, and performed the first ngarra ceremony, which is now one of the major ceremonies of the region.<ref name=wam/><ref name=nmaancestors/>
The story includes a meeting with Makassans (''Bayini'') cooking trepang (''dharripa'') on the island of Wapilina in Lalawuy Bay. The siblings ask them to leave their land.<ref name=nmaancestors/>
The Djang'kawu continue westwards, producing more offspring which gave rise to other clans of the Dhuwa moiety.<ref name=nmaancestors/>
==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.<ref name="Art Gallery of NSW">{{cite web | title=Works from the collective title Djan'kawu story | website=Art Gallery of NSW | url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?group_accession=IA64.1959%20-%20IA68.1959 | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref>
===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.<ref name=wam/> 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.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |last2=West |first2=Margie |title=Yalangbara : art of the Djang'kawu |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Darwin University Press |location=Darwin, N.T. |isbn=9780980384673 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8ZdPgAACAAJ | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | title=Yalangbara: Art of the Djang'kawu | website=National Museum of Australia | date=29 July 2019 | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yalangbara | access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref>
A film called ''In Memory of Mawalan'', made in 1971 by Ian Dunlop and released in 1983, was screened along with the exhibition. The background to the film is the Djang'kawu story that laid out the law for the people, which was ignored when the government gave permission for a bauxite mining company to start developing operations in east Arnhem Land. The battle for land rights by the people of Yirrkala mission led to the Yirrkala bark petitions in 1963 and then the Gove Land Rights Case in 1971, which ruled against them. The film is of a special ceremony organised by Wandjuk Marika to honour his father Mawalan Marika, who had been a co-creator and signatory of the Yirrkala bark petitions<ref name=mawalan>{{cite web | title=In Memory of Malawan presented by Ian Dunlop|first1= Ian | last1 =Dunlop| first2 = Pip | last2 =Deveson | first3 = Peter | last3 =Thorley | publisher=National Museum of Australia | date=1 January 2018 | url=https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/uncategorised/in-memory-of-malawan-presented-by-ian-dunlop/transcripts/in-memory-of-malawan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251223235458/https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/uncategorised/in-memory-of-malawan-presented-by-ian-dunlop/transcripts/in-memory-of-malawan | archive-date=23 December 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=23 December 2025| quote=Ian Dunlop, Pip Deveson and Dr Peter Thorley, 5 August 2011... This is an edited transcript typed from an audio recording... Date published: 01 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=In Memory of Mawalan | website=NFSA Online Shop | url=https://shop.nfsa.gov.au/in-memory-of-mawalan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250806022809/https://shop.nfsa.gov.au/in-memory-of-mawalan | archive-date=6 August 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
==Official recognition of significance== The significance of the story was recognised in the assessment of Yalangbara for inclusion in the National Heritage List or Commonwealth Heritage List, submitted in the 2018–2019 assessment list, due for completion by 30 June 2022.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/8ac00639-6069-454e-a191-e6b8a3eed9a2/files/fpal-nhl-2018-19.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419154815/http://environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/8ac00639-6069-454e-a191-e6b8a3eed9a2/files/fpal-nhl-2018-19.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-19 |url-status=live| title= Finalised Priority Assessment List for the National Heritage List for 2018-19| author=Australian Government. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment| date= 1 July 2020| access-date=20 July 2021}}</ref> {{as of|December 2025}} it is not on either list.<ref>{{cite web | title=Australia's National Heritage List | website=DCCEEW | date=5 December 2025 | url=https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/national-heritage-list | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251121124542/https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/places/national-heritage-list | archive-date=21 November 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Australian Heritage Database | website=Home - DCCEEW | url=https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=search_results;list_code=CHL;legal_status=35 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250510180201/https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=search_results;list_code=CHL;legal_status=35 | archive-date=10 May 2025 | url-status=live | access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
==See also== * Baijini, a mythical or historical people mentioned in the Djang'kawu songline * Djanggawul Fossae, a feature on the planet Pluto * Yirrkala Church Panels, a 1963 artwork which features the story of Djan'kawu
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Australian Aboriginal deities Category:Creator deities Category:Nature deities Category:Sky and weather deities Category:Underworld deities Category:Yolngu