Wawalag

The Wawalag sisters, also written as Wauwaluk Wawilak Waggilak, Wagilag, or Wawalik, are ancestral creator beings whose story is part of widespread sacred rituals in the Aboriginal culture from Arnhem land, Northern Territory, Australia.

The story takes place in Dreamtime, a period of time in Aboriginal belief where ancestral beings created the land as well as the social and linguistic structures in it. The sisters are said to have helped draw linguistic and social differences amongst the clans in Arnhem Land, but the ceremonies associated with their stories create cultural unity.

According to the story, the sisters were travelling to the Arafura Sea, but had to stop as the elder sister was about to have a baby and needed to rest. Later on, the elder sister goes in the river to bathe with her child and the smell of afterbirth blood awakens Yulunggur, the Rainbow Serpent, who then comes out of its waterhole and swallows both sisters and the baby.

An understanding of a common narrative was developed through field-research by archaeologists such as Catherine Berndt, Lloyd Warner, and Ronald Berndt during the mid-1990s. Since then there has been an increase in the representation of the story through Aboriginal artwork that attempts to show the complexity of the story, and how it cannot be limited to the western idea of chronological storytelling.

Narrative

The story of the Wawalag (Wauwaluk, Wawilak, Wagilag, Wawalik) The story varies across the different linguistic regions in Arnhem land, but they all share a similar pattern that explains the origins of the Djungguwan, Gunabibi and Ulmark rituals, three sacred ceremonies associated with fertility, marriage and age-grading.

An understanding of a common narrative was developed through field-research by archaeologists such as Catherine Berndt, Lloyd Warner and Ronald Berndt during the mid-1990s.

The myth tends to be told as a group of related events rather than a continuous narrative that follows a linear structure.

The storyline

It is said that the sisters were travelling from the south of Arnhem Land to the Arafura Sea, walking only through territory of Dua moiety. The serpent removes a rock that was lying at the bottom of the well and throws it onto the land, the well starts filling up with more water and the land begins to flood.

After swallowing the sisters and the baby, Yurlunggur and other totemic snakes gather together to tell one another what they had eaten. In some versions of the story, there is a strong focus on the pregnancy being a result of an incestuous relationship between the elder sister and a Dua clansmen; while they may not be directly related, they share the same moiety, which is why the act is frowned upon. The story of the sisters embody what the clans consider their religious law and it is traditionally told through paintings, sculptures, song and dance cycles. It was curated by Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady. Artists represented in the exhibition included:

Mawalan Marika, prominent artist and senior member of the Rirratjingu clan, who was also custodian of Djang'kawu stories and ceremonies
Ramingining artist Philip Gudthaykudthay (aka "Pussycat")

Narrative

The storyline

See also

References

Further reading