The religion of Native Australians or Aboriginals includes the unique concept of the Dreamtime or the Dreaming, a time in which the acts of mythic ancestors helped to create and unify the world. Dreamtime, though encompassing mythic stories that took place in the deep past, is not seen as being over, rather it exists simultaneous to and in parallel with historical time. The energies and powers present at the point of creation still exist in Dreamtime. Though Aboriginal conceptions of the Dreaming are similar in structure, different communities developed their own mythical culture. Here is how artist Nina Ludwina Puruntatameri describes the myth behind her painting The Goddess and the Moonman Deaming. Consider, as we continue through this chapter on Dream Time (and others) how different cultures and historical epochs thought about the nature of dream time in relation to the seconds, hours, years and centuries of waking life.

I have painted our creational story of the Goddess and the Moonman that happened in the Dreamtime”

Design story explanation: The Dreamtime story of the Goddess and the Moonman is a central creational story in Tiwi cosmology. One of the central persons in the story was Tokampini, who was a witness to creation, seen as a messenger, mourner and lawmaker.



Tokampini’s daughter Bima, also called the Goddess, was one day persuaded by Japara to leave her son Jinani under the shade of a tree and go into the forest with him, while her husband was out hunting. In the heat of the day Jinani died in the hot sun, which made the owls and the other birds wake up and cry. Tokampini and Purrukapali came together to the place when Purrukapali saw that his son was dead.



When the Goddess Bima heard Tokampini and Purrukapali cry, she tried to get out of the forest, but her way was blocked by angry birds that said to her she had brought death to all creatures. Tokampini started chanting “shame, shame and death.” In fear and shame Bima ran back into the forest where she became Wayayi, the curlew bird that still roams the forest at night, wailing in remorse for her misdeeds and for the child that she lost.



In an effort to help the anguished father, Japara promised to restore the dead child to life within three days, but Purrukapali was adamant, and the two men soon became locked in deadly struggle. Then Purrukapali picked up the dead body of his son and walking backwards into the sea, he decreed that death should come to the whole world. As his son had died, the whole of creation would die, and once dead, never again would come to life. There was no death before this time.



The place where Purrukapali died on the East coast of Melville Island became a whirlpool so strong that anybody who approached it in a canoe would be drowned. Japara saw what happened and he changed himself into the moon. But he did not escape the decree of Purrukapali, for even though he is eternally reincarnated, he has to die for three days every month.


One can see on the face of the Moonman the wounds that he received in this fight with Purrukapali. The death of Jinani brought the creation period to a close. This event was marked by the first Pukamani burial ceremony. Tokampini, the father of Bima called all the original creators, men and women, to the ceremony.



These mythical beings were taught the rules of behaviour and the laws of marriage and tribal relationships that had always to be obeyed. Then the periods of light and darkness were established, determining the cycle of daily events. The creators transformed themselves into various creatures, plants, animals and natural forces or heavenly bodies – and spread across the Islands. They are the Tiwi totems or skin groups

Referenced by Dream Time, Chapter Two: Dream Time

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