Dewallewal, the law-breaking ancestor

Dewallewal, also recorded as Diwaldiwal, Dewalewul and Dhual-dhual, is the uncle of Gin-Gin and the third of the founding Lardil ancestors who came from the west to settle the Wellesley Islands. Having travelled to Turtle Island, he returned to camp early to find Gin-Gin alone and seduced her; when Marnbil discovered them he speared Dewallewal, whose spinning death-throes raised the circle of earth that became the first Bora or ceremonial ground. Dewallewal then rose into the sky and chose to die, cursing Marnbil, Gin-Gin and their descendants to mortality. His transgression and death are the charter both for Lardil marriage law and for the origin of human death; his mineralised remains are counted among the sharp rocks of a reef off Mornington Island.

Domains

• origin of death
• ceremonial ground

Powers

• to raise the first ceremonial ground in his spinning death-throes
• to curse the people to mortality as he rises into the sky and dies

Epithets

• Dhual-dhualDavid McKnight, People, Countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of Classification among the Lardil of Mornington Island (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). (secondary)

Relations

• lover: Gin-Gin, wife of MarnbilDewallewal seduces his niece Gin-Gin while her husband Marnbil is away, the transgression that leads to his death and the origin of mortality.Dick Roughsey (Goobalathaldin), The Rainbow Serpent (Sydney: William Collins, 1975). (secondary)

Sources

• Dewallewal (Diwaldiwal, Dhual-dhual) is the uncle of Gin-Gin and one of the three founding Lardil ancestors, whose seduction of his niece and subsequent killing by Marnbil raise the first ceremonial ground and bring mortality upon the people.: David McKnight, People, Countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of Classification among the Lardil of Mornington Island (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). (secondary); Dick Roughsey (Goobalathaldin), The Rainbow Serpent (Sydney: William Collins, 1975). (secondary)