Lardil · deity · Lardil traditional religion; continuing · deity
Nyaranbi is the Dingo ancestor of Lardil tradition on Mornington Island (Kunhanhaa) in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In the creative era of the Dreaming, Nyaranbi acted alongside the Rainbow Serpent Thuwathu as a law-giving totemic ancestor, establishing the customary laws, ceremonies, totemic affiliations, kinship arrangements and land- and sea-country story places that continue to govern Lardil conduct toward one another and toward their country.
Domains
customary law
kinship system
totemism
Powers
to lay down customary law and ceremony
to institute the totemic and kinship order
Sources
McKnight, David. People, Countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of Classification among the Lardil of Mornington Island. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Memmott, Paul. Lardil Properties of Place: An Ethnological Study in Man-Environment Relations. PhD thesis, University of Queensland, 1979.