Bima
Tiwi · quartigod · Tiwi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bima, also called Wai-ai or Wayai, is the first woman in Tiwi tradition and the unwitting cause of mortality. The wife of Purukupali and daughter of the bird-man Tokampini, she left her infant son Jinani in the shade of a tree and went into the bush with her husband's brother Tjapara, the Moon-man. Their dalliance lasted so long that the sun shifted, the shade withdrew, and the child died of the heat. For her neglect Purukupali beat her about the head with a throwing stick and banished her into the forest. Inconsolable, she wandered crying 'Wai-ai, Wai-ai' and was transformed into the bush stone-curlew of that name, whose mournful cry is still heard across Bathurst and Melville Islands at night as the everlasting voice of her remorse.
Parentage
- parent: Tokampini, the Bird
Domains
- grief and mourning
Powers
- to take the form of Wai-ai, the curlew that wails through the night
Epithets
- Wai-aiIsaacs, J. (1992). Tiwi: Art, History, Culture. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. (secondary)
Relations
- spouse: PurukupaliBima was the wife of the culture hero Purukupali and mother of their son Jinani.Mountford, C.P. (1958). The Tiwi: Their Art, Myth and Ceremony. London: Phoenix House. (secondary)
- lover: Tjapara, the Moon-manTjapara, her husband's brother, seduced Bima into the bush; their absence left Jinani to die, precipitating the coming of death.Venbrux, E. (2010). Death and regeneration: The moon in Australian Aboriginal myths of the origin of death. In W. van Binsbergen & E. Venbrux (eds.), New Perspectives on Myth. Haarlem: Shikanda. (secondary)
Sources
- Bima (Wai-ai) is the first woman of Tiwi tradition, wife of Purukupali and mother of Jinani, whose neglect during her tryst with Tjapara caused the first death and who was afterwards transformed into the wailing bush curlew.: Mountford, C.P. (1958). The Tiwi: Their Art, Myth and Ceremony. London: Phoenix House. (secondary); Isaacs, J. (1992). Tiwi: Art, History, Culture. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. (secondary); Venbrux, E. (2010). Death and regeneration: The moon in Australian Aboriginal myths of the origin of death. In W. van Binsbergen & E. Venbrux (eds.), New Perspectives on Myth. Haarlem: Shikanda. (secondary)