Bima

Tiwi · quartigod · Tiwi traditional religion; continuing · quartigod

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.

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