Tjapara, the Moon-man
Tjapara, the Moon-man, is the younger maternal brother of Purukupali and, like him, a child of the creator Mudungkala. It was Tjapara who seduced his brother's wife Bima and led her into the bush, leaving the infant Jinani to die in the sun and so setting in motion the coming of death. When Purukupali found the dead child, Tjapara offered to restore him to life in three days, but the grieving father refused and attacked him with club and spears. Wounded, Tjapara fled upward into the sky and became the Moon; the dark patches on the lunar disc are his bruises and the scar above his eye. The regeneration he had vainly offered the dead child he keeps for himself alone, for the Moon dies and is reborn month after month, the chief Tiwi emblem of the cyclical renewal that mortals were denied.
Parentage
Domains
- the moon
- regeneration and revival
Powers
- to offer to bring the dead child back to life after three days
- to die and return to life each month as the waxing and waning Moon
Epithets
- Japarra
Relations
- sibling: Purukupali
- enemy: Purukupali
- lover: Bima
- sibling: Wuriupranala, the Sun-woman
- sibling: Murupiangkala, the second Sun-woman
Sources
- Mountford, C.P. (1958). The Tiwi: Their Art, Myth and Ceremony. London: Phoenix House.
- 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.
- Hamacher, D.W. & Banks, K. (2018). Twin Suns in Australian Aboriginal Traditions. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 21(2&3), 107-114.