Min Wuka (the Flying-fox Ancestor)
Wik Mungkan · deity · Wik Mungkan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Min Wuka is the flying-fox (fruit-bat), one of the Wik-Mungkan pulwaiya, the ancestral totemic forebears of western Cape York. Its myth, recorded by Ursula McConnel from the narrator Kuworpita, belongs to the body of totemic-ancestor stories in which each species-forebear inaugurates a clan cult and an increase-site (auwa). As with the other pulwaiya, the flying-fox is honoured as an independent clan totem.
Domains
- flying foxes
Powers
- to multiply its species at the totemic increase-site
Epithets
- pulwaiyaMcConnel, Ursula H. 'The Wik-Munkan Tribe of Cape York Peninsula.' Oceania 1, no. 1 (1930): 97-104; no. 2 (1930): 181-205. (secondary)
Sources
- Min Wuka, the flying-fox, is a named Wik-Mungkan totemic ancestor whose myth was recorded by Ursula McConnel from the narrator Kuworpita.: McConnel, Ursula H. Myths of the Munkan. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1957. (secondary); South Australian Museum, AA 191 Ursula Hope McConnel Collection, Series AA 191/12 'Texts, mostly in Wik-Mungkan. Part One', item AA 191/12/32, 'Myth of the Flying-fox (Min Wuka)', recorded from Kuworpita. (primary)