Barnumbirr (the Morning Star)
Yolngu · deity · Yolngu traditional religion; continuing · deity
Barnumbirr (also Banumbirr) is the Yolngu name for the planet Venus seen as the Morning Star, and the creator-spirit she embodies. Rising before dawn over Bralgu, the island of the dead, she guided the Djang'kawu ancestors across the Arafura Sea to the mainland near Yalangbara; she then flew across the land from east to west, naming and creating the animals, plants and features of the country and laying down a songline. She is said to trail a faint rope of light behind her that keeps her from ever moving far from the sun. In the Morning Star (Banumbirr) mortuary ceremony the Yolngu use a richly decorated, feathered Morning Star Pole to send the spirits of the dead and messages along this string to the ancestors on Baralku.
Domains
- stars and planets
- death and the dead
Powers
- to guide travellers across the sea by her light before dawn
- to carry messages between the living and the dead on Baralku along her trailing string
Epithets
- Banumbirr
Relations
- guide of: Djang'kawu (the Brother)