Bildjiwuraroiju (the elder Djang'kawu sister)
Yolngu · deity · Yolngu traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Bildjiwuraroiju is the senior of the two Djang'kawu sisters, the elder of the paired Fertility Mothers of the Dhuwa moiety. Eternally pregnant, she and her younger sister Miralaidj gave birth to the first ancestors of the Dhuwa clans at named sites among the coastal sand-dunes, such as Balma. The sisters carried the shorter, yam-shaped ganinjari digging-sticks, with which they opened waterholes. In the myth the original sacred power and the rangga emblems belonged to the women; only later did men take charge of the ceremonies. Her name is preserved in the ritual song-cycle recorded and translated by Ronald M. Berndt.
Domains
- fertility
- creation
Powers
- to give birth continually to the people of the Dhuwa clans
Epithets
- Mialk-bukmaranjiRonald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952), recording the sisters as the Fertility Mothers (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Djang'kawu (the Brother)Elder sister of the Djang'kawu Brother.Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952) (secondary)
- sibling: Miralaidj (the younger Djang'kawu sister)Elder sister of Miralaidj; the two are the paired Fertility Mothers of the Djang'kawu cycle.Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952) (secondary)
Sources
- Bildjiwuraroiju is the elder of the two Djang'kawu sisters, principal Fertility Mother of the Dhuwa moiety, who with her brother and younger sister came from Bralgu and gave birth to the first people of north-east Arnhem Land.: Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952) (secondary); W. Lloyd Warner, A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe (New York: Harper, 1937; rev. 1958) (primary)