Miralaidj (the younger Djang'kawu sister)
Yolngu · deity · Yolngu traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Miralaidj is the junior of the two Djang'kawu sisters and, with her elder sister Bildjiwuraroiju, one of the paired Fertility Mothers of the Dhuwa moiety. She shared in the journey from Bralgu, the bearing of the first Dhuwa people, and the opening of fresh-water wells with the ganinjari digging-stick. Her name is recorded in the Djanggawul song-cycle transcribed and translated by Ronald M. Berndt; the two sisters together embody the original ownership of the sacred law by women.
Domains
- fertility
Powers
- to open fresh-water wells with the sacred digging-stick
Epithets
- MiralaidjRonald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: Djang'kawu (the Brother)Younger sister of the Djang'kawu Brother.Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952) (secondary)
- sibling: Bildjiwuraroiju (the elder Djang'kawu sister)Younger sister of Bildjiwuraroiju; the two are the paired Fertility Mothers of the Djang'kawu cycle.Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul (1952) (secondary)
Sources
- Miralaidj is the younger of the two Djang'kawu sisters, a Fertility Mother of the Dhuwa moiety who, with her brother and elder sister, came from Bralgu and bore the first ancestors of north-east Arnhem Land.: Ronald M. Berndt, Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952) (secondary); Ronald M. Berndt & Catherine H. Berndt, The World of the First Australians (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964) (secondary)