The Wawalag sisters, also written as Wauwaluk Wawilak Waggilak, Wagilag, or Wawalik, are ancestral

creator being A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of Monolatris ...

s whose story is part of "the most widespread" sacred rituals in the

Aboriginal culture Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are empha ...

from

Arnhem land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, Australia. Their story takes place in

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...

, a period of time in Aboriginal belief where ancestral beings created the land as well as the social and linguistic structures in it. The sisters are said to have helped draw linguistic and social differences amongst the clans in Arnhem Land, but the ceremonies associated with their stories create cultural unity. According to the story, the sisters were travelling to the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

, but had to stop as the elder sister was about to have a baby and needed to rest. Later on, the elder sister goes in the river to bathe with her child and the smell of afterbirth blood awakens

Yulunggur The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...

, the Rainbow Serpent, who then comes out of its waterhole and swallows both sisters and the baby. A study guide to accompany The story varies across the different linguistic regions in Arnhem land, but they all share a similar pattern that explains the origins of the Djungguwan, Gunabibi and Ulmark rituals, three sacred ceremonies associated with

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

, marriage and age-grading. During these ceremonies each clan reveals more details about their version of the story through songs, dances and paintings; but access to these rituals is usually limited to initiated

Dua In Islam, ( ar, دعاء , plural: ' ) is a prayer of invocation, supplication or request, even asking help or assistance from God. Role in Islam Muslims regard this as a profound act of worship. Muhammad is reported to have said ...

males only.Film Australia, 2006. Background Material. Ceremony– The Djungguwan of Northeast Arnhem Land. nlineFilm Australia National Interest Program. Available at: <http://filmaustraliaceremony.com.au/pdf/background.pdf> An understanding of a common narrative was developed through field-research by archaeologists such as

Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt, ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994), born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University o ...

Lloyd Warner William Lloyd Warner (October 26, 1898 – May 23, 1970) was a pioneering anthropologist and sociologist noted for applying the techniques of British functionalism to understanding American culture. Background William Lloyd Warner was born in ...

and

Ronald Berndt Ronald Murray Berndt (14 July 1916 – 2 May 1990) was an Australian social anthropologist who, in 1963, became the inaugural professor of anthropology at the University of Western Australia. He and his wife Catherine Berndt maintained a close ...

during the mid-1990s. Since then there has been an increase in the representation of the story through Aboriginal artwork that attempts to show the complexity of the story, and how it cannot be limited to the western idea of chronological storytelling.

Characteristics and associations

The sisters were from

Ngukurr Ngukurr ( , ), formerly Roper River Mission (1908−1968), is a remote Aboriginal community on the banks of the Roper River in southern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. A number of different clans and language groups are represented in the tow ...

and they were part of the Wawalak clan which belongs to the Dua

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

, one of the many

Australian Aboriginal kinship Aboriginal Australian kinship comprises the systems of Aboriginal customary law governing social interaction relating to kinship in traditional Aboriginal cultures. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Aust ...

groups of the Yolngu people. Most commonly, the elder sister, ''Waimariwi'', is pregnant while the younger one, ''Boaliri'', is going through early puberty. In other versions, the younger sister is pregnant while the elder sister already has a baby that is around two to three years old. It is unclear what gender the baby is as it is addressed as both male and female. They were creation beings who travelled through Arnhem Land performing song and dance cycles that revealed, for the first time, the names of the places they were walking through and the plants and animals they gathered along the way. Because of this, they are associated with the development of moieties and language in Arnhem Land.

Moieties

The myth is closely associated with the importance of moieties and the avoidance practices that go along with them. In Arnhem Land, the Yolngu clans are divided into two moieties, Dua, also known as Dhuwa, and Yirritja. According to the story, the sisters only travel through Dua territory, meaning that everything they encountered also share the same moiety. In some versions of the story, there is a strong focus on the pregnancy being a result of an

incestuous Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

relationship between the elder sister and a Dua clansmen; while they may not be directly related, they share the same moiety, which is why the act is frowned upon. When the baby is born, the sisters encounter for the first time something that does not belong to the Dhua moiety, as children take the opposite moiety from their mother's, making the baby Yirritja. Similarly, the Rainbow Serpent swallowing the sisters is also seen as an act of incest, as the serpent is also of Dua moiety. While it is unclear if Yulunggur, the serpent, is male or female because it is often referred to as both, the encounter between he/she and the sisters is often interpreted as a symbolism of sex.

Language

The story is also associated with the origin of linguistic differences in Arnhem Land. During their journey, the sisters were singing and naming the different plants and animals they were gathering as well as the territories they were passing through. They do this by using a range of dialects including Djaun, Rainbarngo, Djimba, Wawilak, and Liaalaomir. The emergence of linguistic differences is mainly addressed at the end of the story, when Yulunggur gathers with the other totemic serpents and realises that they speak different dialects.

Narrative

The myth tends to be told as a group of related events rather than a continuous narrative that follows a linear structure.1966-1972. ''Field Museum Of Natural History Bulletin''. ulletinUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, biodiversity, fieldiana. Chicago. https://archive.org/details/bulletin43fiel/page/n1/mode/2up It is said that the sisters were travelling from the south of Arnhem Land to the

, walking only through territory of Dua moiety. They gathered plants and animals along the way to prepare and eat later. They stop to rest and set camp near the Mirrirmina waterhole where the elder sister gives birth. While the younger sister prepared a fire to cook the food they had gathered, the elder sister takes the baby near the water to bathe him. Some of the residual afterbirth blood goes in the waterhole where

Yurlunggur ''Yurlunggur'' is a genus of fossil snake in the extinct family Madtsoiidae. This genus was a part of the extinct megafauna of Australia, and contains the species ''Yurlunggur camfieldensis''. ''Y. camfieldensis'' was a large apex predator t ...

, the rainbow serpent, resides and attracts its attention. The food the younger sister was preparing comes back to life and crawls away from the fire and into the waterhole. The serpent removes a rock that was lying at the bottom of the well and throws it onto the land, the well starts filling up with more water and the land begins to flood. A dark cloud forms on top of where the sisters had set camp and a thunderstorm begins. Unaware that it was the snake causing the

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

and the

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing, they build a

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

to protect themselves. When the sisters see Yurlunggur crawl out of its waterhole, they start singing the sacred songs, which are now part of the Djungguan, Ulmark, and Gunabibi ceremonies, in an attempt to keep the snake away. They continue to sing and dance, taking turns until the storm appears to ease, exhausted the sister seek refuge in the hut where they fall asleep. The serpent enters the hut and swallows both sisters and the baby, then it rises up to the sky and proceeds to finish singing the songs the sister were singing. After swallowing the sisters and the baby, Yurlunggur and other totemic snakes gather together to tell one another what they had eaten. The snakes realise that they were not speaking the same dialect but despite this they could still communicate using the sacred songs. At first, Yulunggur tries to hide that he/she had eaten the sisters and their baby but he/she, feeling unwell, admits the truth and regurgitates them. The serpent swallows and regurgitates them again, and the third time he/she swallows them and takes them back to Wawilak country where he spits out the two sisters which then turn to stone

Regional Variations

Each clan of Dua moiety has its own version of the story as the songs, dances and painting used to tell the story changes according to the relationship the ancestral beings had with the clan’s land. The most common differences amongst the various interpretations are the places in which the sisters camped and the combination of plants and animals they gathered along the way. This is determined by the geographical location of a clan as these details are often changed to make it more relatable to their context by using the animals and territory they are familiar with. The group of events that each clan has access to or ownership of also varies, meaning that the more clans a person is affiliated to, the more knowledge about the story they will have. People affiliated to the Marrakulu clan country, for example, have knowledge that focuses on the journey of the sisters from Nilitji to Guaka'wuy, where it is said that they encounter the first ancestral people of Australia, also known as Djuwany people.

Role in traditional culture

The story of the sisters embody what the clans consider their

religious law Religious law includes ethical and moral codes taught by religious traditions. Different religious systems hold sacred law in a greater or lesser degree of importance to their belief systems, with some being explicitly antinomian whereas others ...

and it is traditionally told through paintings, sculptures, song and dance cycles. These sacred laws, also referred to as ''madayin,'' are specific to each clan and they are taught during three

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

. Because of the sacred nature of these rituals, there is a restricted access to them and a limited understanding of the knowledge shared during them. Djungguwan is considered the initiation ritual when young boys from the Dua moiety are

circumcised Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...

and introduced to the cultural laws of their clan through the story of the sisters. In the narrative, the gender of the babies is ambiguous, sometimes they are referred to as sons or daughters, because they are yet to be circumcised. The removal of the foreskin marks the separation of what is considered the 'female part of male infants' Dua men and women come together to perform dance and

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

s which represent the snake awakening when it smelled the blood and exited the waterhole to make its way to the sisters’

. In 1966 footage of the ceremony was captured, parts of the ritual were not shown as they are only accessible for those taking part in the ritual or initiated Dua men. Gunabibi is a

ritual that is done during dry season; the song and dance cycles focus on recreating the part of the story where the land was flooding because of the rain. The transition from dry season to wet is often seen as a symbol of fertility in the story, making this the main focus of this ritual. For weeks, both men and women perform together non-sacred songs until the

bullroarer The bullroarer, ''rhombus'', or ''turndun'', is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances. It consists of a piece of wood attached to a string, which when swung in a large circle ...

is turned, representing the voice of Yurlunggur. Ulmark ceremony, also known as Ngurlmak, is the final ceremony and while it involves other myths, it "re-emphasizes the fertility elements and the bisexual symbolism already present in the first two" ceremonies. These rituals belong to the Dhua moiety which means that the clans affiliated to it are the owners and custodians of the knowledge shared during them. However, clans of the Yirritja moiety are involved during some parts of these rituals

Totems and Paintings

During these rituals, wooden sculptures and

bark painting Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land (especially among the Yolngu peoples) and other regions in the Top ...

s are used as mnemonic devices to tell parts of the story and or represent the sisters. Some of these objects are considered sacred and can only be accessed and made by a select group of men. What limits how public the display of these objects can be is the ceremonial context not the design itself. The process behind making the wood-cravings is lengthy, a lot of detail goes into the

totem A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the wo ...

ic painting as the specific pattern and colours used is what symbolises the connection with the ancestral being. These painted designs can be used and adapted to other media, such as bark painting,

sand sculpture Sand art is the practice of modelling sand into an artistic form, such as sand brushing, sand sculpting, sand painting, or creating sand bottles. A sandcastle is a type of sand sculpture resembling a miniature building, often a castle. The dr ...

body painting Body painting is a form of body art where artwork is painted directly onto the human skin. Unlike tattoos and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, lasting several hours or sometimes up to a few weeks (in the case of mehndi or "h ...

, etc. Because the story varies among clans depending on their geographical origin, the design used also changes to fit their interpretation.

Sacred Sites

Some of the locations mentioned in the story are considered ceremonial grounds while others have become

sacred sites Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...

that cannot be visited. For example, the Mirrimina waterhole, which is where the sisters last camped before being swallowed by the serpent, can only be visited by elder clansmen. The Liaalaomir, Gunabibi and Ulmark dancing grounds, which according to the story were made by the impact of Yurlunggur falling sick to the ground after swallowing the sisters and their babies, are considered sacred territory where ceremonies are held.

Modern art and representation

In more recent years there has been a shift in the way knowledge about the story is shared, making it more accessible to people outside of the indigenous community from Arnhem land, creating a better understanding of aboriginal culture. There are still strong restrictions as to what type of knowledge can be shared, the design and patterns used in the artistic representation of the story require pre-existing knowledge of the context to be fully understood, this helps maintain certain aspects private. Artists will often accompany their work with a brief description of the story but will avoid going into detail to respect the parts of the story that are considered sacred. One of the biggest demonstrations of this movement was the exhibition ''The painters of the Wagilag Sisters 1937-1997'', which was a collection of the work of more than 100 Aboriginal artists.