In the mythology of the
Tiwi people
The Tiwi people (or Tunuvivi) are one of the many Aboriginal groups of Australia. Nearly 2,000 Tiwi people live on Bathurst and Melville Islands, which make up the Tiwi Islands, lying about from Darwin. The Tiwi language is a language isola ...
of northern
Australia, the Sun Woman Wuriupranili (or Wuriunpranilli) is a
solar goddess whose
stringybark torch is the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
. When she wakes each morning in the east she lights a small fire, which mankind sees as the first glow of dawn. She then decorates her face and body with red
ochre. Often the pigment is blown into the air where it stains the clouds, resulting in a red sunrise. As Wuriupranili prepares herself for her journey across the sky the birds break into song, waking the men and women. Finally, she lights her stringybark torch from the campfire, then travels across the sky to her evening camp in the west. When she disappears below the western horizon she puts out her torch and redecorates her body with ochre, causing brilliantly-coloured sunsets. As night settles, she returns to her eastern morning camp via a tunnel.
See also
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List of solar deities
A solar deity is a deity who represents the Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this ene ...
References
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Australian Aboriginal goddesses
Solar goddesses
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