The Tiwi people (or Tunuvivi[lower-alpha 1]) 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 48 kilometres (30mi) from Darwin. The Tiwi language is a language isolate, with no apparent link to the languages of Arnhem Land on the Australian mainland. Their society is based on matrilineal descent, and marriage plays a very important part in many aspects of their lives. Art and music form an intrinsic part of their societal and spiritual rituals. The Stolen Generations saw many Indigenous people brought to the Tiwi Islands who were not of direct Tiwi descent.
Tiwi, the most polysynthetic of all Australian languages,[1] is a language isolate with no apparent genetic link to the contiguous languages of Arnhem Land on the Australian mainland.[lower-alpha 2]
The Tunuvivi people held sway over some 8,000 square kilometres (3,100sqmi) of land on Melville and Bathurst islands.[2] The Tiwi Islands lie about 80 kilometres (50mi) from Darwin, with Melville and Bathurst Islands comprising about 8,344 square kilometres (3,222sqmi) of land. There are two large inhabited islands, Melville and Bathurst, originally called Ratuwati Yinjara (meaning "two islands"), and many smaller uninhabited islands. Most of the smaller islands lie close to Melville and Bathurst, but Kulangana (South West Vernon Island) is less than 5 kilometres (3.1mi) from the Australian mainland coast. The Tiwi Islands are now part of the Northern Territory of Australia.[3]
Dutch explorers landed on Melville Island in 1705, but did not colonise it then nor in succeeding voyages. After a failed attempt by the British in 1824, it was not settled by Europeans until the arrival of German missionaries in 1911. The Stolen Generations saw many Indigenous people brought to the Tiwi Islands who were not of direct Tiwi descent.[4]
Kinship
The Tiwi come from a matrilineal descent group, which the Tiwi call "skin". This group of "skin" believe pregnancy comes from spirits. The Tiwi believe these spirits are unborn, coming from bodies of water. This traditional belief system from the Tiwi explains how the man has no physical role in birth, but a male's role is to find a spirit and uncover it, so that it is sent to the wife.[5] The kin clan must be the same for the spirit as the wife. All Tiwi members have a general kinship to each other. This is separated into "close" and "far away" kinship which refers to the distance geographically between the Tiwi people. A band unit which is smaller only rely on somebody's sex or marriage. This means people such as mother, father, or husband are considered your close kin.[6] Smaller units of bands that are dependent through one sex or one marriage only. Any person within this emblem are considered your close kin: Like mother, father, sister, & brother.[7] With this said, acceptance into Tiwi society is often very loose, with traditional Tiwi members naming newcomers in the society as "son" and "daughter."[8] This is known as a "far away" kinship where other races were often still considered as outsiders to traditional Tiwi people.[9]
Marriage
Marriage roles of the Tiwi plays an important role for economic, social and political status. The Tiwi consider marriage as a very important aspect of their livelihoods, as almost all people get married, especially women. Tiwi culture places great emphasis on the importance of marriage in women's lives. Since both the men and women come from a matrilineal descent group, wives descent group is important. Remarriage of a widow is common for the traditional Tiwi, which allows the less promising hunters to be married. This is because widows have to remarry quickly, which had to be immediately after the husband dies. A marriage occurs at a gravesite of the previous husband.[10] Since the more promising husbands are usually claimed, older women often end up with younger, less experienced men.[11]
Tiwi Islands, 2005.
Bestowal is often used in the Tiwi culture, which is the main way of receiving young wives. Successful men, usually older men often had many wives, even up to 20 for very promising husbands.[12] Men younger than 30 often had fewer or no wives. In traditional Tiwi culture, ages 30–40 were the most likely to be married to widows.[13] Older women had great importance in the society, mainly because the necessity of food in Tiwi society. The older woman know all the gathering skills, making food not be a problem for the household. On the other hand, less experienced woman created problems for the household, as they have less food. Younger women often were like apprentices, learning all the possible ways of gathering from older women to please their husband or household.[14] Even though this traditional marriage culture is still very prevalent in modern Tiwi culture, marriage has changed juristically recently because of Catholic missionaries beginning to settle on Tiwi land after 1945. According to culture sketches, the power dynamic of men and women both had their advantages. While men had a lot more political power, women were well respected for their gathering skills to provide food and favors.[15]
Hunting for food is still an important part of Tiwi life. On land, they hunt for wallaby, lizards, possums, carpet snakes, pig, buffalo, flying foxes, bandicoot, turtle and seagull eggs and magpie geese. From the sea they hunt for turtle, crocodiles, dugong and fish.[16]
Dancing, or yoi as they call it, is a part of everyday life. Tiwi inherit their totemic dance, evocative of the dreamtime and which defines their spiritual identity[17] from their father. Narrative dances are performed to depict everyday life or historical events. The land on both islands is heavily forested.
Culture
Ceiling of a Tiwi Island art gallery and studio, 2011.
Art
Compared with Arnhem Land art, Tiwi art often appears to be abstract and geometric. With its strong patterns and use of colour, Tiwi art is considered very attractive and highly collectible. Tiwi art is used to tell stories, and the hatch patterns represent friendships within the community. Many art experts worldwide have studied Tiwi art and have analysed the meaning of Tiwi symbols. Tiwi art forms an integral part of the oral tradition passing on history and wisdom through generations. English is taught at schools as a second language, and the Tiwi communicate principally in their own language. When in mourning, it is part of their beliefs to paint their body and express their love for who has passed through music, art and dance. Painting has been practised for thousands of years as a part of ceremonies and the Tiwi totem poles are famous and have been sold all over the world. Tiwi use natural ochre pigments. They make these colours from natural pigment in the earth. When a person dies their name becomes taboo. For many years as the spirit returns to the land, you cannot say the name of the person. When the Tiwis are using their remarkable knowledge to find food in the bush, they never take the mothers or the baby animals. This shows their respect for the land and knowledge of how to conserve the environment.
Music
Music has formed an integral part, of all aspects of life on the Tiwi islands, being centered around the Tiwi initiation ceremony, kulama (yam), and the innovative use of song on such occasions is now at risk given the weakening of the customary rituals that engendered its creativity.[18]
The Tiwi people sing songs about the land which have been handed down through the generations. They sing about many aspects of their lives, including hunting, cooking, family, animals, plants and the Australian outback. Some of these songs have been recorded and archived. There was a performance of Tiwi women singing recently in different important venues in Australia. The Tiwi "strong women's group" are currently working on a collaborative project to conserve their music. Research has led to a revival of some of the old songs. As these songs have been sung for thousands of years, it is with the strictest sensitivity that this research must be carried out.
The music of the Tiwi women "strong women's group" is being preserved and revived currently on Bathurst and Melville island.
Yiloga (Australian rules football)[19] has become an important part of Tiwi culture[20] and is by far the most popular sport.[21] The Tiwi Islands Football League (TIFL) is the main league and the TIFL Grand Final is the largest event on the island, attracting up to 3,000 spectators, equivalent to the entire Tiwi population.[22] The Tiwi have their own semi-professional Northern Territory Football League club, the Tiwi Bombers.[23] Tiwis have been enormously successful in the national fully professional Australian Football League, with around a third of the Territorians playing in the league coming from the two islands.[24]
↑ Norman Tindale wrote: 'The name Tiwi was coined for the convenience of anthropologists and others, it means "We, the only people"; the late Father E. A. Worms gave me Tunuvivi as the ancient and proper name.' (Tindale 1974, p.236)
↑ With one exception (a Torrers Strait group) Tiwi is defined as "the most divergent language in the Australian linguistic area." (Dixon 2002, p.251)
Melville Island is an island in the eastern Timor Sea, off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. Along with Bathurst Island and nine smaller uninhabited islands, it forms part of the group known as the Tiwi Islands, which are under the jurisdiction of the Northern Territory in association with the Tiwi Land Council as the regional authority.
Bathurst Island is one of the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory off the northern coast of Australia along with Melville Island.
The Tiwi Islands are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, 80 km (50 mi) to the north of Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Bathurst Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands, with a combined area of 8,320 square kilometres (3,212 sq mi).
Tiwi is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Tiwi people on the Tiwi Islands, within sight of the coast of northern Australia. It is one of about 10% of Australian languages still being frequently learned by children.
The Tiwi Islands Football League is an Australian rules football competition in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia.
Australian Football in the Northern Territory is the most popular sport, particularly with indigenous Australian communities in Darwin, Alice Springs and the Tiwi Islands. It is governed by AFL Northern Territory.
Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Richmond in the Victorian Football League.
Fort Dundas was a short-lived British settlement on Melville Island between 1824 and 1828 in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia. It was the first of four British settlement attempts in northern Australia before Goyder's survey and establishment of Palmerston, now known as Darwin. The three later attempts were at Fort Wellington, Port Essington and Escape Cliffs.
The Rioli family are a notable Australian rules football family from the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory.
The Burarra people, also referred to as the Gidjingali, are an Aboriginal Australian people in and around Maningrida, in the heart of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Opinions have differed as to whether the two names represent different tribal realities, with the Gidjingali treated as the same as, or as a subgroup of the Burarra, or as an independent tribal grouping. For the purposes of this encyclopedia, the two are registered differently, though the ethnographic materials on both may overlap with each other.
Wurrumiyanga, formerly Nguiu, is a community on the southern coast of Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia.
The Kunwinjku people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer to themselves as "Bininj" in much the same way that Yolŋu people refer to themselves as "Yolŋu".
The Tiwi Land Council is a land council in the Northern Territory of Australia established in 1978 to represent Aboriginal Australians living on the Tiwi Islands.
Fly Tiwi is an Australian airline based in Darwin, Northern Territory, offering scheduled passenger services between the Northern Territory capital and communities located on the Tiwi, South Goulburn and Croker islands, as well as a number of remote Arnhem Land communities. The company is wholly owned by the Hardy Aviation group, Australia's largest general aviation company and was founded in 2008 in association with the Tiwi Land Council and now operates over 60 flights per week between 10 destinations.
Pirlangimpi, formerly Garden Point, is a populated place on Melville Island in the Northern Territory, Australia.
The Mutumui were an indigenous Australian people of northern Queensland.
The Walmbaria are an indigenous Australian people of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.
The Tjial were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory who are now extinct.
The Iwaidja are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Maria Josette Orsto was an aboriginal artist born at Pirlangimpi, on Melville Island. Her father, Declan Apuatimi, and her mother, Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, were also noted aboriginal artists from the Tiwi Islands. Orsto was one of the first female members of Tiwi Designs. Prior to her death she worked and lived at Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island.
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