The Yawkyawk is a female creature originating in the mythology of the Kunwinjku people of Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.
It is also known as ngal-kunburriyaymi. [1]
It is a creature similar to the typical mermaid in appearance, and has seaweed for hair. Seaweed that floats up to the water's surface is said, by Aboriginal people, to come from the head of a Yawkyawk.
While this creature's normal form has the upper body of a humanoid female, and the lower part of a fish, it is also capable of shapeshifting. Among its favoured forms are that of a crocodile, dragonfly, snake or swordfish.
Another power the Yawkyawk was believed to possess includes the ability to manipulate the weather, such as bringing nourishing rain, or sending storms on those who make them angry.
With the abilities these spirits possess, some people claim that they are the daughters and/or female counterparts (and thus wives) of the Rainbow Serpent Creator god, Ngalyod.
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument, played with continuously vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,500 years ago, and is now in use around the world, though still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music. The Yolŋu name for the instrument is the yiḏaki, or more recently by some, mandapul; in the Bininj Kunwok language of West Arnhem Land it is known as mako.
Echidnas, sometimes known as spiny anteaters, belong to the family Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the only surviving members of the order Monotremata. The diet of some species consists of ants and termites, but they are not closely related to the true anteaters of the Americas, which are xenarthrans, along with sloths and armadillos. Echidnas live in Australia and New Guinea.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Mamaragan or Namarrkon is a lightning god who speaks with thunder as his voice. He rides a storm-cloud and throws lightning bolts to humans and trees. He lives in a puddle.
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km (106 mi) southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site.
The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as a creator god, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages, and a common motif in the art and religion of Aboriginal Australia. Not all of the myths of the ancestral being link a rainbow with the snake and not all describe the being as a snake, but there is usually a link with water or rain. Some scholars have suggested that the link between the two suggests the cycle of the seasons, for example blue (winter), red (summer), yellow (spring) and orange (autumn), and the importance of water in human life. When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent moving from one waterhole to another and the divine concept explained why some waterholes never dried up when drought struck.
Terminalia ferdinandiana, also called the gubinge, billygoat plum, Kakadu plum, green plum, salty plum, murunga or mador, is a flowering plant in the family Combretaceae, native to Australia, widespread throughout the tropical woodlands from northwestern Australia to eastern Arnhem Land. It has a high concentration of vitamin C in its fruit: recorded concentrations of 2300–3150 mg/100 g wet weight and occasionally as high as 5300 mg/100 g, compared with 50 mg/100 g for oranges, ranks among the highest known of any natural source.
Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, with part of the region in the Kakadu National Park. It is an Important Bird Area (IBA), lying to the east of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains IBA. It also contains mineral deposits, especially uranium, and the Ranger Uranium Mine is located there. The area is also rich in Australian Aboriginal art, with 1500 sites. The Kakadu National Park is one of the few World Heritage sites on the list because of both its natural and human heritage values. They were explored by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King in 1820, who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles in the estuaries were alligators.
Ficus virens is a plant of the genus Ficus found in India, southeast Asia, through Malaysia and into Northern Australia. Its common name is white fig; it is locally known as pilkhan and in the Kunwinjku language it is called manbornde. Like many figs, its fruits are edible. One of the most famous specimens of this tree is the Curtain Fig Tree of the Atherton Tableland, near Cairns, a popular tourist attraction.
Bininj Gun-Wok is an Australian Aboriginal language group which includes six dialects: Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi, Manyallaluk Mayali (Mayali), Kundedjnjenghmi, and two varieties of Kune. Kunwinjku is the dominant dialect, and also sometimes used to refer to the group.
Acrochordus arafurae is an aquatic snake species found in northern Australia and New Guinea. No subspecies are currently recognized.
The Oenpelli python, known in binomial nomenclature as Nawaran oenpelliensis, or Morelia oenpelliensis, is a species of large snake in the family Pythonidae. The species is endemic to the sandstone massif area of the western Arnhem Land region in the Northern Territory of Australia. There are no subspecies that are recognised as being valid. It has been called the rarest python in the world. Two notable characteristics of the species are the unusually large size of its eggs and its ability to change colour.
The fawn antechinus is a species of small carnivorous marsupial found in northern Australia. It is the only Antechinus to be found in the Northern Territory and has a patchy, restricted range. Kunwinjku of western Arnhem Land call this animal Mulbu, as they do many rodents. The spelling is given as Mulbbu on the Bininj Kunwok website
The agile wallaby also known as the sandy wallaby, is a species of wallaby found in northern Australia and New Guinea. It is the most common wallaby in Australia's north. The agile wallaby is a sandy colour, becoming paler below. It is sometimes solitary and at other times sociable and grazes on grasses and other plants. The agile wallaby is not considered threatened.
The black wallaroo, also known as Bernard's wallaroo or Woodward's wallaroo, is a species of macropod restricted to a small, mountainous area in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, between South Alligator River and Nabarlek. It classified as near threatened, mostly due to its limited distribution. A large proportion of the range is protected by Kakadu National Park.
The northern brushtail possum is a nocturnal marsupial inhabiting northern Australia. The northern brushtail possum is sometimes considered a species, however more often than not is considered a subspecies of the common brushtail possum.
The Gunwinggu (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".
Gunbarlang, or Kunbarlang, is an Australian Aboriginal language in northern Australia with multiple dialects. Other names are Gungalang and Warlang. Speakers are multilingual in Kunwinjku and Mawng. Most of the Gunbarlang people now speak Kunwinjku.
A hollow log coffin is a type of coffin used by the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, Australia. It consists of a tree trunk hollowed out by termites and painted by a clan member of the deceased, with the bones placed inside. Hollow log coffins are also known as dupun, lorrkkon, djalumbu, badurru, mudukundja, mululu, and larajeje in Aboriginal languages.
The Goomadeer River is a river in the Northern Territory, Australia.
The Bininj are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. The sub-groups of Bininj are sometimes referred to by the various language dialects spoken in the region, that is, the group of dialects known as Bininj Gun-Wok; so the people may be named Gunwinggu, the Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi (Gundjeihmi), Manyallaluk Mayali, Kundedjnjenghmi and Kune groups. In addition, there are clan groups such as the Mirrar who are prominent in matters relating to looking after the traditional lands.