Djanggawul cycle
The Djanggawul cycle is a significant cultural narrative among Aboriginal Australians, particularly within the Millingimbi region. This epic song cycle consists of 188 songs that recount the journeys of three ancestral beings: the sisters Bildjiwuaroju and Miralaldu, and their brother Djanggawul. These beings, considered children of the Sun, play a crucial role in teaching humanity essential skills such as hunting and gathering during the time known as Dreamtime. The cycle details their travels across the land, during which they named various plants, animals, and places, thereby shaping the landscape and creating the different clans.
Through these songs, the Djanggawul cycle not only narrates the creation of the world but also explores the relationships and power dynamics between genders, highlighting the vital role of women in the Dreaming and the origin of power. Each clan holds knowledge of specific segments of the cycle, which are shared at communal gatherings to ensure the continuity of their cultural heritage. The cycle serves as a profound reminder of the interconnectedness of land, identity, and ancestral knowledge in Aboriginal culture.
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Djanggawul cycle
Related civilizations: Australian Aborigine, Yolngu.
Date: possibly as old as 50,000 b.c.e.
Locale: Oceania document of the Bawinanga region, Arhhem Land, northern coastal Australia
Djanggawul cycle
The Djanggawul song cycle tells the story of three ancestral beings and their travels through the Millingimbi region. Made up of 188 songs, it chronicles how three children of the Sun, the two sisters Bildjiwuaroju and Miralaldu (who taught human beings to hunt and gather in Dreamtime), and the brother Djanggawul fertilized the ancient landscape with their dreamings and brought the world into being by naming the plants, animals, and places they crossed over.
These narratives of the Aboriginal Australians are primarily about land, the journeys of the Ancestors to creation sites where they created the different clans and animals and plants, battles for power and knowledge among them, and the ritual journeys of the totems that represent each clan. Individual songs, usually acted out, dealing with one or two totems (like Native American totems) associated with a specific area, may constitute a song cycle. Each clan knows only a song cycle segment, and these are exchanged at meeting points to maintain the continuity of dreaming, creation, time, space, and human life.
Besides covering the mythic fertilizing and creation of the world, the cycle clarifies and defines the nature and meaning of relationships between men and women and their respective powers and knowledge, making it clear that the original source of all power in the Dreaming comes from, and through, the women.
Bibliography
Isaacs, Jennifer. Australian Dreaming: Forty Thousand Years of Aboriginal History. Sydney: Lansdowne Press, 1980.
Narogin, Mudrooroo. The Indigenous Literature of Australia: Milli Milli Wangka. South Melbourne, Australia: Hyland House, 1997.