Banaitja- Aboriginal Australian GodDeity

Furnishing the Islands

Mudungkala had crawled across the land and the sea rose behind her, separating Bathurst and Melville Islands from the mainland. But she left bare islands. Life had not yet come to them.

Banaitja arrived during the Palaneri, the Tiwi creation period. He moved across the new land and gave it shape: hills along the coast, forests inland with freshwater springs that still sustain the islands. He set the animals in their places and the seasons in their cycle. He laid down the laws that would govern Tiwi society and established the ceremonial grounds that remain the spiritual centres of Tiwi life. Other ancestral beings moved across the islands during the Palaneri too, each shaping part of the world, but Banaitja gave the islands the bones of what they are.

Father of Purukupali

Banaitja is named as the father of Purukupali, and through Purukupali, death entered the world. Purukupali's infant son Jinini died while in the care of his wife Bima, who had left the child unattended to be with Japara the moon man. Purukupali's grief turned to rage. Japara offered to restore the child to life, but Purukupali refused. He decreed that death would be permanent for all living things, picked up Jinini's body, and walked backward into the sea. The waters closed over them both.