Spirit Children- Aboriginal Australian ConceptConcept
Also known as: Rai and Ratapa
Description
In Aboriginal tradition, every human birth begins with a spirit entering a woman's body from a sacred place in the landscape: a waterhole, a rock, a tree where ancestral beings deposited life-spirits during the Dreamtime. The father learns which spirit has come through a dream, and from that dream the child's totem, country, and place in the world are known.
Mythology & Lore
How a Life Begins
In Aboriginal traditions across much of the continent, pregnancy is not merely biological. A preexisting spirit, waiting at a particular place in the landscape, must enter a woman's body for new life to begin. These spirit children dwell in waterholes and rock formations where ancestral beings deposited them during the Dreamtime. They may enter a woman who passes nearby, or slip into her body through food gathered from the water. A fish caught at a sacred pool may carry the spirit within it.
The father's role is to recognize what has happened. In a dream, the spirit reveals itself, showing where it came from: which waterhole, which sacred site. From the place of origin, the father deduces the child's conception totem. A child whose spirit entered from a kangaroo dreaming site carries kangaroo as its totem. One from an emu site belongs to the emu. Before the child is born, the place where the spirit waited has already determined its identity.
Spirits in the Landscape
In the Kimberley, the Wanjina cloud spirits and the rainbow serpent Ungud work together in this process. The Wanjina's life-spirits descend from the clouds to live in water. Ungud, the serpentine creative force dwelling in the deep pools, generates and distributes spirit children through the waterholes. The father's dream reveals which Wanjina or which aspect of Ungud sent the child.
Among the Arrernte of central Australia, spirit children are known as ratapa, deposited at specific sites along Dreaming tracks by the ancestors who traveled the country. Each site holds its own store of waiting spirits, and the landscape is populated with places of potential new life.