Waramurungundji- Aboriginal Australian GodDeity"The First Woman"

Coming from the Sea

At the beginning of the Dreamtime, Waramurungundji emerged from the sea to the northwest and stepped onto the northern coast of Australia. She arrived already carrying the means to fill an empty world: her enormous stomach held countless spirit children, and from a bamboo ring on her head hung dilly bags stuffed with yams. Her husband Wurugag traveled beside her.

As she crossed western Arnhem Land, she opened her dilly bags and scattered yams across the country, planting the food that would sustain all future generations. At each stop she deposited spirit children in waterholes and on the land. At Marpur she left boy and girl spirit children and told them to speak Iwaidja. At Muruni she did the same. Every group received its territory and its own tongue from her mouth.

What She Gave Them

Waramurungundji did not leave her children empty-handed. She transformed spirit children into fully formed people, created waterholes, and gave men spears and woomera for hunting, women dilly bags and digging sticks for gathering. She endowed them with intelligence and their senses.

The Gunwinggu know her as Waramurungundji. The Kakadu call her Imberombera. Spencer recorded the Kakadu traditions; the Berndts documented the Gunwinggu accounts. The names differ, but the story is the same: the first woman came from the sea, gave the land its people, and gave each people its language.