According to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, the word 'Bunyip,' was originated by the Wemba-Wemba people of Victoria, and is roughly translated to 'scary monster' or an 'evil spirit.
The word bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as "devil" or "evil spirit".
The word Bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as "devil" or "evil spirit" Across Aboriginal Australia there are at least nine regional variations to descriptions of the Bunyip, the most prevalent being that of a huge fearsome creature, furry, half-human half-beast with a long neck and a head ...
The Mimi are tall, thin beings that live in the rocky ridges of northern Australia as spirits. Before the coming of Aboriginal people they had human forms. When Aboriginal people first came to northern Australia, the Mimi taught them how to hunt and cook kangaroos and other animals.
In the Australian Central and Western Deserts there are roaming Ogres, Bogeymen and Bogey women, Cannibal Babies, Giant Baby-Guzzlers, Sorcerers, and spinifex and feather-slippered Spirit Beings able to dispatch victims with a single fatal garrote.
"Kaditcha is the Centralian aboriginal word of terror.
Aboriginal people in the eastern part of Australia's Western Desert tell of a soul-destroying, devouring, malignant power called Mamu. The term, often translated as “monster,” refers to both the destructive force itself and its diverse embodiments (a dog, a cat, a kangaroo, a bird, a ball of fire).
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Baayami, Baayama or Byamee) was the creator god and sky father in the Dreaming of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Guringay, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.
Aboriginal people are very religious and spiritual, but rather than praying to a single god they cannot see, each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form.
According to the beliefs of Indigenous people from central Australia and Arnhem Land, Mimi are mischievous and capricious spirits who are believed to possess mystical powers and to live forever. Mimi taught the first Indigenous people in western Arnhem Land how to hunt and paint, and are often consulted by the people.
The largest Aboriginal communities – the Pitjantjatjara, the Arrernte, the Luritja and the Warlpiri – are all from Central Australia. Throughout the history of the continent, there have been many different Aboriginal groups, each with its own individual language, culture, and belief structure.
Narahdarn is the Aboriginal god of death. Eons ago, along with the other Aboriginal gods, he was directed by Altjira to temporarily depart the Dreamtime and descend to the Australian continent within the Earth realm to shape the barren and featureless landscape.
Wisakedjak is a spirit of mischief and deception, a trickster who is featured in various creation stories. To learn more about Wisakedjak and Jordan Stranger, as well as the Indigenous Arts and Stories competition, please visit their official site.
'Mob' is a colloquial term identifying a group of Aboriginal people associated with a particular place or country. It is used to connect and identify who an Aboriginal person is and where they are from. Mob can represent your family group, clan group or wider Aboriginal community group.
Koori is a term denoting an Aboriginal person of southern New South Wales or Victoria. 'Koori' is not a synonym for 'Aboriginal'. There are many other Aboriginal groups across Australia (such as Murri, Noongar, Yolngu) with which Indigenous Australians may identify themselves.
My dad and my grandparents have taught me a bit and Mumari is a hairy creature that lives in the bush, that will follow you home and try and get you. We learn you should leave the bush before sunset otherwise Mumari can follow you home.
The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of Everywhen, during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods, as they did not control the material world and were not worshipped but only revered.
Many traditional aboriginal cultures consider death to be very natural. For many aboriginal people, a “good death” is one where they meet death with dignity and composure. Dying this way implies a further experience of an afterlife.
An Aboriginal person's soul or spirit is believed to "continue on after our physical form has passed through death", explains Eddie Kneebone. After the death of an Aboriginal person their spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock.
Aboriginal Death Beliefs
When it comes to the dead, most tribes traditionally believed that the spirit needed to go to the Land of the Dead. Notions of heaven and hell though, were not a part of their beliefs. So the idea of an Aboriginal afterlife with rewards or punishment does not exist.
Gubbah. Gubbah, also spelt gubba, is a term used by some Aboriginal people to refer to white people or non-Aboriginal people.
Does Australia have mythology? Australia has a rich mythology begun by the Australian Aboriginal peoples. These natives have a collection of gods and mythical creatures whose presence explains the order of the world from a supernatural perspective.
Pap(a) is also found as 'mother', mainly in Victoria. Other kinship roots (for grandparents) have been shown to have a split distribution with one root dominating in the east and one in the west for what is apparently a single proto-meaning.
'Aborigine' is a noun for an Aboriginal person (male or female).
For example, both lesbian and heterosexual Aboriginal women may refer to themselves as 'sistergirls', 'sisters' or 'tiddas', which is an Aboriginal English term for the word 'sisters'. Gay Aboriginal men may also refer to themselves as sisters.