The Tiwi Islands are located 100km north of Darwin. The Dundas strait separates Melville and Bathurst Island from Mainland Australia. Melville Island is Australia's largest island after Tasmania.

view map here

Tiwi is the main language spoken on Melville and Bathurst Islands. Whilst English is taught at schools as a second language, the Tiwi communicate principally in their own language. Since contact with the western world the Tiwi language has changed and younger Tiwi now have difficulty understanding the older version.

Bush

The land on both islands is heavily forested, predominately with eucalyptus, stringy bark ironwood, woolly-butt, and paperbark. There are also tall cabbage palms, pandanus, wild plum, bush apple and yams provide a rich but seasonal source of food. The bush provides a habitat for many different animals, including wallaby, possum, bandicoot, snake, lizard, and numerous bird species. Waterholes fed from freshwater springs are often surrounded by pockets of monsoonal vineforest. Open marshlands and swamps can be found near the mouths of some waterways.

Beach

Beaches on the islands vary, with clay cliffs, rocky out crops and expanses of white sand. The sands provide a haven for the turtle to lay their eggs, the rocks provide a habitat for oysters to grow in abundance and the cliffs provide the varieties of ochre used by the tiwi for painting. Crocodiles, sting rays, dugong, turtle, sharks, manta rays and many varieties of fish can be found in the waters surrounding the islands.

Mangroves

Mangroves line the estuaries and some of the shorelines on both Bathurst and Melville island. The mangroves provide a habitat for a multitude of sea life: including long bum, cockles, mud crabs, Yuwuli worms and many varieties of fish, especially Barramundi. Fruit bats also known as flying foxes, are commonly found in the mangroves along with a multitude of birds. Unfortunately sand flies and mosquitoes also abound in the mangroves and surrounding areas. Tiwi believe ningawi; mysterious little people also inhabit mangroves. The ningawi are linked to ceremony.

October to March

Having had such intimate contact with their country for thousands of years, the Tiwi have devised their own system for identifying different seasons. The seasonal changes act as a calendar for Tiwi ceremonial life. Towards the end of the dry season, immense storm clouds start to build, with displays of thunder and lightning. During this time humidity levels rise dramatically, whilst virtually no rain falls. Tjamutakari (rainy season) begins around Christmas time when the storms finally break. During the peak of the wet, 2500mm of rain fails causing lush tropical growth throughout the islands. Heavy rain saturates the bush, consequently Tiwi artists can collect bark from the stringy bark tree to make tunga (bark baskets) and cut pieces for bark paintings.

April to August

Seasonal changes are gradual, as the rain slows, the strong winds start to flatten the tall grasses. These winds are known as knock em down or wurringawunari.

When the vegetation dries, it is deliberately lit, creating the period of Kumunupinari (season of the smoke). By burning the undergrowth the Tiwi are clearing the way for hunting and assisting in the regeneration of the bush. With the dry roads and increasing access to the bush, Tiwi artists collect iron wood for carvings and ochres for painting.

Hunting

In spite of the fact that each community has a store selling essential foods, hunting for traditional food is still an important part of Tiwi life. On the land, people hunt for wallaby, lizards, possums, carpet snakes, pig, buffalo, flying foxes, bandicoot, turtle and seagull eggs and magpie geese. From the sea people hunt for turtle, crocodiles, dugong and they catch a large variety of fish. Tiwis collect cockles, oysters, longbums, yuwuli worms, mud mussels and crabs, bush apples, plums and yams, sugar bag, mangoes, cashews, pawpaw and coconuts. Although in many cases rifles, plastic buckets and Toyotas have replaced spears, tunga bags and feet, the social aspects of hunting remains important. For Tiwi, hunting, collecting and cooking food is a shared activity.

Dancing and Singing

Dancing or yoi is a part of everyday life on the Tiwi islands. Tiwi inherit their totemic dance from their mother, eg magpie goose or scaly mullet. There are a number of different skin groups on the Tiwi islands. These are patralineally handed down from generation to generation. Different dances are performed for different reasons, some dance spontaneously happens at celebrations as an expression of emotion or some happen in a more structured manner at ceremonies. Dancing plays an important role in ceremonial events, for example, during the Pukumani ceremony the dances performed reflect the relationship to the deceased. Narrative dances are preformed and can depict everyday life or historical events. The bombing of Darwin has been portrayed through song and dance as have many other significant events. Singing always accompanies dancing and new songs are continually being created. The Tiwi traditionally paint their body for ceremony using natural earth pigments known as Ochres. This tradition of mark making is the foundation for modern Tiwi art.

"For Tiwi people, to sing is to dance is to paint." - Judith Ryan, Art and Australia, 1997

Football plays a major role in the social and recreational fabric of Tiwi society. This preoccupation with football started when a bag of rags was given to some Tiwi on Bathurst Island in the 1930s. By 1945, an area has been cleared, goal posts erected and Australian rules football was becoming popular. By 1945 organised games took place between Bathurst Island, Milikapiti and Purlangimpi. During the 1990s the Tiwi Island Football League was formed and currently seven Tiwi teams compete against each other over the wet season from October to March. Every March the Tiwi Football League grand final at Nguiu attracts enthusiastic Tiwi crowds from all communities. The airport is packed with charter planes from Darwin and beyond.

The Tiwi islands of Bathurst and Melville were created at the beginning of time during the dreaming or Palaneri. Before this time there was only darkness and the earth was flat.

Mudungkala

An old blind woman arose from the ground at Murupianga in the South East of Melville Island. Clasping her three infants to her breast and crawling on her knees she traveled slowly north. The fresh water that bubbled up in the track she made became the tideways or the Clarence and Dundas Straits, dividing the two islands from the mainland. She made her way slowly around he land mass and then, deciding it was too large, created the Apsley Strait which divides the Islands. She then decreed that the bare islands be covered with vegetation and inhabited with animals so that her three children left behind would have food. Nobody knows from where she came from. Having completed her work, Mudungkala vanished.

Purukuparli and Bima

Long long ago there was a man called Purukuparli and he had a wife called Bima. They were the first people on the Tiwi Islands. Their son was called Jinani. One day Purukuparli told his wife that he was going out. He left his wife and Jinani at home on the eastern side of Melville Island and went looking for food. While Purukuparli was away, Bima went in search of her lover, Tapara, the moon man. She went for too long and left Jimani in the sun. He started to cry for Blodi (milk), he cried and cried until he died from the hunger and heat. When Purukuparli came back he found his son dead and he called out to his wife. Bima tried to call back but Tapara was blocking her mouth. Purukuparli called again and this time Tapara let her go. She ran to find her dead baby and angry husband. Then Tapara, the moon man, came and he said to Purukuparli, "give me our little boy, I'll take him up with me for three days and he will come back alive". Purukuparli said "no".

Then Purukuparli picked up a fighting stick and he threw it at Tapara. Tapara was hurt and went back up into the sky. Then Purukuparli picked up he dead son and walked towards the sea saying "my son is dead and now we shall all follow him". Purukuparli kept saying over and over as they both disappeared into a whirlpool in the winga (ocean). When death came to the Tiwi islands we Tiwi had to start to have ceremonies to bury our dead and make sure they entered the spirit world in the right way. Purukuparli passed down information about how to do this properly and today we still remember the dances, songs and designs which go with our ceremonies. We also have other traditions for ceremony passed down from Purukuparli, this includes placing burial poles around the graves of our dead and placing a taboo on the name of the deceased.

Maryanne Mungatopi, 1998 PALANERI -THE CREATION PERIOD

Ceremonies play an important role in Tiwi culture. Considering the fact that the Tiwi culture is an oral one, difficulties arise when trying to write definitely. Each ceremony had its own form, and can vary depending upon the circumstances of the time. However, the present day situation and its effects on these rites has a precedent in past tradition. There are two main ceremonial events performed, an annual one, the Kulama ceremony and the mortuary or Pukumani ceremony.

Kulama

The Kulama ceremony occurs towards the end of the wet season. Concentric circles often appear as the main element of contemporary Tiwi patterns, representing the Kulama circle or ceremonial dancing ground.

Pukumani

The Pukumani ceremony occurs approximately six months after the deceased has been buried. As Jane Goodale states,

"The Tiwi regard the Pukumani as the most important ceremony in a persons life in the world of the living, and even though the Mobuditi (spirit of one dead) has been released, the persons existence in the living world is not finished until the completion of the ceremony. To the Tiwi the entire focus of the ceremony is on the person now in the grave. This attitude results in the consistent variations in cast and script".
Goodale, Jane 1971 Tiwi Wives, University of Washington Press, page 259-260

The performance of this ceremony ensures that the mobiditi goes from the living world into the spirit world. Prior to the ceremony in laws are commissioned to carve tall totemic poles. These are placed around the burial site during the ceremony. These poles symbolise the status and prestige of the deceased. The Pukumani ceremony allows Tiwi full expression of their grief. It is a public ceremony and provides a forum for artistic expression through song, dance, sculpture and body painting.

There are many conflicting views in relation to early contact. The old people have handed down stories of contact with outsiders and some mention Japanese pearlers, Macassan trepangers and Portuguese slave traders. There is documented evidence of contact with Macassan from Malaysia and the Dutch from Holland. In 1644 Dutch records show van Diemen sent Abel Tasman in search of land routes and trade. In April 1705 the Dutch landed at Karslake on Melville Island. In 1824 a British military settlement was established at Fort Dundas on Melville island. This settlement was short lived with Tiwi warriors eventually forcing them out in 1829.

Missionaries

In June 1911 Father Gsell of the catholic faith and four Filipino men anchored off shore from Bathurst Island. They lived on board their boat until their prefabricated house was erected. They took up residence at Nguiu on June 8 and the first mass of the Catholic Sacred Heart Mission was said on the day. Religious instruction was their primary goal. The impact of the missionaries cannot be underestimated. From their first contact until the present day the mission has influenced the culture in both positive and negative ways. They established and education system, addressed health issues and organised welfare services within the community. In keeping with the thinking of the times, they also sought to suppress traditional language, customs and culture. Today Tiwi customs have intermixed with the doctrines, producing and amalgam of aboriginal and catholic signs, symbols and text.

"When he (Father Gsell) came to the Island it was all jungle, all bushes. People were staying out in the bush. Most people didn't know he was even on the Island. One person from the stone skin group went out bush and told all the skin groups to come along to see the whitefella with the big wiskas. All the people came to have a look at him and to talk to him. He cut naga (loin cloth) and said "you gotta wear this one". The people said "no we don't know what that is". Then later they came back and wore it. He gave them flour and taught them to cook damper. They said no, instead they used the flour for painting their bodies. Then came tea and sugar - they didn't know these things....only they knew sugarbag. Soon they learnt what to do. He then got 150 wives - brides of the church....soon they were washing his clothes and feeding him......"

The Tiwi played a significant role during the Second World War due to the Island's geographic location. Bathurst Island was the first site in Australia to be attacked when the Japanese struck on the 19th February 1942.

On that morning, Father McGrath of the Catholic Mission on Bathurst Island sent a warning of approaching enemy aircraft to Darwin. His message was acknowledged - but went unheeded - and Darwin was attacked by Japanese bombers.

The Tiwi were the first to capture Japanese enemies on Australian soil. Matthius Ulungura and Louis Munkara both played an important role in apprehending the enemy. Aboriginal patrols were formed and many allied pilots were rescued, sighting of enemy aircraft reported and allied vessels guided through dangerous waters. Though isolated and remote, the people of the Tiwi Islands proved a valuable service during the war years.