![]() Of Kumpupirntily, ANU researcher John Carty writes: Courtesy and copyright Martumili Artists and Fremantle Arts Centre In those environs they have been known to stalk and to feast on human prey – to be precise, Martu people.Ĭannibal Story (still), animation by Yunkurra Billy Atkins and Sohan Ariel Hayes, 2012. They reside beneath a salt lake, Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment). These ancient, malevolent Ngayurnangalku (Cannibal Beings) have sharp pointy teeth and curved, claw-like fingernails. In the farthest reaches of the Western Desert, in the Pilbara region, the brilliant although largely unheralded Martu artist and animator Yunkurra Billy Atkins creates extraordinarily graphic images of cannibal beings, including babies (see animation still, below). ![]() The monstrousness of many, although not all, of these monstrous Desert Beings lies in their particular disposition towards cannibalism. Most important of all is their social function in terms of engendering fear and caution in young children, commensurate with the very real environmental perils that they inevitably encounter. Importantly, in Aboriginal Australia, these figures and their attendant narratives provide a valuable source of knowledge about the hazards of specific places and environments. ![]() To this I would add that such monstrous beings also attest to some of the least palatable aspects of human behaviour, to the nastiest and most vicious of our human capabilities. At the psychological level, the stories about these entities are a means of coping with terror. Monstrous Beings in “Dreaming” narratives and artĪ terrifying pantheon of monstrous beings is one subject of visual artworks and traditional Aboriginal “ Dreaming” narratives that merits inclusion in any typology of Aboriginal cultural and artistic traditions.Īll of these figures materialise fear, bringing it to the surface. ![]() There are many reasons for this but ultimately it reflects the special vulnerability of the very young with respect to adults and the exterior world. Goya’s works of giants and child-eaters, including, for example, his gruesome rendition of Saturn devouring his own child, exemplify this.Īll cultures, it seems, have fairytales and narratives that express a high degree of aggression towards young children. Monstrous beings are also depicted in many visual art traditions. Such beings embody people’s deepest anxieties and fears. Think of Homer’s Cyclops, the Night-Hag of Renaissance legend or the German Kinderfresser, which snatches and eats its young victims. Warner also observes that mythical, malevolent beings are found the world over. Monsters are made to warn, to threaten, and to instruct, but they are by no means always monstrous in the negative sense of the term they have always had a seductive side. The trope of metamorphosis is evident in the real-life stories and media representations in Australia’s dominant culture: consider the image of the kindly old gentleman next door or the devoted, caring parish priest who shocks everyone by metamorphosing into child-molesters, creepy, predatory, though ever-charming.Īs the celebrated British mythographer and cultural historian Marina Warner has noted: Often, akin to many of the Monstrous Beings that inhabit Aboriginal Australia, these evil supernatural entities are Tricksters, shape-changers and shape-shifters. In the Tanakh, ‘The Adversary’, as a figure in the Hebrew Bible is sometimes described in English translation, fulfils a similar role. In the Christian tradition, we need to look no further than Satan. Monstrous beings are allegorical in nature, personifying evil. The existence of such Evil Beings is an unremarkable phenomenon, given that most religious and mythological traditions possess their own demons and supernatural entities. Certain sorcerers gleefully dismember their victims limb by limb, and there are other monstrous entities as well, living parallel lives to the human beings residing in the same places. There are also murderous, humanoid fish-maidens who live in deep waterholes and rockholes, biding their time to rise up, grab and drown unsuspecting human children or adults who stray close to the water’s edge. There are lustful old men who, wishing to satiate their unbridled sexual appetites, relentlessly pursue beautiful nubile young girls through the night sky and on land – and other monstrous beings, too.Īrnhem Land, in Australia’s north, is the abode of malevolent shades and vampire-like Wind and Shooting Star Spirit Beings. 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. The specific form that their wickedness takes depends to a considerable extent on their location. A rich inventory of monstrous figures exists throughout Aboriginal Australia. ![]()
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