Yawk Yawk Spirits

Yawk Yawk spirits live in a sacred river in Western Arnhem Land. The male spirits are called Nakunburriyaymi and the females are Ngalkunburriyaymi. They have tails like fishes and long hair, which resembles the tangled weeds growing in algae around the edges of their pool.

When they are first born the spirits resemble tadpoles, but they then change into fish-like creatures. Their tails can become legs when they wish to leave the water and forage for food in nearby bushes. They can also change into dragonflies and flit among the branches of trees growing around the banks. Their presence as dragonflies heralds the start of the Dry Season.

In the Dreamtime, clever old medicine men, (marrkidjbu) are said to have captured female Yawk Yawk Spirits from time to time and taken them back to their faraway camps, but always the spirits fretted for their own sacred river and their friends, generally managing to escape when they were sent down to a freshwater stream to fetch water for the old men.

Yawk Yawk are protected from crocodiles which come into the river from the Arafura Sea by the Rainbow Serpent which lies near the entrance and growls like a dog.