Ngintaka
Encyclopedia
Ngintaka is a giant perentie
lizard spirit being of Australia
n aboriginal "Dreaming" Creation mythology.
Pitjantjatjara Western Desert
Speaking Original people of Central Australia
. It is associated with Angatja, an area along an important Tjukurpa or Dreaming Songline.
It is one of the two great reptiles of Uluru
, (Ayers Rock), Ngintaka and Milpali.
Ngintaka Songline is the major creation story in the Angatja area. Pitjantjatjara land is cris-crossed by the tracks of many Creation Ancestor Beings; the lizard, carpet python
, snake
, dingo
, emu
, tjala honey ant and maku
witchetty grub
, among many others.
The Ngintaka Man travelled from his home near the Western Australia
border to the camp of another lizard tribe, near Oodnadatta, in search of a special grindstone.
This is the story of the Perentie Man - he was living in a distant place without a grindstone, he only had a very poor quality grindstone and he was trying to grind the seed from wild pigweed, and he was having to eat these rough seedcakes
.
Munu paluru kulinu: "Ay, tjiwa kutjupa ruulmananyi, ruultjinga rungkani ngura parari." Munu kulira paluru mapalku anu ngura kutjupakutu. Munu paluru ankula nyangu, tjiwa palunya. Munu mantjinu, munu kutitlura ngalya-katingu.
And he thought: "Ah, someone is grinding, there is the sound of grinding coming from a long way away." And having heard he quickly travelled to that other place. And he travelled and travelled and then he saw that other grindstone. And he took it, he stole it and carried it back to his camp. As the Ngintaka travelled he created many landforms in the Musgrave and Mann Ranges and he vomited up many different kinds of grass seeds and vegetable food as he went.
, the highest mountain in South Australia
is also the Ngintaka Man as he rears up to look over the country. He is returning to his home in the west. The significance of these cultural routes is central to Pitjantjatjara spiritual connection to land. Each individual is custodian of the land they are born in and the Creation Ancestor who walked and sung that land into being in the beginning. If the land and Songline is destroyed people are severed from the core of their being, they get sick and die.
Perentie
The Perentie is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia, and fourth largest lizard on earth, after the Komodo Dragon, crocodile monitor and the water monitor...
lizard spirit being of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n aboriginal "Dreaming" Creation mythology.
Summary
The Ngintaka is one of several Creation Ancestor Beings of the AnanguAnangu
Anangu, more accurately "Aṉaŋu" or "Arnangu" is a word found in a number of eastern varieties of the Western Desert Language , an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken in the desert regions of western and central Australia. Before the arrival of non-Aboriginal people in...
Pitjantjatjara Western Desert
Western Desert
Western Desert may refer to:* Libyan Desert, located in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert. It occupies Egypt west of the Nile , eastern Libya and northwestern Sudan alongside the Nubian Desert.* Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in...
Speaking Original people of Central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
. It is associated with Angatja, an area along an important Tjukurpa or Dreaming Songline.
It is one of the two great reptiles of Uluru
Uluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
, (Ayers Rock), Ngintaka and Milpali.
Ngintaka Songline is the major creation story in the Angatja area. Pitjantjatjara land is cris-crossed by the tracks of many Creation Ancestor Beings; the lizard, carpet python
Carpet python
Morelia spilota is a large snake of the Pythonidae family found in Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea. There are 6 subspecies listed by ITIS, commonly referred to as Carpet and Diamond pythons.-Description:...
, snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
, dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
, emu
Emu
The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...
, tjala honey ant and maku
Maku
Maku or Macu can refer to any of the following:* Maku, Iran, a Kurdish city in West Azarbaijan province, Iran* Maku County, Iran* Maku river, a tributary of the Barak River of Manipur* Maku , the name of a region in ancient Armenia...
witchetty grub
Witchetty grub
The witchetty grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths...
, among many others.
Myth Summary
The story of Ngintaka is one of theft, vengeance and the uselessness of possessions. The saga is told with the "Inma Ngintaka", a dance of Ngintaka's journey of creation that includes a song whose stanzas follow his travels through the land, thus the 500km trail is called a Songline.The Ngintaka Man travelled from his home near the Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
border to the camp of another lizard tribe, near Oodnadatta, in search of a special grindstone.
Myth Details
Ngintaka Tjukurpa alatji - paluru ngura parari nyinangi tjiwa wiya, paluru tjiwa kurakuratjara nyinangi munu paluru mai wakati rungkaningi, munu rungkara uninypa uninymankula ngalkuningi.This is the story of the Perentie Man - he was living in a distant place without a grindstone, he only had a very poor quality grindstone and he was trying to grind the seed from wild pigweed, and he was having to eat these rough seedcakes
Bush bread
Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Australian Aborigines for many thousands of years. The bread was high in protein and carbohydrate, and helped form part of a balanced traditional diet....
.
Munu paluru kulinu: "Ay, tjiwa kutjupa ruulmananyi, ruultjinga rungkani ngura parari." Munu kulira paluru mapalku anu ngura kutjupakutu. Munu paluru ankula nyangu, tjiwa palunya. Munu mantjinu, munu kutitlura ngalya-katingu.
And he thought: "Ah, someone is grinding, there is the sound of grinding coming from a long way away." And having heard he quickly travelled to that other place. And he travelled and travelled and then he saw that other grindstone. And he took it, he stole it and carried it back to his camp. As the Ngintaka travelled he created many landforms in the Musgrave and Mann Ranges and he vomited up many different kinds of grass seeds and vegetable food as he went.
Geography
Per the mythology, Mount WoodroffeMount Woodroffe
Mount Woodroffe is South Australia's highest peak, at 1,435 metres.- Cultural Significance :The mountain is known to the Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australians as Ngarutjaranya....
, the highest mountain in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
is also the Ngintaka Man as he rears up to look over the country. He is returning to his home in the west. The significance of these cultural routes is central to Pitjantjatjara spiritual connection to land. Each individual is custodian of the land they are born in and the Creation Ancestor who walked and sung that land into being in the beginning. If the land and Songline is destroyed people are severed from the core of their being, they get sick and die.