Bundurrpuy
What does bundurr mean?
As part of her research, Garŋgulkpuy invited Wapiriny Gurruwiwi to explain in more details the concept of bundurr – a key feature of a child’s identity right from conception. Wapiriny was an elder from the Gälpu bäpurru. She tape-recorded a conversation with him at Galiwin’ku and brought it to Darwin for transcription, translation and interpretation. The whole of the human body is a map of the land and of connections of kin. Everyone knows who everyone is right from the beginning. everything is connected. Everyone has a part to play in the network. There are no one blank slates.
Different to conventional views that newly born babies are purely empty – tabula rasa – and ready to absorb whatever is externally surrounding them, Yolŋu babies are born with bundurr for their bones and sacred gapu (water) in their brains, ready for their growth into their ancestral languages, songlines, and sacred designs, as invested by the ancestral beings of their particular sacred places. The manifestation of bodily invested knowledge is the internal journey of discovering who they are and how they are becoming, by virtue of being particular kin to a particular land.
Bundurrpuy
by Wapiriny Gurruwiwi
Transcribed by Garŋgulkpuy
Translated by Garŋgulkpuy and Michael Christie
23 September 2008
| Yolŋu dhäruk | English translation |
| Yo! Yothu ŋunhi ŋayi li dhawal-guyaŋirrnydja dhunupan yan ŋunhi ŋayi bundurrmirrnydja yothuny. Yo! Yothu ŋunhi ŋayi li dhawal-guyaŋirrnydja ŋunhi ŋayi bundurrmirrnydja Yothuny. | Okay. When a child is born she already has sacred names for her bones. Yes, when the child is born it already has bundurr. |
| Bundurrmirryirra ŋayi li, likanmirriyirra, ŋayi dhuwal ŋaraka ŋayi, mulkurr ŋayi, diltji ŋayi, mel ŋayi, marwat ŋayi, ŋunhi ŋayi bundurrmirra warrpam’nha. | She is born with a sacred ‘knee’ name, and a sacred ‘elbow’ name, all related to her bones, her head, her back, her eyes, her hair, all of her has bundurr[1] |
| Ŋunhi ŋaḻapaḻ nhawi malŋ’thuna ŋayi ŋunhi li yutjuwalany ŋunhi dhawal-guyaŋirrnydja gal’kalmirriyirr ga ŋaḻapaḻyirr. | Any adult we see, when she was small and newborn, and when she was crawling around, (she always had that same bundurr), and now she is old. |
| Ga yalala ŋayi dhu bäyŋuthirr ŋunhi ŋayi still goŋmirr[2] yän ŋe! | And later when she dies, she still has all those connections |
| Goŋmirr yän ŋayi ŋunhiyiny ŋunhi dhu dhiŋgamany ŋuruŋiyi ŋayi goŋmirrnydja bundurryun, bundurryun likannha ŋayi. | When she dies, she will be all connected, and it is the bundurr which makes those relationships, through the bundurr she has connections. |
| Yol ŋayi dhiyal gan nhinan, wanhaŋur ŋayi, wanha nhanŋu wäŋa, yol nhanŋu yapa[3], yol nhanŋu märi ga yol nhanŋu ŋäṉḏi’mirriŋu… | Who she was when she was alive with us, where she was from, where her country was, who her great great grandmother’s people were, her grandmother’s, her mother’s … |
| Ŋuruŋiyiny ŋayi ŋuli goŋmirrnydja, beŋur ŋayi yutjuwala goŋmirr bundurrmirra ŋayi already, ŋunhi ŋayi li malŋ’thuna ŋunhi ŋayi goŋmirra bundurrmirra ŋayi ga bäyŋuthirr ŋayi dhu, rakunydhirr ŋayi dhu ŋunhi ŋaḻapaḻ, yurr rakunydhirra. | That is how she is connected, since she was a small baby already with bundurr, as soon as she was born, she already had connections with bundurr, when she dies, when she’s old and dead. |
| Ŋayi dhu yothu ga goŋmirr yan ŋayi even ŋayi yothu bäyŋuthirr wanhal ŋayi dhu ageŋur bäyŋuthirr napuŋga aw wulmandhirra ŋayi dhu still ŋayi goŋmirr yan bili ŋunhi born goŋmirr ga bäyŋuthirr ŋayi still goŋmirr yan. | Ever since a baby, she has connections, it doesn’t matter how old she is when she dies, middle aged or old, she is still connected, born connected, dies connected. |
| That’s why ŋunhi li buŋgulnydja ŋamaŋamayun, munathany, warraw[4]ny’tja dhika nhä marrtji nhirrpa’nhirrpan bili ŋunhi ŋayi yolŋu ŋunhi goŋmirr ŋayi yolŋu bukmak Dhuwa Yirritja bäyŋu. | That’s why when funerals are made, the sacred sand sculptures, the sacred shade, and whatever else (sacred) are put in place, that is done because every person’s body has got connections whether it’s a Dhuwa or a Yirritja person who dies. |
| Bukmak warrpam ŋunhi ŋali dhu bäyŋuthirr manikayyu ŋalitjalany dhu dholkumany ga balanya. | So everything, when we die, will be buried by ancestral song, you see. |
| Rumbalnydja napurr dhuwal mirithirr dhuyu ga yaka nhe dhu warku’yundja napurruŋ bundurrnydja bili ŋayi ga rom waŋa bukmak ŋaraka dhuwal dhuyu. | Our bodies are very sacred, so you must not disrespect our sacred names because the law says that all bones are sacred. |
| Ga ŋunhi napurr ŋuli burr’yun gamunuŋguny aw miny’tjiny rulawaŋdhun ŋunhiyiny goŋ-waṯaŋuw ga djuŋgayaw yan djäma. | So when we dance painted up with ochre or we paint ancestral designs on the body or the coffin, it is only those people responsible[5] for performing and managing the funeral who allowed to do the painting. |
| Ga yuwalktja bukmak dhu ḻuŋ’thundja mala manapanmirrnydja ŋurikiyiny bundurrwu dhawar’maranharaw. | And truly, everyone will gather and join together to do the right thing for finishing that sacred bone connection properly. |
Originally published with authors permission at Yolŋu Aboriginal Consultants Initiative https://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/yaci/resources.html
- Beginning to tease out the meaning of bundurr, Wapiriny is linking the knees and elbows (the most potent source of Yolŋu connectedness metaphor) with all the other parts of the body (each with its own spiritual significance). ↵
- Goŋmirr (– hand, -mirr, having) literally ‘with hands’, means having relations around who will give support. ↵
- Yapa means both sister and mother’ mother’s mother’s mother. (See the diagram on Garŋgulkpuy’s paper The Yolŋu Child’s Pathway in this volume) ↵
- Warraw’ shade, sometimes used to denote a designated space where secret/sacred business is done. ↵
- Different clan groups have particular roles in a funeral (as described in Garŋgulkpuy’s paper The Yolŋu Child’s Pathway in this volume) because the body of the deceased is a sacred object through its ancestral connections. ↵
