About Nyinyikay: Sharing the Spirit of the Land

Ninyikay was established by Mowarra Ganambarr (1917-2005) along with two other homeland centres in North East Arnhem Land: Mata Mata and Rorruwuy. Mowarra was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2000 at age 83 for building the outstations in the 1960s and 1970s.

Nyinyikay is situated approximately 70 km‟s west of Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Bay, North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. It is the home of Nancy Burarrwanga, Mowarra's wife and her sons and daughters, who live a very traditional lifestyle with a modern mix. Access to Nyinyikay is usually by charter flight, this takes about 20 minutes. Road access is open to 4wd‟s in the Dry Season, the trip takes about 3½ hours.

The families at Nyinyikay want to provide small groups of visitors with the opportunity to interact in daily life with traditional Indigenous people and participate in daily activities, sharing knowledge and gaining understanding in a relaxed homeland environment.

The community hopes that one day, they will be able to set up a Homeland School for the children at Nyinyikay. A school will provide a solid foundation for maintaining our culture and tradition and with "two-way learning", the pupils will be well prepared to undertake further education outside the homeland if they choose to do so.

Our logo represents the very significant creation story of wild dogs and their relationship to Nyinyikay. This story and many more have been passed through generations around camp fire yarns and during ceremonies.

The story starts with four Dingo's traveling from Dholtji (Yirritja moiety) which is the main area for the Warramiri clan located near Cape Wilberforce in North East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

As they traveled they spoke their Warramiri dialect which was (Djangu) and they marked and named their area's of land that belonged to them. There were two sisters and two brothers, their names were Darrkana (female), Buluna (male) and Waniyalangu (male),Madinga (female).

Half way on their journey they stopped for a rest and created a special area called Garma' about 10 km north east of Nyinyikay in the middle of Warramiri lands. Then they went further on to Muthamul back along the Barrawal Ranges then Madinga came down to Nyinyikay and then she revealed the sared red clay (Munga) by marking the area and scraping the surface soil. Then she went east along the beach naming it Gopuluwuy were she was met by small sprinkle of rain and when she got close to a river she realized that there was Datiwuy lands beyond that (Dhuwa moiety) so she returned back to Nyinyikay.

She met Waniyalangu and the others there. Buluna and Darrkana said that it was time to go back home to Dholtji but Madinga decided to stay at Nyinyikay and Waniyalangu also decided stay across the bay below the Barrawal Ranges.

And this is how the Dha wubawuy (meaning Warramiri from Dha wuba) Warramiri clan started.

By Marcus Lacey