3 July, 2012 12:51PM ACST

Learning Larrakia: protector ancestor 'Nungalinya'

Many in Darwin know about 'old man rock' - the long, flat rock, visible from Casuarina beach at low tide. But to Larrakia people, 'old man rock' is not just a rock but an ancestral spirit that binds all Larrakia people together; Nungalinya.

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During NAIDOC Week, ABC Darwin is investigating several significant Larrakia words. Today's word is Nungalinya: the protector ancestor.

Larrakia elder and singer-songwriter June Mills says Nungalinya is at the core who Larrakia people are, and unites all Larrakia people.

"He's the most significant ancestral being in our dreamtime. It's our dreamtime and our ancestral grandfather," June says.

"He's like our protector. If you go to Lee Point or Casuarina Beach you'll see him there."

June says Nungalinya is just one of many ancestors who walked across the landscape and shaped it during the dreamtime.

"When we talk about those old people and particularly ones in the landscape like that, they are significant ancestors - they were real but back in the dreamtime they were much bigger. They had superpowers and had the ability to shape the landscape."

There are certain rules around sacred sites such as Nungalinya, and Larrakia people won't go to the rock, sit on it or take from it.

Some Larrakia people believe disturbances to Nungalinya with people fishing on the rock may have caused Cyclone Tracy. June says she isn't sure, but that disrespect for sacred sites does have powerful consequences.

"The thing is with the spiritual realm and the physical realm, they're connected."

Despite differences between Larrakia people, June says Nungalinya is one thing that never changes.

"Even though we might have different views about what we should be doing, the one thing is that we all recognise Nungalinya as our ancestral elder."