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Djomi

Djomi is a freshwater spring surrounded by jungle at the mouth of the Liverpool River. It is a major sacred site with extensive mythological significance for the Kunibidji people. Water spirits, or mermaids, live in the freshwater spring. They are associated with djabayena, the sawfish, and sometimes are depicted as the sawfish itself or as a woman with the sawfish’s tail. 

The Djomi site is linked to dreaming paths which extend east along the coast as far as Milingimbi and Ramingining. Mermaid sites are found in both saltwater and freshwater country, and freshwater and saltwater clans who own separate mermaid sites are linked in myth by stories of a mermaid spirit swimming up from the sea to the freshwater. The Kunibidji have close kinship and ceremonial ties with the Eastern Kunwinjku who own Mermaid Dreaming sites in the freshwater country upstream from Djomi. 

Small streams from the Djomi site carry fresh water into the mouth of the Liverpool River. In many paintings of Djomi these streams are shown and it is believed that all watercourses in the Maningrida district are controlled by the power of the Djomi sacred site. Djomi is seen as a metaphor for the cultural network of the Maningrida area, and so gives its name to the Maningrida Museum, the community’s cultural keeping place. 

 

Text courtesy of the Djomi Museum, Maningrida.