An Uncommon Ancestor : Monstrous Emanations and Australian Tales of the Bunyip

Abstract

“Bunyip” is an Australian English word derived from First Nations language names for monstrous water spirits that inhabit inland waterways of southeastern Australia. But the “Bunyips” that proliferate in colonial literary fictions, especially children’s stories, are what Elspeth Tilley (2009) terms an “Aboriginalist creation of white folklore” and greatly diverge from biocultural knowledges of water spirits. The chapter explores this history of appropriation and then turns to recent literature and screen media by First Nations creatives which bring ancestral spirits into contemporary media. The main case study is Shadow Trackers (Curtis 2016), a documentary television show that resembles the format of paranormal reality television but educatively addresses bi-cultural audiences about the power and presence of spirit beings.