Inapertwa

Before the MacDonnell Ranges had names, before the salt water pulled north and the red earth dried to dust, the world’s first inhabitants lay curled beside waterholes in the desert silence. They did not move. They did not eat. They had no eyes to see the sun that warmed their strange, rounded bodies, no ears to catch the wind scraping across the flats. They were the Inapertwa, and they were waiting to become everything.

The Arrernte people of Central Australia, whose country sprawls across some 47,000 square miles of spinifex and gorge around what is now Alice Springs, tell of these beings as the raw material of creation. The Inapertwa were not gods. They were not animals. They were something prior to both: shapeless bundles in which the faint outline of a body could just barely be traced, like a figure half-formed in wet clay. According to Spencer and Gillen’s landmark 1899 ethnography, recorded directly from Arrernte elders, the Inapertwa had no distinct limbs. They could not see, smell, or hear. They did not eat food. They lay in groups along the shores of a primordial salt sea, doubled over into rounded masses, each one a knot of potential waiting for a knife.

That knife came from the western sky. Two self-existing beings called the Ungambikula, a word meaning “out of nothing,” descended from their dwelling in the heavens carrying lalira, great stone knives. They had seen the Inapertwa from above, scattered far to the east, and it was their work to make these formless things into people. The Ungambikula took each Inapertwa in turn and began to cut. First the arms were released from the body. Four slits at the end of each arm made fingers. Legs were freed the same way, then toes. The nose was shaped and nostrils bored with the fingers. A single stroke of the knife opened the mouth, which was pulled open several times to make it flexible. Slits on each side of the face separated the eyelids, behind which eyes already existed, hidden and waiting. A few more strokes completed the body. From each Inapertwa, a man or woman stood up.

The being’s previous form determined everything that followed. An Inapertwa that had been associated with the plum tree became a person of the plum tree totem. One linked to the grass seed, the large lizard, the small lizard, the Alexandra parakeet, each produced a human who carried that creature or plant as their spiritual identity for life. The totem was not chosen. It was inherited from the raw material of the body itself, a relationship older than the person who bore it.

Not all Arrernte totemic groups trace back through the Inapertwa stage. The witchetty grub people, for instance, have no such tradition. Their ancestors were transformed directly from the grub without passing through that embryonic phase. The Inapertwa creation applies to specific local groups, a fact Spencer and Gillen noted carefully: certain totems at certain places, not a universal template.

The Ungambikula, their work done, transformed themselves into small fly-catching lizards called amunga-quiniaquinia, a name that translates roughly as “the ones who snap up flies quickly.” Two sky beings who carved the world’s population from raw clay, then shrank into lizards hunting insects in the scrub. There is something wonderfully matter-of-fact about it.

Carl Strehlow, the Lutheran missionary who documented Arrernte traditions in 1907, recorded a parallel account. In his version, the unfinished beings are called rella manerinja, “people grown together,” and they lived on hillsides and in the primordial waters, already divided into the four subsection classes that would govern Arrernte marriage and kinship. It was a figure called Mangarkunjerkunja who came from the north to wake them, separate their fused bodies with a knife, cut openings for mouths, ears, and noses, and teach them how the marriage system worked. Francis Gillen’s earliest field notes from 1895 offer yet another angle: the Inapertwa described there as a giant species of porcupine-like creature, limbless, sightless, taking no food. Different tellings, different decades, different informants. The core image holds: life began as something unfinished, and creation was the act of cutting it free.

The Inapertwa possessed no powers in any conventional sense. They could not act, perceive, or move. Their significance lies entirely in what they contained. Every kangaroo, every emu, every human being was folded inside one of those silent, rounded shapes beside the salt water. The Inapertwa were limitation made flesh: beings defined by what they lacked, whose entire purpose was to be transformed into something else. Once carved open, they ceased to be Inapertwa and became the ancestor of a totem line. There was no going back.

Their weakness was total and also the point. The Inapertwa could not resist the knife, could not refuse the shape given to them, could not choose their own totem. They were pure passivity, the blank before the first mark. And that blankness is what made the Arrernte world possible: not a universe conjured from divine speech or cosmic fire, but one carved, piece by piece, from something that was already there, curled up in the heat beside a vanished sea.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Inapertwa?

The Inapertwa are shapeless, embryonic ancestral beings from the mythology of the Arrernte people of Central Australia. According to Spencer and Gillen’s 1899 ethnography, the Inapertwa lay in rounded, limbless masses beside a primordial salt sea, with no eyes, ears, or mouths, and no ability to eat or move. They were the raw material from which every plant, animal, and human was later carved during the Dreaming.

Who carved the Inapertwa into humans?

Two self-existing sky beings called the Ungambikula carved the Inapertwa into the first humans. The name Ungambikula means “out of nothing,” and they descended from the heavens carrying great stone knives called lalira. They cut arms, fingers, legs, toes, noses, mouths, and eyelids into each Inapertwa, releasing the man or woman folded inside.

How did the Inapertwa create the Arrernte totemic system?

Each person’s totem was determined by the plant or animal that their Inapertwa had been associated with before being carved into human form. An Inapertwa linked to the plum tree produced a person of the plum tree totem, while ones tied to the grass seed, large lizard, small lizard, or Alexandra parakeet produced humans carrying those species as their spiritual identity for life. The totem was inherited from the raw material of the body itself, never chosen.

What happened to the Ungambikula after they finished their work?

After completing the carving of the Inapertwa, the Ungambikula transformed themselves into small fly-catching lizards called amunga-quiniaquinia, a name that translates roughly as “the ones who snap up flies quickly.” This transformation marked the end of their role as creator beings in the Arrernte Dreaming.

Do all Arrernte totem groups descend from the Inapertwa?

No, not all Arrernte totemic groups trace their origins through the Inapertwa stage. The witchetty grub people, for instance, have no such tradition, and their ancestors were transformed directly from the grub itself without passing through that embryonic phase. Spencer and Gillen noted that the Inapertwa creation applies to specific local groups and totems rather than serving as a universal template.

Related Entries

Baiame, Bunjil, Rainbow Serpent, Wondjina, Wati-kutjara, Dirawong, Gurangatch, Mimi, Yawkyawk, Viracocha, Pangu, Prometheus, Adam, Ymir