Indigenous Knowledge, Stories, and Culture
Wanjil (Bunjil) on Wadawurrung Country
Across the Kulin Nations of central and western Victoria, the great Eaglehawk creator is known most widely as Bunjil. In some tellings and spellings the name is rendered Wanjil or Panʒil, reflecting language and recorder variation. On Wadawurrung Country (Djilang/Geelong, Ballarat, Bellarine, Surf Coast to the Werribee River) Wanjil/Bunjil shapes landforms, lays down law, and anchors moiety relations that organise kinship and marriage. This article brings together published, community-endorsed accounts to outline Wanjil’s place in Wadawurrung teachings and across Victorian Indigenous communities. (VACL & Creative Victoria 2014; Deadly Story n.d.; Clark 1990; WTOAC 2025)
Who is Wanjil/Bunjil?
Creator and law-giver: Wanjil/Bunjil made mountains, rivers, plants, animals and people, then gave Law (lore) governing kinship, marriage, ceremony and care for Country. (Howitt 1904; VACL & Creative Victoria 2014)
Moiety chief: Kulin society is organised into two moieties—Bunjil (Eaglehawk) and Waa (Crow)—that guide exogamous marriage rules and ceremonial responsibilities. (Deadly Story n.d.)
Protector and teacher: Stories present Wanjil as a guardian who rewards right conduct and corrects wrongdoing, often working in creative tension with Waa’s trickster intelligence. (VACL & Creative Victoria 2014)
Wanjil on Wadawurrung Country
Wadawurrung narratives situate Wanjil in specific places that remain teaching sites today:
You Yangs / Anakie Hills: Granite tors, saddles and wind-carved boulders are linked to Wanjil’s journeys and resting places. Families “read” these features as a stone archive of Law. (State Library Victoria n.d.; WTOAC 2025)
Bellarine & Surf Coast headlands: Coastal lookouts and reefs are used to teach Wanjil’s instructions about safe travel, shellfish protocols and respect for sea Country. (WTOAC 2025)
Volcanic plains & stony rises (Djilang–Ballarat): Lava flows and stone fields are associated with Wanjil shaping hunting grounds and murnong landscapes, and with the enforcement of marriage Law. (Gott 2019; GORCC & Wadawurrung 2020)
Wurdi Youang stone arrangement (near Little River): A Kulin stone oval with outliers aligned to solar setting points is used in cultural teaching about sky-law and seasonal time; community and research discussions often relate this knowledge to Bunjil as sky-eagle/creator. (Hamacher 2012)
Name note: “Wanjil” appears in variant spellings in 19th-century sources and contemporary community usage. The article honours Wadawurrung preferences while acknowledging “Bunjil” as the widely published Kulin form. (Howitt 1904; Clark 1990)
Law, Kinship and Responsibility
Moiety & marriage: Belonging to Wanjil/Bunjil or Waa determines who one can marry and the ceremonies one must uphold—rules taught to children through stories, dance and symbol drawing. (Deadly Story n.d.; VACL & Creative Victoria 2014)
Country as legal text: Every cave, ridge and waterhole carries aspects of Wanjil’s Law; walking Country is a legal-spiritual education rather than a metaphor. (WTOAC 2025)
Women’s and men’s business: Some episodes of Wanjil stories are restricted; sharing follows Elder guidance and community protocols. (VACL & Creative Victoria 2014)
Regional Connections across Victoria
Gariwerd/Grampians: Bunjil’s Shelter depicts the creator with two dingoes, one of the most prominent rock-art references to the Eaglehawk ancestor in south-eastern Australia. (Parks Victoria 2021)
Kulin Nations more broadly: Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Taungurung and Dja Dja Wurrung share Wanjil/Bunjil–Waa moiety teachings, with localised place-based episodes. (Deadly Story n.d.; VACL & Creative Victoria 2014)
Ceremony, Performance and Teaching
Wadawurrung educators use song, dance and symbol stories to teach children Wanjil’s instructions about seasons, fire, water and kinship. Clapsticks, ochre patterns and cloaks mark moiety identity; on-Country visits (e.g., You Yangs, coastal platforms) connect lesson to landscape. (GORCC & Wadawurrung 2020)
Colonial Impacts and Continuity
Mission control, language suppression and displacement disrupted ceremonial transmission of Wanjil stories; nevertheless, Elders preserved narrative cores in families and adapted performance to new contexts. Today, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation leads cultural education, heritage protection and language projects restoring Wanjil teachings to classrooms, councils and co-management. (Barwick 1998; WTOAC 2025)
Why Wanjil Matters Now
Cultural authority: Centring Wanjil re-grounds governance in Indigenous law rather than policy alone.
Education & science: Sky-law and seasonal stories (e.g., associations with solstices at Wurdi Youang) complement ecological monitoring and climate learning. (Hamacher 2012)
Care for Country: Wanjil’s obligations—right fire, right harvest, right kin—map directly onto contemporary land and sea stewardship. (Gammage 2011; WTOAC 2025)
Guidance for educators
Use community-approved resources; teach on the Country to which stories belong; invite Elders to lead; and respect restricted knowledge. (VACL & Creative Victoria 2014; WTOAC 2025)
References
Barwick, D. (1998) Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Monograph.
Clark, I.D. (1990) Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Melbourne: Monash.
Deadly Story (n.d.) ‘Stories & Totems: Kulin Nations (Bunjil/Waa).’
Gammage, B. (2011) The Biggest Estate on Earth. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
GORCC & Wadawurrung (2020) Wadawurrung Way: Symbol Stories (F–3 resource).
Gott, B. (2019) The Yam Daisy: A History of Aboriginal Plant Use in Victoria. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Hamacher, D.W. (2012) ‘On Aboriginal astronomy in Victoria.’ Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage, 15, 121–134.
Howitt, A.W. (1904) The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. London: Macmillan.
Parks Victoria (2021) ‘Rock Art of Gariwerd (Grampians) National Park’ [Bunjil’s Shelter].
State Library Victoria (n.d.) ‘William Buckley—Reminiscences (1837), MS 13483.’
VACL & Creative Victoria (2014) Nyernila: Listen Continuously – Aboriginal Creation Stories of Victoria. Melbourne: VACL.
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) (2025) ‘Country and Culture’ & education resources.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 16/09/2025
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.