Nyapiliŋu is a spirit woman who lived in Wangarr times, the Dreaming. Nyapiliŋu set out from Ambakamba (Groote Eylandt) in a paper bark canoe and travelled across to the mainland and then north and west as far as the central Arnhem Land coast. Wherever she went she marked the country with her activities.

She is remembered by the people at these sites, who sing and dance her story. Nyapiliŋu gave important culture to the people whose country she passed through. She wrapped herself in a sheet of paperbark so that men could not see her body, so women followed her in this. She used Wapitja (digging stick) to collect food and to peel the bark from the stringybark tree and she made containers from paperbark which she carried on her head. Nyapiliŋu also taught women how to look for the water lily ‘yoku’ and prepare it for eating, and how to make string and weave pandanus for bathi (dilly bags).

The possum fur string which she wore in a cross shaped arrangement across her chest is a signature of hers. In this instance it denotes the thunderhead clouds on the horizon which are ‘pregnant’ with life giving freshwater. The ribbons of crosshatching or miny’tji belongs only to the Maŋgalili, levels of meaning include tracts of sacred sand at Djarrakpi. Nyapiliŋu is particularly important to Maŋgalili people. One of their most important sacred sites, Djarrakpi is associated with her activities. She also passed through Dhalwaŋu and Maḏarrpa country, and these people may also paint or dance her Dreaming.

The part of her story belonging to each clan refers to her activities in that clan’s country. In her travels through Maŋgalili country, Nyapiliŋu travelled with Guwak (night bird) and Marrŋu (possum), making Maŋgalili totems, giving the people sacred objects and ceremony, and using Wapitja, her digging stick, for stripping bark from trees, and making Maŋgalili water holes – as she plunged her Wapitja into the ground, water would spring up.

Nyapiliŋu’s spirit resides at Djarrakpi, in high sandunes that rim the sacred saltwater lake there on its seaward side. From the other ‘land’ side of the lake Malwiya the Ancestral Emu travelled looking for water. With his Makul (spear) and Galpu (woomera) digging the dry bed unsuccessfully led to frustration. Malwiya threw his spears over Nyapiliŋu’s sand dunes and into the sea connecting the Maŋgalili land or freshwater side to the feminine saltwater.