From Banib to Bunyip: Tracking Bricolage and Knowledge Systems in Colonized Aboriginal Spirituality

Abstract

This article considers the Australian ‘bunyip’, a cryptid that has captured the colonial imagination since the European invasion. In doing so, the article will track the transformation of the creature through the invasion of Australia, and subsequently raise concerns regarding the application of an ‘apolitical’ bricolage in cases of myths translated across knowledge systems, especially in the context of colonialism. It considers the relationship between cryptozoology and the natural sciences, as well as the origins of the bunyip within Indigenous cosmologies. Ultimately, this article demonstrates the transformation of the bunyip from Indigenous contexts to its current position as a pseudoscientific cryptid.