Kunapipi, also spelt Gunabibi, ('womb')[1] is a mother goddess and the patron deity of many heroes in Australian Aboriginal mythology.
Now a vague, otiose, spiritual being, "the old woman" (Kadjeri)[1] once emerged from the waters and travelled across the land with a band of heroes and heroines,[2] and during the ancestral period she gave birth to men and women as well as creating the natural species.
[citation needed] The Kunapipi cult seems to have arisen among tribes in the Roper and Rose River areas.
[1] From there, it is thought to have gradually spread north-east into Arnhem Land, where it existed as a complementary masculine form with Djanggawul, a female figure.
[3] According to Tony Swain, Kunapipi traditions, especially regarding her northern origins, reflect the impact of Sulawesi/Macassar influences, via contacts with trepang traders, and possibly the pre-Islamic rice mother cult, which survived down to modern times among the Toraja and Bugis.