Mimi, the spindly teachers of Arnhem land. Before humans stepped on the earth, another race once roamed Arnhem land, the Mimi. The Mimi were so thin that fast wind could break their fragile bones and bodies, to combat this the Mimi lived in rock crevasses, only coming out at night to care for the land.
Once humanity was born, the Mimi taught them everything they knew. Humanity learned how to harness fire, to cook, to hunt, and to paint. The Mimi were known to be generally benevolent, but they were also playfully mischievous. But once dawn begun to rise the Mimi gathered their families and pets and hurried back into the rocks to hide once more. The people they taught honored them by forever etching their likeness onto rock, and passing down their teachings. It’s said the Mimi still come out of their hiding spots at night, bringing out their families and going about their lives in privacy.
In a story told and owned by the Yolngu Dhuwa moiety, there once was a boy who lived with his father. When the boy saw how great of a hunter his father was, he wished to prove himself to him. Yet each time he tried to prove his worth as a hunter he came up short again and again. When he came back home in the afternoon to rest, the boy saw how much everyone else had hunted while he couldn’t even bring anything back himself. Feeling as if he disappointed his father with his awful hunting skills the boy ran off. The boy sulked by his lonesome even as evening drew near. As the sun set in the sky, the Mimi emerged from their crevices and onto the land. The Mimi came across the dejected young boy, and sympathizing with his sadness, they took him to their home in an effort to lift his spirits. Their plan worked, as the boy quickly cheered up in the company of the Mimis. The boy’s father meanwhile found that his son hadn’t returned home for the night. Rather than being disappointed in his son, the father loved him deeply. After searching for his beloved son in the dark of night to no avail, the father knew he had to draw upon his magic. The father used his magic to grow and control his hair to trespass into the realm of the Mimis, his hair wraps around his son and brings him back home, reuniting the two with the boy coming to the realization that he doesn’t need to be a great hunter, as his father had always loved him.
The Mimi, also referred to as Mimih, are ancestral spirits of Arnhem land. The Mimi are similar to their fellow Australian Spirit ancestors, such as the Wandjina of the Wandjina people and the Muramura of the Diyari, with this archetype being a very widespread concept in indigenous Australian lore. The art depicting the Mimi have been traced to being possibly over 50,000 years old, with the age of such paintings leading many to believe that the indigenous Australian spiritualities predate the majority of religions on earth. In the modern day many people have likened the Mimi to the Irish fairy, a spiritual race who hide in different worlds. Despite how hard it’s pushed, the Mimi are unrelated to the Fae, with this conflation coming from people outside the culture or originating as simple comparisons to help understand the concept.
