IDNO

LS.109100.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia, WARRAMUNGA.
Fire Ceremony.
Men kneeling down & swaying about from side to side waddled onwards to approach the women.
The man keeping time by beating on the ground with a shield." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. p. 377-8." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.400.ACH1: "Men kneeling going round pole in front of women. Fire ceremony, Warramunga. North T.C.A. p.377-78."

Group of Waramanga (Warramunga) men and women? performing around a thin pole. The men are kneeling with their hands in their necks, facing the pole. The women? and children are standing and facing the men. One man on the right is kneeling and holding a pitchi (wooden container). He is also wearing a white chilara (head band). On the right there is a kangaroo? and in the front a white dog?.
The landscape in the back consists of shrubbery and small trees. [WV 19/2/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramuga [also known as Warumungu]

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

March 1901 - March 1902

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Expedition: Baldwin Spencer and Gillen spent one year from March 1901 to March 1902 in a traverse from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then across, eastwards to Borraloola at the mouth of the Macarthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. (Baldwin Spencer, W., 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 1, p. xvi). [WV 10/2/2009]

Cultural Group: Baldwin Spencer and Gillen describe the Waramanga [Warramunga] nation as including the Warramunga, Worgaia, Tjingilli, Umbaia, Bingongina, Walpari, Wulmala, and Gnanji tribes. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 75). [WV 10/2/2009]

Photographer: Note in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927, p. xiii states all photos were taken by the authors. [WV 23/1/2009]

Context: The fire ceremony amongst the Waramanga is explained in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"Very early the next morning, before sunrise, the men were u and began painting themselves with lines of yellow ochre. Just as the sun rose, the women grouped themselves together and began dancing in the manner characteristic of them when they are taking part in a ceremony. The hands are either held in front with the elbows bent and moved as if inviting the men to come on, or else they are moved together and the body swayed backwards and forwards with a bending movement at the hips and knees. As soon as the women were assembled the men formed into single file, and, while one or two kept time to one side, beating on the ground with a shield, the others advanced in a sinuous line, every man with his hands clasped behind his neck. After moving slowly forward for a short distance, the men one after the other knelt down on their knees, and swaying about from side to side waddled onwards to meet the women. the front men rose to their feet before those in the rear of the fantastic procession were down on their knees. producing thus a kind of undulatory motion (figs. 114, 115). When within a short distance of the women all of the men arose and came on bending their bodies and swaying from side to side with exaggerated high knee action. Suddenly wheeling round, they turned, passed by in front of the women, and ran back to their camp. An hour later the behind; the others had gone out into the scrub for a few days in one direction and the women in another, as until the ceremony was complete the younger men passing through it were under the charge of old men, and were not allowed to have any intercourse with the lubras." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 377-378). [WV 18/2/2009]