IDNO

LS.109105.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia, WARRAMUNGA.
Fire Ceremony.
Men dancing and jeering at others who are shut up in the bough wurley." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. fig. 118. p.384." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.397.ACH1: "Fire ceremony. Men jeering. Warramunga. North T.C.A. fig. 118."

Group of Waramanga (Warramunga) men dancing and jeering in front of a wurley bush where other men who are participating in the fire ceremony are hidden. Some of the men are wearing white chilara (head bands). They are all wearing waist belts and seem to have full beards? and moustaches?

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramuga [also known as Warumungu]

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Similar image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 386, fig. 118 with the following caption:
"Fire ceremony. Men dancing and jeering at others who are shut up in te bough wurley." [WV 18/2/2009]

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: Part of the fire ceremony is described by Baldwin and spencer as follows:
"Very early the next morning a bough wurley was built, and into this the Uluuru men went, accompanied by a few of the Kingilli men,and for hours they kept up a continuous singing to the accompaniment of beating boomerangs. The air inside the wurley, upon which the sun shone down hotly, was simply stifling, but the men did not seem to mind this, and the singing, which referred to the progress of the fire ceremony across the country from the far north-east, went on without any intermission. About noon the Kingilli men began to decorate five of the Uluuru men who were to take a special part in the performance. this was done inside the wurley, and every now and again the Kingilli men, who were not actually engaged in the decorating work, came and danced wildly outside the entrance, jeering at the Uluuru men imprisoned within. During the course of the morning the long twig torches were brought up by the Kingilli and placed slanting against the wurley. After a time each of them was lifted up by a Kingilli man, and, holding them in both hands, the twelve men danced and pranced about in front of the opening, first of all facing the Uluuru inside, and then turning their backs upon them, singing wildly as they did so (Figs. 116, 117). When this was over the torches were again placed slanting against the wurley, on the side away from the women’s camp, and the men continued dancing outside, clapping their hands together (Fig. 118). The dancing and singing continued all day long without cessation, to the accompaniment of beating boomerangs, until just before sunset, when all of the men, except those who had been decorated, came outside, and some of them began to paint their bodies with smears of pipeclay and lines of yellow ochre. " (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 382-384). [WV 18/2/2009]