IDNO

LS.109108.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Arunta.
INTICHIUMA of the UNJIAMBA or HAKEA
flower totem.
Young man opening vein in arm, letting blood sprinkle the stone ( = churinga) which is supposed to represent a mass of Hakea flowers." [first manuscript in ink]
"Nat. T.C.A. p.184." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.344.ACH1: "Uujiaiuba critichiuma [sic Unjiamba Intichiuma], p.184."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men, sitting in a semicircle and performing the Intichiuma ceremony of the Unjiamba (Hakea flower) totem. One man is holding a wooden? container and is pouring blood onto an oval-shaped stone which at its base is surrounded by small rocks. All men have full beards and moustaches. The fifth man from the left is wearing a nose bone ornament.
The landscape consists of grasses, shrubs and a few trees.
[WV 29/1/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; Gillen, Francis James

Date

1894 - 1926

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

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: "Unjiamba: Name of the flower of a species of Hakea which gives its name to a totem." (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 656) [WV 29/1/2009]

Context: The Inchiuma ceremony of the Unjiamba of Hakea Flower is described as follows in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"At a place called Ilyaba the ceremony is perfo rmed by men of the Bulthara and Panunga classes, and the exact spot at which it takes place is a shallow, oval-shaped pit, by the side of which grows an ancient Hakea tree. In the centre of the depression is a small projecting and much worn block of stone, which is supposed to represent a mass of Unjiamba or Hakea flowers, the tree being the Nanja tree of an Alcheringa woman whose reincarnation is now alive.
Before the ceremony commences the pit is carefully swept clean by an old Unjiamba man, who then strokes the stone all over with his hands. When this has been done the men sit around the stone and a considerable time is pent in singing chants, the burden of which is a reiterated invitation to the Unjiamba tree to flower much, and to the blossoms to be full of honey. Then the old leader asks one of the young men to open a vein in his arm, which he does, and allows the blood to sprinkle freely over the stone, while the other men continue singing. The blood flows until the stone is completely covered, the flowing of blood being supposed to represent the preparation of Abmoara, that is, the drink which is made by steeping the flower in water, this being a very favourite beverage of the natives. As soon as the stone is covered with blood the ceremony is complete.
The stone is regarded as a Churinga, and the spot is ekirinja, or forbidden to the women, children and uninitiated men. (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 184-185) [WV 29/1/2009]

Date: It is not clear when exactly this photograph was taken. It was taken during Walter Baldwin Spencer’s expeditions starting in 1894 and ending in 1926. This is how he summarises his research trips:
"In 1894, as Zoologist on the Horn Expedition, I had the opportunity of seeing not only the Lake Amadeus region but the whole of the country drained by the great Finke River, including the wonderful McDonnell Ranges. It was then that I met Mr. F. J. Gillen, my late friend and comrade during many years of work amongst the Central aborigines. In 1895, in company with Mr. P.M. Byrne, then in charge of the telegraph station at Charlotte Waters, I had the good fortune of being able to see the southern part of the interior after a heavy rainfall. This enabled me to study the animal life of a very typical part of Central Australia in a way that it was impossible to do during the dry season that we experienced on the Horn Expedition. In 1896, 1897, and 1898 Mr. Gilled and myself were working amongst the Arunta at Alice Springs and the Urabunna tribe in the Lake Eyre district. Later on, still working amongst the natives, we spent a year, extending from March 1901 to March 1902, in a traverse of the continent from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then across, eastwards, to Borraloola at the mouth of the Macarthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1911 I was the leader of a small expedition sent by the Commonwealth Government to make preliminary scientific investigations into conditions in the Northern Territory, and traversed the country from Darwin southwards and then eastwards along the Roper River to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In December 1911, at the request of the Commonwealth Government, I returned for a year to the Territory as Special Commissioner and Chief Protector of Aborigines, which gave me the opportunity of seeing much of the country and of studying the natives under very favourable conditions. In 1923, in company with Dr. L. Keith Ward, the Government Geologist of South Australia, I had the opportunity of traversing again a considerable area of the Macdonnell Ranges, and finally, in 1926, visited Alice Springs in order to revise and extend the earlier work of Mr. Gillen and myself amongst the Arunta people." [WV 16/2/2009]