IDNO

LS.109109.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Arunta.
Ceremony of the Udniringita Witchetty (grub) Totem." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. p.180." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.374.ACH1: "Witchetty grub ceremony. Arunta. North T.C.A. p.180."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men participating in the ceremony of the Udniringata (a grub) totem. The men on the left are decorated with white down covering his back and upper arms. His face is painted? with white pipe clay? and he is holding a decorated shield. A few of the other men have white pipe clay? around the eyes and on the forehead. The landscape in the background consists of grasses and shrubs. [WV 5/2/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Northern Tribes of Central Australia fieldwork by Baldwin Spencer, Walter and Gillen, Francis James [March 1901 - March 1902]

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

Publication: Similar image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 181, fig. 45 with the following caption:
"Ceremony of Udniringita (a grub) totem. Arunta tribe."

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 ceremony of the Udniringita totem is described as follows in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"The first performance was connected with the Unchalka grub of a place called Adnuringa, and as usual, during the preparation for the ceremony, no one was allowed to be present except the members of the totem. The upper part of the performer’s body was decorated with lines of white and red down, and a shield was ornamented with a number or larger and smaller series of concentric circles of down. The former, according to the natives, represented the Unchalka bush on which the grub lives first of all, and the latter the Udniringa bush, on which the adult insect lays its eggs. The shield is spoken of as churinga alkurta.
When the decoration of the shield and performers was complete, the men in camp were called up and seated themselves on the ground in silence, forming a semicircle in front of the performer, who alternately bent his body double upon the ground and lifted himself up on his knees; as he did so he quivered his extended arms, which were supposed to represent the wings of the insect. Every now and again he bent forward, swaying up and down and from side to side over the shield, in imitation of the insect hovering over the bushes on which it lays its eggs (Fig. 45). as soon as this ceremony was over the audience arose and silently walked across to the spot which the performer of the second sat on the ground with two decorated shields beside him." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 179-180). [WV 5/2/2009]

Cultural Group: The group photographed have been identified as belonging to the Warlpiri language group by Joe Neparrnga Gumbula, Arnhem Land. [JD 10/7/2012]