IDNO

LS.109114.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Warramunga.
Intichiuma Ceremony of the Black-Snake Totem.
a ground drawing." [first manuscript in ink]
"cf North. T.C.A. fig. 100. p. 303." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.395.ACH1: "Black snake Initiation ground-drawing. Warramunga. cf. North T.C.A. fig. 100."

Group of nine Waramanga (Warramunga) men positioned around a
ground drawing made on a background of red ochre. A curved branching line about three inches in width is first of all outlined in white dots and then all of the remainder of the space is filled in with similar dots, completely enclosing the curved line, which represent the creek and its banks. Five man are standing upright are have their upper bodies and faces decorated with curvilinear designs. The designs extend onto their conical hats which have tufts of eagle-hawk? feathers at the top. They are further wearing waistbelts. The four other men who are kneeling down have chilara (head bands) and full beards and moustaches.
The landscape in the background consists of shrubbery. [WV 18/2/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramuga [also known as Warumungu]

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. 303, fig. 100 with the following caption:
"Preparing a ground-drawing in connection with a ceremony of the black-snake totem. Warramunga tribe." [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: The drawing, made as part of a ceremony of the Intichiuma ceremonies is explained in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"A small space a few feet square was smoothed down, its surface damped, and covered with red ochre. A curved branching line about three inches in width was first of all outlined in white dots and then all of the remainder of the space was filled in with similar dots, completely enclosing the curved line, which represented the creek and its banks. Finally, when the old snake had finished making the Macdouall Ranges and the creeks running out from them as far as Mount Cleland on the east side, he came back to his original home at Tjinqurokora, and the remaining two ceremonies were concerned with incidents which happened there. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 303). [WV 18/2/2009]