IDNO

LS.109115.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Warramunga.
Ceremony of the Wollunqua Totem.
Man carrying a curved bundle representing the Wollunqua snake - made of grass stalks bound round with human hair-string & decorated with white down." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. fig. 73. p. 230." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.389.ACH1: "Wollonqua ceremony. Warramunga. Man carrying curved bundle (snake). North T.C.A. fig.73."

A Waramanga (Warramunga) man participating in a ceremony connected to the Wollunqua (mythic snake) totem. On the top of his head, he his wearing a bent cylindrical long object which is made of grass stalks bound round with human hair string and then decorated with white down. It is supposed represent the Wollunqua. The forehead and the chest of the man are decorated with white down.
The landscape in the background consists of shrubbery and a few small trees. [WV 10/2/2009]

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: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 231, fig. 73 with the following caption:
"Ceremony connected with Wollunqua totem. Warramunga tribe. The curved bundle represents the Wollunqua snake." [WV 10/2/2009]

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 ceremony connected with a place Antipataringa and the Wollunqua (mythic snake) totem is described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"Still travelling on underground the Wollunqua reached and halted at a place called Antipataringa. The ceremony connected with this was performed by the same two men as on the first occasion, one of them carrying on his head a curious curved bundle shaped somewhat like an enormous rounded boomerang. This had been made during the course of the day in a secluded part of the bed of the creek by three old Kingilli men, one of whom, a Tjupila man of the Worgaia tribe, took the lead in the preparation for the ceremonies of this totem, as he was one of the very few men who had seen them enacted in their entirety before. No men of the totemic group, or indeed of the Uluuru moiety, were allowed to see the sacred object until it was brought up on to the ceremonial ground just before the performance. It was made of grass stalks bound round with human hair-string, and then decorated with white down, and was supposed to represent the Wollunqua itself. During the ceremony one of the Thapungartu men carried it upon his head in the way shown in the illustrations (Figs, 72, 73, 74). (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 229-230) [WV 10/2/2009]