IDNO

LS.109125.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Umbaia.
Totemic Ceremony, Arrambalja.
Performance on the ceremonial ground. Ceremonies connected with the Fly, Lizard and Wallaby totems. Two strangers from the Gnanji tribe in row behind. The orist man carries the anjulukuli sacred stone which no women & children may see." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. fig. 219. fig. 70." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.383.ACH1: "Umbaia. North T.C.A. fig.70. Sacred ceremony of Umbaia tribe (Fly, Lizard and Wallaby totems)."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men participating in the ceremonies connected to the fly, lizard, and wallaby totems. The men in the centre are decorated with charcoal and white feathers lain out in a linear pattern and extending from the conical hat down to the to the thigh. The onlookers are wearing full beards and moustaches and are carrying boomerangs.
The landscape in the background consists of small trees. [WV 9/2/2009, description from record P.383.ACH1, JD 01/09/2017]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Umbaia [also known as Wambaia; Wambaja; Wom-By-A; Wombya; Yumpia; Wambaya]

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

The negative was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C96/34/ which was in a wooden box now marked C96/. The envelope (C96/34/) is re-housed in Neg. Env. Box 2. which is stored in storage Box A in the Photo Archive room.

Publication: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 219, fig. 70 with the following caption:
"Performers on the ceremonial ground. Ceremonies connected with the fly, lizard, and wallaby totems. Umbaia tribe." [WV 9/2/2009]

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]

Context: The ceremonies connected with totems are described as follows by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"In each case ceremonies of three or four totems were enacted together. A space, measuring about thirty feet in length by five in width, was cleared of grass and debris to form a definite ceremonial round, such as we had not met with in other tribes. It was of course some distance away from the main camp, just over the brow of a slight rise, so that the performers. Although the scrub was thin, could not be seen by women and children who might be in the camp. At one end of this space the performers squatted in single file on their haunches, while the men forming the audience arranged themselves in two lines, one on either side of the space, with perhaps a few men squatting in the rear, immediately behind the performers, as represented in the illustration (Fig. 70). On this occasion there were two strangers present from the Gnanji tribe, and the were thus placed in the background. The first man carried a curious oval, red-ochred stone which he held in both hands. It is called anjulukuli, and is regarded as sacred, women and children never being allowed to see it. What exactly was its significance the natives did not appear to know, but their ancestors had always used it, and so did they. Possibly it may be – though, apart from its shape and evidently sacred nature there is no evidence to prove this – a relic of a time when sacred stone Churinga were used in the ceremonies. However, whatever its meaning may be, it forms now an essential part of the paraphernalia of the sacred ceremonies which we saw. When all was ready the audience began to beat their boomerangs together, and the first man, rising to his feet, ran along to the end of the cleared space with the usual high-knee action, turning his body from side to side as he pushed the stone outwards at arm’s length (Fig. 71)." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 218-220). [WV 9/2/2009]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Aboriginal Visual Histories Project, Monash University. [Wonu Veys 18/2/2009]