IDNO

LS.109135.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Urabunna.
Intichiuma Ceremony of a Snake Totemic group.
The snake man is piercing the skin of his arm with a pointed bone." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. fig. 96a." [second manuscript in ink]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arabana [historically Urabunna]

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. 287, fig. 96a with the following caption: "Intichiuma Ceremony of a Snake Totemic group in the Urabunna tribe." [JD 01/09/2017]

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]

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 Arabana (Urabunna) are described as part of the Dieri nation, which also comprises the Dieri, Urabunna, Yarrawonga and other tribes in the Lake Eyre basin. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 75)

Context: The general term for Intichiuma in the Arabana (Urabunna) tribe is pitjinta, but in addition each totoem group has a separate name for its own ceremony. In the case of the rain group this name is wadni. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 286). [WV 10/2/2009]

Context: The Intichiuma ceremonies of the Urabunna tribe are called pitjinta and described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"At the present day the headman in charge of Tjantjiwanperta makes rain. When performing he wore a headdress of hair-string completely covered over with white down which extended over his shoulders and chest. A single bar of down passed across the stomach and two down each side of the spine. A tuft of cockatoo feathers formed a tip to the head-dress, and bunches of eagle-hawk feathers hung down all round from his waist girdle. He held a spear thrower in his hands. First of all he squatted on the ground in front of the few men who formed the audience, one man sitting down on each side striking the earth with a stone while singing the following refrain- ... The performer rose from the ground to a stooping position, striking out and moving the thrower backwards and forwards, quivering his body and turning his head from side to side. At intervals he lifted his body up as if attempting to rise from the ground, while he gazed into the sky in imitation of the cloud men who, in the Alcheringa, used to go into the sky, forming clouds from which the rain came down. Finally he sat down abruptly and the ceremony was at an end." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 285-286). [WV 10/2/2009]