IDNO

LS.109150.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Arunta.
Initiation. Engwura.
The illpongwurra lying down at full length with their heads on the parra, behind wh. are stacked the bushes which they carry when returning for the camp.
(for parra cf. pp. 281,282)." [first manuscript in ink]
"Nat. T.C.A. fig. 77. p.351." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.360.ACH1: "Arunta initiation. Illpongwurra lying down by parra."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men lying down on the parra (a long mound of earth raised during the Engwura ceremony) in the role of Illpongwurra (men passing through the Engwura ceremony). To the right, there is a group of Aranda (Arunta) men sitting around a fire. The background consists of a hill with shrubs and small trees. [WV 21/5/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter [Spencer and Gillen 'Arunta' Fieldwork, Summer 1896 - 1897]

Date

?November 1896 - ?February 1897

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, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 353, fig. 77 with the following caption:
"The Illpongwurra lying down with their heads on the parra, behind which are stacked the bushes which they carry when returning to camp." [WV 4/2/2009]

Publication: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1912. Across Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. , p. with the following caption:
"The young men lying down with their heads on the parra, behind which are stacked the bushes which they carry when returning to camp." [WV 4/2/2009]

Expedition: Note in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927. The Arunta. A Study of a Stone Age People (Macmillan, London), Vol. I , on p. vii states that Baldwin Spencer and Gillen spent four consecutive months with the Aranda (Arunta) people in 1896. The results of this stay were first published in 1899, in the "Native Tribes of Central Australia." [WV 23/1/2009]

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: "Engwura: a series of ceremonies attendant upon the last of the rites concerned with initiation." (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 653). [WV 4/2/2009]

Context: "Parra: a long mound of earth raised during the Engwura ceremony" (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 653). [WV 4/2/2009]

Context: "Illpongwurra: name applied to men passing through the Engwura ceremony. The word means not decorated with grease" (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 653). [WV 4/2/2009]

Context: the lying down on the parra is described as follows in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"After a final pause the Illpongwurra came close up to the women, the foremost amongst whom then seized the dry grass and boughs, and setting fire to them, threw them on to the heads of the men, who had to shield themselves, as best they could, with their boughs. The men with the bull-roarers were meanwhile running around the Illpongwurra and the women, whirling them as rapidly as possible; suddenly turned and went to the second group of women, followed, as they didi so, by those of the first, and here the same performance was again gone through. Suddenly once more the men wheeled round and, followed by both parties of women who were now throwing fire more vigorously than ever, they ran in a body towards the river. On the edge of the bank the women stopped, turned round and ran back, shouting as they did so, to their camp. The Illpongwurra crossed the river bed and then ran on to the Engwura ground where, sitting beside the Parra, was a man decorated for the performance of and Unjiamba ceremony. Still holding their shields, boomerangs, and boughs of Eremophila, they ran round and round him shouting "wha! wha!" Then came a moment’s pause, after which all the men commenced to run round the Parra itself, halting in a body, when they came to the north end to shout "wha! wha! whrr!" more loudly than before. When this had been done several times they stopped, and then each man laid down his shield and boomerangs and placed his bough of Eremophila so that they all formed a line on the east side of and parallel to the Parra, at a distance of two yards from this. When this was done the Illpongwurra came and first of all sat down in a row, so that they just touched the opposite side of the Parra to that on which the bought were placed. In less than a minute’s time they all lay down, in perfect silence, upon their backs, quite close to one another, with each man’s head resting on the Parra. All save one or two old men moved away, and these few stayed to watch the Illpongwurra. For some time not a sound was to be heard. None of them might speak or move without the consent of the old men in whose charge they were. By means of gesture language one or two of them asked for permission to go to the river and drink at a small soakage which had been made in the sand. In a short time they returned, and then it was after dark before they were allowed to rise. The sudden change from the wild dance round the performer and the Parra, accompanied by the loud shouting of the men whose bodies were half hidden by thick clouds of dust, which the strong light of the setting sun illuminated, was most striking. (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 351). [WV 4/2/2009]