IDNO

LS.109193.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Australia.
Arunta.
Arunta widow smeared with kaolin, and wearing the Aramurilia (woman’s name) or Chimurilia (man’s name) made of animal bones worn during the Urpmilchima ceremony. The bones are fastened by human hair and resin.”

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.405.ACH1: “Widow in mourning.”

Half-length portrait of an Aranda (Arunta) woman wearing an Aramurilia or Chimurilia (headdress made out of bones). Her face, chest and abdomen are smeared with white pipe clay.
The landscape in the background is unclear. [WV 19/2/2009, from record P.405.ACH1, JD 24/8/2012]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; Gillen, Francis James

Date

1894 - 1926

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. with the following caption:
“Widow smeared with kaolin and wearing the chimurilia.” [WV 19/2/2009]

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: Mourning practices are described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
“When a man dies his special Unawa [wife] or Unawas smear their hair, faces and breasts with white pipeclay and remain silent for a certain time until a ceremony called Aralkililima has been performed. The widow is called Inpirta, which means the whitened one in reference to the pipeclay...Previously to this the widow has been saving up small bones of any animal such as the jaws of opossums or rabbit-kangaroos, or leg and arm bones of various small animals. She also procures the same from her tribal sisters. From the female Itia, Allira and Umba of the dead man she obtains short locks of hair to which by means of Atcha, the resin obtained from the porcupine grass, she attaches firmly the bones, which are them hung on, in little groups, to one of the hair head rings which are commonly worn by women. In addition she procures Alpita and makes plumes out of the tail feathers of the ring-necked parrot or of the black cockatoo. In this way a hideous and bulky chaplet is made which the women call Aramurilia and the men Chimurilia - why they should have separate names we cannot say, but they are both applied to the same chaplet and have nothing to do with whether it is concerned with the Urpmilchima of a man or woman. (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 500, 503). [WV 19/2/2009]