IDNO

LS.109194.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Australia.
Warramunga.
The men are lying upon and sitting around the dying man. The women are wailing loudly and beckoning towards some men who are running up cutting themselves with stone knives. The decorated men have just been performing a totemic ceremony.”

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.407.ACH1: “Death and burial. Warramunga. North T.C.A. fig.134.”

Group of Waramanga (Warramunga) men and women during the death of a man just after a ceremony. Many of the men have thrown themselves upon the body. Some men are still wearing their corrobboree decorations and are wailing loudly. The women are standing and are pointing to the left. On the right there are bushes of dried leaves.
The landscape in the background consists of shrubbery. [WV 19/2/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramunga

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. 518, with the following caption:
“Death Scene. Warramunga tribe. The men are lying upon and sitting around the dying man. The women are wailing loudly and beckoning towards some men who are running up cutting themselves with stone knives. The decorated men have just been performing a totemic ceremony.” [WV 19/2/2009]

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]

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]

Context: The dying of a man is described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
“Late one afternoon, just before sunset and immediately after the performance of several sacred ceremonies, we were all leaving the corrobboree ground when a sudden loud piercing wail broke out in the direction of the man’s camp. Every one at once knew that the end was near, and with one accord all of the men ran towards the camp as hard as they could, most of them at the same time beginning to howl. Between us and the camp lay a deep creek, and on the bank of this some of the men, scattered about here and there, sat down, bending their heads forwards between their knees while they wept and moaned. Crossing the creek we found that, as usual, the man’s camp had been pulled to pieces. Some of the lubras, who had come from all directions, were lying prostrate on the body, while others were standing or kneeling around, digging the sharp ends of yam-sticks into the crown of their heads, from which the blood streamed down over their faces, while all the time they kept up a loud, continuous wail. Many of the men, rushing up to the spot, threw themselves upon the body, from which the women arose when the men approached, until in a few minutes we could see nothing but a struggling mass of bodies all mixed up together (Fig. 134). To one side three Thapungarti men, who still wore their corrobboree decorations, sat down wailing loudly, with their backs turned towards the dying man, and in a minute or two another man of the same class rushed on to the ground yelling and brandishing a stone knife.” (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 516-517). [WV 19/2/2009]