IDNO

LS.109196.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Australia.
Warramunga.
Releasing a woman from a ban of silence. She makes a present of food and in turn bites the finger of each of the men who are releasing her.”

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.386.ACH1: “Releasing women from ban of silence - biting finger. Warramunga. Across Australia, II, fig.264.”

An Aranda (Arunta) man releasing an Aranda (Arunta) woman from the band of silence. Both are a member of the Warramunga tribe. The man is standing with his right arms stretched out on the left side of the woman. The woman is biting the man’s hand. The man has cicatrisation and is wearing a waist belt and the woman is wearing a small skirt and a head band.
The landscape in the background consists of shrubbery and a few small trees. [WV 9/2/2009, from record P.386.ACH1, JD 24/8/2012]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramunga

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; Gillen, Francis James

Date

1894 - 1912

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, 1912. Across Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2 , p. 392, fig. 264 with the following caption:
“Releasing a woman from the ban of silence.” [WV 9/2/2009]

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]

Date: It is not clear when exactly this photograph was taken. It was taken during Walter Baldwin Spencer’s expeditions:
“In 1894, as Zoologist on the Horn Expedition, I had the opportunity of seeing not only the Lake Amadeus region but the whole of the country drained by the great Finke River, including the wonderful McDonnell Ranges. It was then that I met Mr. F. J. Gillen, my late friend and comrade during many years of work amongst the Central aborigines. In 1895, in company with Mr. P.M. Byrne, then in charge of the telegraph station at Charlotte Waters, I had the good fortune of being able to see the southern part of the interior after a heavy rainfall. This enabled me to study the animal life of a very typical part of Central Australia in a way that it was impossible to do during the dry season that we experienced on the Horn Expedition. In 1896, 1897, and 1898 Mr. Gilled and myself were working amongst the Arunta at Alice Springs and the Urabunna tribe in the Lake Eyre district. Later on, still working amongst the natives, we spent a year, extending from March 1901 to March 1902, in a traverse of the continent from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then across, eastwards, to Borraloola at the mouth of the Macarthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1911 I was the leader of a small expedition sent by the Commonwealth Government to make preliminary scientific investigations into conditions in the Northern Territory, and traversed the country from Darwin southwards and then eastwards along the Roper River to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In December 1911, at the request of the Commonwealth Government, I returned for a year to the Territory as Special Commissioner and Chief Protector of Aborigines, which gave me the opportunity of seeing much of the country and of studying the natives under very favourable conditions.” [WV 16/2/2009]

Context: Many women fall under the ban of silence after mourning ceremonies in the Warramunga tribe. The way a woman is released from the ban of silence is described in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
“As a general rule the women are released from their ban within a few months, or at most a year. One day, when we were wandering about the camp at Tennant Creek, we saw a little ceremony which consisted in a man and woman standing side by side while the former held out his hand for the latter to bite (Fig. 264). In this simple way the woman was released from the ban, but she had to present the man with an offering of food. Occasionally the women prefer to remain under the ban for a long time, ... (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1912. Across Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2 , p. 394). [WV 9/2/2009]