IDNO

LS.109206.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Warramunga.
Final Burial Ceremonies. Women crawling along the trench. The last woman carries behind her back the arm-bone in its decorated sheath of paper bark."

On catalogue card for P.419.ACH1: "Final ceremony. Men standing over trench and women crawling through. Warramunga. North T.C.A. fig. 150."

Group of Waramanga (Warramunga) men and women participating in the final stages of a burial ceremony. The men are standing, legs apart above a trench in which the women are crawling. On their backs, the men are decorated with curvilinear designs in white down? and charcoal? The last woman carried behind her back the arm bone in its decorated sheath of paper bark. There are many dogs? running around. The landscape consists of shrubbery and small trees. [WV 25/2/2009, from record P.419.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

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. 541, fig. 150 with the following caption:
"Final burial ceremonies. Warramunga tribe. Women crawling along the trench. The last woman carries behind her back the arm-bone in its decorated sheath of paper bark." [WV 20/2/2009]

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 final stages of the burial ceremony is described as follows by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"Then the women were summoned from their camp and came across the creek n the corrobboree ground in perfect silence, one aged lubra directing them by signs what to do (Fig. 149). They were all, as before, decorated with red ochre and lines of yellow, and as they approached the trench ranged themselves in single file, the rear being brought up by a young Tjupila woman who carried the burumburu, which was now decorated with a design in black and yellow. In turn each woman came forward, fell down on hands and knees, and in this way crawled along the length of the trench under the straddled legs of the men. As they emerged they stood up and formed themselves into a dense group some little distance in front of the men, with their backs turned towards the latter, so that they could neither see them nor the sacred painting on the ground (Fig. 150). Each woman held her arms high up and her hands clasped behind her head, just as the decorated men did. The file of women rapidly passed through, and as soon as ever the last one rose to her feet the burumburu which she carried was snatched from her by a brother of the dead woman and carried across to where the Panunga man stood ready with uplifted axe (Fig. 151)." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 542). [WV 20/2/2009]