IDNO

LS.109213.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Arunta.
Scene in the Illionpa Corrobboree, depicting a man giving mauia to another individual who is supposed to be lying asleep. The man carries the mauia or stone containing evil magic between his toes."

On Catalogue Card: "Giving maria [sic mauia] (poison). North. T.C.A. fig.130."

Group of seven Aranda (Arunta) men participating in the Illionpa corrobboree. One man lying on the ground on a bed of dried? leaves is supposed to be asleep. Another man, carrying the mauia (stone containing evil magic) between his toes is applying evil magic. All men have full beards and body decoration that possibly consists of white down? and charcoal? on the chest, abdomen and thighs and feathers? around the ankles. The five men in the background are wearing conical hats and the man in the front is wearing a cylindrical headdress.
The landscape in the background consists of hills with shrubbery and trees. [WV 5/2/2009, from record P.365.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

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. 468, fig. 130 with the following caption:
"Scene in the Illionpa corrobboree depicting a man giving mauia to another individual who is supposed to be lying asleep" [WV 5/2/2009]

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]

Context: the way evil magic is applied is explained in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"Amongst the Kaitish, Warramunga, and northern tribes generally a very potent form of evil magic, called mauia, is supposed to be associated with certain special little stones. The latter are only actually procured and endowed with their evil magic by members of the Worgaia and Gnanji tribes, who call the magic maringilitha, but they are traded away south as far as the Kaitish tribe, and members of the latter will occasionally use mauia when they desire to injure an Arunta man. Each little stone is wrapped up in fold after fold of paper bark and string. When it is used amongst the southern tribes, the usual plan is to powder a little off on to the tip of a spear, and then to drop it very quietly on to the victim’s body while he is asleep. Sometimes a little will be carried on a bit of bark between the toes, and may thus be dropped without exciting suspicion on to a sleeping man. A native act of doing this is represented in one of the scenes during the performance of the Illionpa corrobboree (Fig. 130)." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 467, fig. 130). [WV 5/2/2009]