IDNO

LS.109222.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Arunta.
"QUAB EMUGO of UNTULLEPIRA".
1. ININJA = party of men sent out by older individuals of the tribe to kill someone.
Man decorated + charcoal & lines of white down crouching + shield & spear lying in wait for ?victory.
Ininja Ceremony of the Engwura." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.339.ACH1: "Quab inimja [sic Ininja] of Untullipira. Arunta."

Aranda (Arunta) man crouching during Ininja, carried out as part of the Engwura ceremony and refers to a small party of men sent out by the older men to kill some special individual. The man is holding a spear, a spear-thrower? and a shield. He is decorated with bands of charcoal, edged with white down of which one line is running straight from the top of the helmet along the bridge of the nose and over the upper lip and beard, which is tied back upon the face with hair string. A semicircle of white down surrounds the eyes and is rubbed in black charcoal.
The landscape consists of rocks and a few shrubs. [WV 29/1/2009, from record P.339.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 [Spencer and Gillen 'Arunta' Fieldwork, Summer 1896 - 1897]

Date

?November 1896 - ?February 1897

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

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 10/2/2009]

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 Ininija ceremony, which is carried out as part of the Engwura ceremony and refers to the Kurdaitcha custom, is described in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"During the Engwura which we witnessed a special ceremony was performed which had reference to the Kurdaitcha custom. This was called the Ininja, the word being the name applied to a small party of men sent out by the older men of any group to kill some special individual. The ceremony was in the possession of the Alatunja of a group of Ullakupera (little hawk) men and had been received by him from a group of natives living out to the east In connection with the performance five men were decorated with bands of charcoal edged with white down, a line of the latter running straight from the top of the helmet along the bridge of the nose and then over the upper lip and beard, which was tied back upon the face with hair string. A semicircle of white down, each end of which touched the median line surrounded the eyes. Every man carried a shield, and was either armed with a spear-thrower or boomerang, while one of them carried a long spear, the pointed end of which was decorated with down.
One by one the men ran out with exaggerated high knee action from the group of natives who were assembled at one side of the Engwura ground. Crouching down in various spots, each man lay on the ground with his shield over his head and his body huddled up so as to occupy as little space as
possible. They all lay perfectly still while an old man armed only with a fighting club came and walked about, wandering here and there as if he were looking for some track. Then the Kurdaitcha men arose and one after the other crept stealthily up to him from behind. Suddenly he turned round and caught sight of the Kurdaitcha who were just about to kill him with a boomerang or spear. Then a mock fight took place, in which the Kurdaitcha was always worsted and tumbled down, the old man each time giving him a final tap with his club, which particularly pleased the audience, for in these performances there are certain conventional actions which must be observed the actors. One after another the Kurdaitcha men came up, and each was worsted in his turn. When apparently all had been killed the old man still went wandering about, and the same performance was again gone through. After about fifteen minutes had been spent in this way the old man leisurely walked back to the group of spectators, once more killing each of the men before he got there. When close home a combined attack was made upon him, but with no success, as he killed them all and the performance ended with him standing, brandishing his club over their dead bodies, which were heaped together in front of him. The actions of the old man and of the Kurdaitcha men might have been copied from a stage fight.
Tradition relates that the incident to which the performance
refers actually took place in the far past when a noted warrior slew five Kurclaitchas who followed him as he went out tracking animals for food.
(Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 484-485)
[WV 29/1/2009]