A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula
The work A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.
The Resource A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula
Ngatjakula
a film by Roger Sandall
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Peterson, Nicolas, 1941-
McKenzie, Kim, 1949-2013
Songs, Walbiri
Technology - Fire
Fire -- Religous aspects
Law enforcement - Customary
Religion - Dreaming - Ancestor spirits
Religion - Rites - Ceremonial objects
Warlpiri (Australian people) -- Rites and ceremonies
Social organisation - Kinship - Systems - Moieties
Music - Vocal - Clan songs
Originally shot in August 1967, the footage in this film was re-examined ten years later by anthropologist Nicolas Peterson. He and filmmaker Roger Sandall had been working with Warlpiri (Walbiri) men in the desert away from the government settlement of Yuendumu in Central Australia. On their return to the settlement, they observed the fire ceremony. One of the most spectacular ceremonies of Central Australia, it employs fire to inflict real and symbolic punishment on those responsible for a social transgression. A painted pole is placed in the ground where the ceremony is to take place, it represents a place near Lake Surprise where an ancestral spirit emerged from the ground. In the course of the ceremony, one of the two main groupings (moieties) within Warlpiri society has the opportunity to exact from the other an acknowledgment of wrong-doing by some of its members. In this instance, the two groups are either the owners of the land or the managers who are relatives of the owners. Both women and men play a role in the ceremony. In his commentary, Peterson explains this social division and the role the ceremony plays in solving disputes within the community. A song cycle is started by the owners creating a verbal map of their country that affirms their claim to it. Many rituals are performed including the painting of the owners and the collection by managers of branches and leaves that will be used to both punish and protect the owners from the fire during the climax of the ceremony. The climax starts by the owners lining up one by one to be hit with small leafy branches by some of the managers that cover the owners in sparks from the fire, while other managers brush the sparks off them. Verbal insults follow and these are also aimed at the non-indigenous people who come to witness the climax of the ceremony. In the final part of the ceremony, the managers sing and dance toward the owners, swinging large branches of burning leaves across the heads of the crowd releasing sparks that in turn release their grievances. The singing and dancing stops at this point and the ceremony ends
AFSA:L
Director, photographer: Roger Sandall; editor, producer: Kim McKenzie
Commentator: Nicolas Peterson
Context of A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula
A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula, a film by Roger Sandall
<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.aiatsis.gov.au/resource/9yToPx48vzA/" typeof="CreativeWork http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Work"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.aiatsis.gov.au/resource/9yToPx48vzA/">A Walbiri fire ceremony : Ngatjakula</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.aiatsis.gov.au/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.aiatsis.gov.au/">Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)</a></span></span></span></span></div>
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http://link.aiatsis.gov.au/resource/9yToPx48vzA/
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