Last Week

Two Papuna ladies - the one on the right is Topsy

More ladies

Chris and Mavis watching the movie

Chris, Mavis (front) and Susie (on chair)

Kiddie enjoying the show

Well it was a wash out for the passing down of traditions week - we drove over to Papunya to have a meeting in their art centre - men and women were there as well as a film crew. The men sang and played while the women danced - but only for a bit as I think that they felt a bit silly performing in a shed. So the organisers thought that it would be good to show 2 documentaries of the ceremony - one from the late 70's and the other from the 90's or so. The ceremony took place at Mt Winparrku - basically (from what i understood) its a penacne for the people living on the land to pay to the traditional owners - which I think are descended from Winparrku.

Mt Winparrku - about 35k from Ikuntji

Ceremony goes over a few days - you can see it here: http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/jardiwarnpa-blood-brothers/clip1/


basically it culminates in a big dance where the traditional owners dress with conical hats and pelt the people living on the land with big poles of leaves and ash. The other cover themselves with fat to stop the ash from burning them and also make shields from green leaves - its a way to air grievances - as well as for widows to go through the measures so that they can marry again. At the end of it all they give the owners money and things like blankets as a payment.

Everyone loved the bit where they were getting pelted with the ash - all the women were laughing. We then had chops and salad - chops were a bit of a bad idea as many of the people there were lacking teeth and even me with my full set found it hard to manage.

A few determined camp dogs found their way in - but unfortunately they where shooed away and all the scraps were thrown in the bin - we feed the camp dogs our scraps normally as they tend not to get food all the time at home as they are expected to hunt for themselves.

There is a thing happening at the moment where the land council wants art centres to pay rent to the traditional owners - this normally happens with mining leases etc however the art centre is owned by the community - and some of the traditional owners paint with us - so it seems a bit crazy that they want to take money from something that is only run to benefit the community.