The
role of this brief article is to clarify and discuss some
terms and to dispel some of the myths and fallacies about
the Yolngu world present in recent and popular print. There
has been much written about Yolngu and their world and much
written about Aboriginal people in Australia generally.
There is a common perception that beliefs held by any particular
Aboriginal group are pan-Australian. This is often not the
case, and even amongst single cultural blocs there is much
diversity in mythological and spiritual belief. The Yolngu
are no exception. While the work of some writers has been
rigorous in this regard (see Suggested
Reading below) it still appears that Yolngu perceptions
of cosmos are more complex than this. In my following comments,
I too need to generalize. The reasons being that I am not
privy to deeper and specific knowledge; that I am not in
a position to speak for others about their cultural beliefs;
and that there are things that should remain only within
the Yolngu realm.
So it
should be kept in mind that this article is also of a general
nature and it should be realized that what is held to be
the truth by Yolngu in one part of eastern Arnhem Land is
not necessarily the case in another part of that same cultural/linguistic
region. Even Yolngu debate the finer points of such matters.
Yolngu
see the world quite differently to us in that our reality
consists of the tangible and physical dimensions of our
lives. Yolngu sometimes describe this as the “outside”,
and that which is visible. The “inside” is that which is
hidden from view and which is also a reality for Yolngu.
Knowledge of this inside aspect to existence is vital to
Yolngu and often far more important than the outside dimension.
Yolngu also believe in the existence of spirits, the souls
of the deceased and the actions of malevolent spirits in
bringing about sickness and death and of beneficial spirits
to heal.
Yolngu
believe they come from a hidden world within the depths
of the clan waters. This is a place within the clan’s estate,
a waterhole or river, from which all members of their clan
arise and to which (for many clans) they return. They exist
there before they are born and as such have identity before
they come “outside” where they are manifest in a physical
form.
It appears
that all things in the Yolngu cosmos have these inner and
outer realities and this duality of form. All things in
the Yolngu world are not necessarily as they appear “outside”.
Sometimes things look nothing like we expect when they are
outside, and things can morph (djambi) as they move
from one of these dimensions to another. As an example some
fish and planets are one and the same!! The Sun changes
into the Barracuda when it sets in the sea (enters the inside),
and then reverts again before it comes outside (rises).
The Moon and the Trevally, the same. Because of this, some
objects that are apparently inanimate move about or act
as though they are human or animal in form; eg: a canoe
may be sleeping or standing when described in a story or
song. It’s difficult for us to grasp this trait, that a
canoe can be sleeping, and this may be because we perceive
time in a different way to Yolngu.
The
belief that the inner dimensions of things are their true
identity is manifest in the physical change that can be
seen by all of us when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.
Yolngu see the butterfly as the inner, hidden reality within
the caterpillar that at some stage will morph and emerge
into the outside world. The inner essence of both is the
same, they just appear differently to our eyes at different
times. There are of course many insects that undergo such
remarkable transformations; phenomena that are still not
fully understood. Incredible aquatic carnivores that mature
into airborne hunters, flesh-eating maggots that become
nectar-feeding flies. (Interestingly, Barramundi, a northern
Australian fish species, are all born females and some differentiate
into males at maturity).
And
so this incomprehensibly different perception of time is
possibly where confusion arises about the ‘dreaming’ or
‘dreamtime’. These terms inadequately describe the way in
which traditional Aboriginal people understand and relate
to their ancestral past and present. It would take an entire
essay, rather than a single word, to convey something of
the essence of the complex concepts involved.
Yolngu
perceive time on a different scale to us; a continuum where
the past, present and future doesn’t exist as we know it.
The “Dreaming” is the distant ancestral past, the present
and the future, another dimension that is hidden from the
mundane everyday,...it is of the “inside”. It is this way
because Yolngu do not believe that the inner reality of
things change; that this dimension is always the same (the
caterpillar and the butterfly again), and so by extension
(for us), no change means there is no time. Maybe it is
the scale/quality of time that appears to be different though?
Certainly Yolngu use a range of terms equivalent to the
‘distant past’, ‘yesterday’, ‘now’, ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’,
‘sometime in the future’, so it is much more complex than
we are yet able to understand.
Waanga
(w^\a)
literally means ‘home’ or ‘country’; the clan estate over
which the clan hunts and gathers and in which they usually
reside, but as with many words in the Yolngu lexicon it
can mean several other things. (Even in English, ‘home’
has several meanings; a place where someone lives; a place
where someone was born or raised; a point of origin as in
a game, to name a few). Within this clan country is the
ancestral home for those clan members and the place from
which their very essence arose; not always the place in
which someone is conceived. This place, often a sacred waterhole,
is the place from which all things within that clan’s country
arose and where an individual existed before coming “outside”,
being born. It contains the souls of the unborn and the
souls of deceased clan members. All things of import to
that clan reside there. Their past/ancestry, their future,
and also the powerful objects (rangga - ra\ga)
left there by their ancestors while they lived there or
as they travelled through that tract of country. These objects
are the physical remnants of those ancestors and contain
the very essence of them. Sometimes they are referred to
as ngaraka (\araka),
literally their “bone”. They may or may not bear any physical
resemblance to the ancestor, but inside, they are one and
the same, an actual piece of them. People and country are
therefore inseparable. They have the same identity and people
relate to country, literally, as they do to actual relatives
(gurrurtu - gurru=u).
They will refer to country as their ‘mother’ or ‘mother’s
mother’ because they have kinship ties to individuals from
that country in that same relationship. Kinship maps directly
on to country.While these sacred objects (rangga - ra\ga)
are hidden they are “inside” and they are brought “outside”
for ceremonies, bringing with them this inherent power (ganydjarr),
knowledge (stories, designs etc) and identity for revelation
to attendees and at the same time bringing the past to the
present.
The
term, “songline” was popularised by the writer Bruce Chatwin
to describe a set of songs/stories that recount the actions
of ancestral beings as they journeyed across the landscape
in the ancestral past. Often referred to in the past by
anthropologists as 'song cycles' but now exploited and exaggerated
by the New Age movement (and even professional social ecology/humanities
types) to create a fallacious notion that these "dreaming
tracks" are continuous lines crossing the entire continent
(possibly confused with past Aboriginal trade routes), this
somewhat disrespectful idea does not take into account diversity
amongst Aboriginal cultures within Australia and their need
to retain and assert individual group identity.
The
actions of certain ancestors and their travels are recounted
in various Yolngu stories and songs and there are instances
where these events do indeed cross clan estates or even
the entire northeastern corner of Arnhem Land (several hundred
kilometres), such as the Djang'kawu (Dja\’kawu)
and Waagilak (W^gilag),
but they do have a beginning and an end. They do not continue
on into the desert and into completely different cultural
blocs (unrelated linguistic and cultural units). Yolngu
sometimes remark that they do not know what happens beyond
those points and don’t seem to be concerned about their
fate.
Yolngu
life is about learning the real meaning of ones’ identity,
their cosmos and their place within it and amassing the
clans’ knowledge. Attendance at ceremonies reveals aspects
of a person’s identity and so this will go on until they
draw their final breath and return to the inside, aided
on their journey by the performance of song and dance to
which they are related.
During
a ceremony, peoples’ obligations are determined by their
kinship relationships, which as already mentioned above,
is the same as the way they relate to each other’s clan
ancestry. Ceremony also allows groups to affirm connections
and ties to other kin/groups (as with the Djang'kawu
(Dja\’kawu)
and Waagilak (W^gilag)
mentioned above) and also to assert differences that
demonstrate group identity. Things that are in common and
shared by groups are strengthened and at the same time,
things that mark groups as being different and provide for
rights to particular sites, or governance/control/maintenance
of songs/myth, are asserted. The travels of ancestors like
the Djang'kawu (Dja\’kawu)
and Waagilak (W^gilag),
for example, tie all Dhuwa clans together, but the
origins of Yirritja languages, clan estates and clan
identities etc are held with Yirritja ancestors.
Same people, same culture, different beliefs.
During
the creation of a painting (or other ‘art’ object), an artist
may make an effort to impart aesthetics to a work to increase
its’ value (in the commercial market) or to reflect the
inherent beauty present in the natural world, but it is
far more important to depict the correct subject and design
as each artwork is a manifestation of their clan estate,
another outside version of the inner reality and also one
facet of the physical representation of the artists’ own
identity. While an artist may impart some changes to a work
that identifies them as the painter, the subject matter
and design are fairly rigid. Paintings, and designs within
paintings, encode title deeds to clan country and depict
facets of the inner reality in a metaphorical manner. There
are many layers of meaning in each painting/design (miny’tji)
of which we can only usually be privy to the lesser meanings.
While a subject within a painting may be obvious as a particular
animal or bird and bear that animal or birds’ name, it will
always hold another meaning to the artist and to the artists’
clan (or others with knowledge of that clan’s country, or
a particular relationship to the artists’ country). While
people may speak of a subject as being their “totem”, this
is an expression we’ve used which they’ve adopted, thinking
that we understand the relationship of that species to them.
The word totem is derived from a Native American (Ojibway)
word and appears to describe something used as an emblem
for a clan, group or family unit. Some western definitions
of the term include ‘worship’ but this is an incorrect interpretation.
For Yolngu the relationship is not a totemic one in which
an organism is worshiped (revered/idolised as a god), but
one where the individual is related to the animal or bird
as if they were actual kin. They have both arisen from the
same country. They have both come outside and manifest as
different forms, but inside they are the same!! This can
only be described as worship in that there is a degree of
adoration and/or devotion towards this object/organism.
For
Yolngu, to paint subject matter and designs that belong
to someone else is to paint an aspect of anothers’ identity.
This is not allowed unless there is some special dispensation
by the owners of the design to allow for this (such as their
clan dying out). Such a decision cannot be made by an individual
because these things belong to all members of the clan or
group. Paintings and designs, like language, manikay
(clan song), clapstick patterns and rangga (ra\ga)
are owned by the individuals and groups to which that painting/design,
language, object, belong. People must paint their own designs
and subject matter as an expression of themselves and their
group origins. Paintings were, on occasion, executed upon
bark prior to white contact, but mostly they were (and still
are) used as body designs in ceremony. Because they are
an aspect of identity they are painted upon the chest for
initiations, and in the past on the body of the deceased
and the hollow log coffin. These days, hollow log coffins
are no longer used for interment because of Australian law,
and so the design is often painted upon the coffin lid prior
to burial. Hollow log coffins are still made and painted
for the arts industry.
Common
to many Yolngu paintings is cross-hatching (rarrk).
This is one of several patterns that denote aspects of the
inside. Cross-hatching imbues a painting with a shimmering
quality (bir’yun). It can do weird things to our
eyes and when it does this is known to be an outside manifestation
of the inside power of the design. It is a traditional painting
technique used in western and eastern Arnhem Land and Groote
Eylandt, not beyond the Top End of the Northern Territory.
Yolngu
recognise individual’s talents as a part of a person’s identity
and value everyones role in the community, regardless of
whom they are. Everyone has a role to play in both everyday
and ceremonial life. There is a philosophy that underpins
Yolngu understandings of ecology and interaction and can
be seen in models in nature where many individuals contribute
to an outcome that is greater than anything a single individual
can achieve. For example, a few species of native bee are
social insects that build a hive of several thousand individuals
that each has a role to play and they work together for
a common goal. Each bee fulfils its’ role and without performing
the tasks of another individual of another caste. In addition,
the hive produces unique substances unknown outside of the
hive, honey and wax, which can only be produced by such
cooperation. Yolngu see such activities as an expression
of model interactions and a balance in relationships and
life.
Peter
R. Lister
March 2004
Some
Suggested Reading
Buku-Larrngay
Mulka Centre (1999) Saltwater: Yirrkala Bark Paintings
of Sea Country. Catalogue of exhibition. Buku-Larrnggay
Mulka Centre / Jennifer Isaacs Publishing. ISBN 0 646 377027
Keen,
I (1994) Knowledge
and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion: Yolngu of North-East
Arnhem Land, Oxford Uni. Press. ISBN 0 19 550752
5.
Morphy,
H (1991) Ancestral
Connections, Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge,
University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0 226 53865 6, ISBN 0
226 53866 4.
Rudder,
J (1999) The Natural World of the “Yolngu” the Aboriginal
People of North East Arnhem Land., Restoration House
(publishers). ISBN 0 86942 100 X.
