Dowling College
ASC 183

Presentation write-up

For my presentation I choose to discuss the mourning rituals of the Arunta and Warramunga tribes of Australia, which are aboriginal societies. The mourning rituals of these tribes are very similar and vary only during the burial of the deceased. I started my presentation by giving the following background information regarding the beliefs of both tribes. The Arunta and Warramunga tribe’s incorporate rituals into every aspect of daily life, and the customs associated with death are of the utmost importance. They centered their lives on a strong belief and connection to the spirit world, which is evident by their mourning rituals. Therefore, these cultures participate in complex mourning rituals concerned with helping the spirit return to the land of the dead and allow the life of the tribe to get back to normal.

The tribes that I discussed and the information, which I presented, were observed in the early 1900s. Therefore, the rituals and mourning customs I detailed may not exist in this exact format today. Aboriginal societies do exist in Australia today; however, for the most part they have assimilated themselves into modern Australian culture. Furthermore, the mourning customs I discussed were those that applied when a well-liked man had passed away. The rituals would change if the deceased person were a woman, if he/she was not well liked, or if an infant had died.

The first topic I discussed was the burial of a body in the Arunta and Warramunga tribes. Within a very short time of death the body of an Arunta tribes person is buried in the earth. In the Warramunga tribe, the body is taken to a remote area (outside of the village) and placed on a platform in a tree until the corpse has rotted and only the bones are left. Once the body had decomposed, select members of the tribe remove the bones from the platform, clean them and bury them in the earth. In both tribes as soon as burial has taken place the camp where the death occurred is burnt down and all of the contents of the camp are destroyed. The entire tribe then relocates to a different area. This is to destroy anything that may be familiar to the spirit, so that it will not follow the tribe and haunt the tribe’s people.

Once the burial occurs, the mourning process can begin. The mourning periods of these tribes are lengthy and are divided into two phases. The burning down of the deceased’s camp marks the commencement of the first phase of mourning. During the first phase life changes dramatically for the entire tribe and it can last for a period of 12-18 months. During this period no person is permitted to mention the name of the deceased, except if absolutely necessary, and then only in a whisper. The reason for this is the tribe is afraid that uttering the dead man’s name will disturb and annoy his spirit. Furthermore, if a dead man hears his name his spirit will think that his people are not mourning him properly and he will haunt them in their sleep.

In addition, to not speaking the dead man’s name, the entire tribe is prohibited from visiting his grave – until the ceremony of Urpmilchima, which takes place during the second phase of mourning.

Other forms of mourning, which are completed by the entire tribe include the tribe’s people inflicting bodily harm on themselves to show that they are in mourning. For example, the Gammona of the deceased, which are the single men of the tribe that are eligible to marry the dead man’s daughter – cut themselves on the shoulder when their possible father-in law or Ikuntera dies. In fact – every man bears on his shoulders the raised scars that remain to show that he has properly mourned his Ikuntera. Women and other men of the tribe may also inflict wounds on their bodies to show that they are in mourning.

A widow or Inpirta in the Arunta and Warramunga tribe must complete a very long and complex set of mourning rituals. From the time of her husband’s death, the widow lives separated from the rest of the tribe in the Erlukwirra – or woman’s camp, where the unmarried girls and women live. In certain tribes, not the Arunta or Warramunga tribes however, the widow cuts her hair. She then cuts open the middle line of her scalp and runs a fire stick along the wound. In general, the widow or widows smear their hair, faces and breasts with white pipe clay, which is where the term Inpirta comes from because it means the whitened one in reference to the pipe clay.

Furthermore the widow must remain silent for a certain time until a ceremony called the Araklililima has been performed.

During this time of silence, which may last up to 12 months the women communicate via a complex form of sign language. The widow herself determines when the ban of silence can be removed. When she is ready the Araklililima ceremony is performed. The widow gathers a large wooden vessel, called a Tirna, which is full of small seeds and small tuber. Tuber is the stem of a potato or other vegetable. She then re-applies the white pipe clay at the women’s camp. The widow carries the Tirna and leads an all-women procession to the center of the tribe’s camp. All of the women sit at this location and cry loudly until the sons and younger brothers of the dead man (both tribal and blood) come and join them. The men take the Tirna from the widow, squat on the ground and beat their shields on the ground in front of the women who are standing and shouting a chant. The beating of the men’s shields and the crying of the women lasts about 10 minutes. Once the crying is over the men disperse to the camp and eat the food brought in the Tirna by the widow.

Once the Arklililima ceremony is completed, the widow is able to speak although she still smears herself with white pipeclay. The ceremony signifies the widows return to the ordinary occupations of a woman’s life. It also shows the men that she has properly carried out the first period of mourning. This is very important to the widow’s well being, as the men are supposed to be angry with the widow because her husband is dead and she is alive.

Another ritual the widow must complete during the first phase of mourning is making several bulky headdresses called Chimurilia’s.

The Chimurilia’s are made from the bones of opossums, rabbits and kangaroos, the hair of a female blood relative of the deceased, and the tail feathers of native birds. The Chimurilia’s are used during the second phase of mourning, which I will now discuss.

Once the aforementioned rituals are completed, the second phase of mourning will begin. The ceremony of Urpmilchima marks the only ritual of the second phase of mourning. The term Urpmilchima is translated as the trampling of twigs on the grave. The tribal brothers and sons of the dead man determine the date that it occurs, (but it is normally 12-18 months after the death has occurred and all of the other rituals I have discussed have been performed). The widow is invited by a younger brother of the dead man to visit the grave, which no person has been to since the burial. The widow, holding the Chimurilia’s, begins the procession, which at first includes only tribal women. A close male blood relative of the deceased meets the widow and places on Chimurilia on her head and one on the younger sister or daughter of the dead man.

The widow and the rest of the tribe then visit the camp where the man died, which was burnt down. They all shout and dance around the charred remains of the camp. The idea of this is to drive the spirit away from the old camp, which he is supposed to haunt. When the dancing is over the entire tribe runs to the grave and tramples the twigs that lay on top of it. The women relatives of the deceased throw their bodies onto the grave where they hit themselves over the head until their blood flows onto the top of the grave.

Finally, the widow and younger woman remove their Chimurilia’s, tear them to pieces and bury them on top of the grave. The widow, standing by the grave, removes the pipeclay from her body, showing that her mourning is over. She may still apply a single band of the white pipeclay on her forehead to symbolize that she is not ready to re-marry because she still mourns the death of her husband.

The spirit of the dead man was supposed to have been watching this ceremony. Since he had observed this ceremony during his own lifetime he recognizes that when his widow buried the Chimurilia she buried the sorrow of herself, his relatives and his friends. He then knows that his spirit is free to go to the afterworld.

Overall, I felt that the class was interested by the subject of my presentation. I was asked several interesting questions from my classmates, which I would like to share with you. First, someone asked me if the tribe’s men practiced polygamy. During my research I discovered that certain texts referred to a widow or widows; therefore, my answer to this question is yes, polygamy was practiced by certain Aboriginal tribes; however, I am not certain if the Arunta or Warramunga tribes practiced it. One of my classmates asked if a possible reason both tribes burnt the camp where death occurred resulted from a fear of disease associated with the corpse. The information that I gathered on this subject dealt only with the spiritual aspect, which was that the tribe did not wish the dead man’s spirit to remain in their midst.

Finally, Dr. Perring asked me two questions: (1) if I felt that the mourning rituals I researched were bizarre. My response is that I realize that these tribes are primitive cultures, which alleviated much of the shock I might feel if I heard these rituals were practiced in the United States. (2) Why did the women of these tribe’s participate in self-inflicting bodily injury during their mourning? During my research I did not come across any factual information which would answer this question. However, my opinion is that women, in these tribes and those represented in the Catholic religion (i.e., Mary, the mother of Jesus) are required to carry the burden of the feelings associated with mourning.