​“Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs” project (2016–2021)

This book has grown out of an Australian Research Council Linkage project (LP160100743) that arose from concern about the vitality and future of Warlpiri ceremonial song performance, especially in light of changes over the last 90 years. In response to widely expressed concerns over a decline in knowledge of ceremonial songs, the project aimed to develop targeted strategies to enhance intergenerational transmission of and community engagement with these song traditions. The chapters in this book address these themes and illustrate the ways in which previously recorded materials can be of use for maintaining and rejuvenating the knowledges and practices core to Warlpiri cultural heritage. Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications, which maintains an archive of video, photographic and written materials made over the last 50 years, partnered with the University of Sydney and the Australian National University to undertake this research.

​Warlpiri people, language, Country and communities

Warlpiri people who have connections to the Country across a broad area of the Tanami Desert of Central Australia are united in that they speak one language. Warlpiri does, however, have a number of dialects that reflect the regions in which people live and have historical ties. These dialects are mutually comprehensible but have some differing words and accents. Warlpiri people identify with these dialect names such that they mark social differentiation in this area. The seven dialects of Warlpiri are Warrmala (western Warlpiri), Ngardilypa (north-western Warlpiri), Wawulya (south-western Warlpiri), Warnayaka (central-northern Warlpiri), Ngaliya (southern Warlpiri), Yarlpiri (Lander River Warlpiri) and Wakirti (Hansen River Warlpiri). Nowadays, people living in Lajamanu identify with Warnayaka, people living in Yuendumu and Nyirrpi with Ngaliya, people in Willowra with Yarlpiri and those living in Tennant Creek and Alekarenge with Wakirti. Ngardilypa, Wawulya and Warrmala have been merged into the predominant dialect spoken in Lajamanu, although some older individuals still identify with these terms as a marker of their social identity.

Prior to the 1930s, Warlpiri people lived in small family groups across the Tanami Desert, many coming in for seasonal work at cattle stations that were established on the eastern fringes of this region in the early decades of the 20th century. The community of Willowra began as a cattle station in 1940, and Yuendumu and Lajamanu were established as government reserves in the years following World War II. Many outstations were established around Warlpiri Country in the 1980s, some becoming thriving communities in themselves during this time. Nyirrpi was one of these and has a population of around 300 today. There are four main Warlpiri communities – Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Willowra and Nyirrpi – but Warlpiri families have also long lived in other communities, including Tennant Creek, Alekarenge, Wirrimanu (Balgo) and in the town of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Nowadays, there are also diasporic Warlpiri groups living in Darwin, Adelaide and Port Augusta, Warlpiri school children attending boarding schools, and various other individuals and families live in other locations across Australia and beyond (see Burke 2018).

Yuendumu is the largest Warlpiri community, with a population of 800, and is the epicentre of the project through which this book has been developed. Because of this, the book contains a large representation of the Southern Ngaliya region of Warlpiri Country. However, we have also ensured the inclusion of contributions from Elders, cultural leaders and researchers from each of the other Warlpiri regions.

​Warlpiri “skin” names

In everyday Warlpiri worlds, all people are categorised into one of the eight subsections colloquially known as “skin” groups, which are referred to often throughout this book. Warlpiri people are born with a skin name (or sometimes more than one if their parents did not have an ideal relationship match), and all non-Warlpiri people who engage with Warlpiri people for any length of time are given a skin name to facilitate their involvement in community life. Each skin name has a male term starting with “J” and a female term starting with “N”. These “skins” are grouped into patricouples (represented by cells in Table 0.1) consisting of father–son/daughter pairs or aunt (father’s sister)–nephew/niece (brother’s children) pairs, who share ownership for the same jukurrpa, songs, ceremonies and Country. These patricouples are further grouped into two patrimoieties, represented by the two columns in Table 0.1.

​Kirda and kurdungurlu

All Warlpiri songs and ceremonies are connected to jukurrpa and Country and are owned by different kirda groups. These rights are inherited from a person’s fathers and fathers’ fathers, so all people, songs and ceremonies are identified with one patrimoiety or the other. The role of people in the opposite patrimoiety, kurdungurlu, in relation to ceremonies and songs is to organise and oversee the performance. In general, the people in this role in any ceremony are close relatives of the kirda, the younger ones being the people who do the organising – such as clearing the ground, getting ochres and other materials, and decorating the kirda – and the senior people ensuring the correct performance of the ceremony (see Curran 2020; Dussart 2000; Nash 1982). The relationship between kirda and kurdungurlu is complex; where these close relatives are not available, others may step in to attend to their duties because no ceremony can occur without people of both categories being present.

In smaller, land-based ceremonies, the patrimoieties of Warlpiri society are less prominent. However, they are still crucial for the larger ceremonies, including Ngajakula (discussed in Chapter 8), Jardiwanpa and the annual initiation ceremonies known as Kurdiji, which are incorporative as they include large numbers of participants from across both patrimoieties: Ngurra-yatujumparra (home in the north), and Ngurra-kurlarniyarra (home in the south). Although these terms are not widely used nowadays, this ideology is nonetheless still prevalent among most Warlpiri people across generations as they are required to operate within these groups for the larger-scale Kurdiji ceremonies held each summer.

​Warlpiri orthography and other terminology

Warlpiri words are used throughout this book to maintain the particular meanings associated with their Warlpiri use and are listed in the Glossary. For the spellings of all Warlpiri words, we have followed the conventions set out in the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary (Laughren et al. 2022), based on the orthography established by Lothar Jagst and Maurice Jupurrurla Luther in Lajamanu in 1974 (2022: 4–6).

There are several other terms we have used throughout the book in specific ways. We have used the word “Aboriginal” to refer generally to Indigenous peoples from across mainland Australia and Tasmania (but not including the Torres Strait Islands). We have used “Indigenous” when referring to First Nations peoples from across the Australian mainland, the Torres Strait Islands and overseas. We have also used words that have specific meanings in Aboriginal English. The word “Elder” has been used to refer to senior Aboriginal people who are widely respected for their views and knowledge. The word “Country” has been used as it is in Aboriginal English to refer to the particular tracts of land that connect to jukurrpa and are owned by specific Warlpiri families. The word “song” is used generally throughout the book to refer to the interconnected packages of music (including rhythmic, melodic and textual aspects), designs, dances and accompanying ritual actions. The following specific terms for the components of songs are used throughout this book (based on those set out by Barwick 1989; Ellis 1964, 1967, 1969, 1983, 1992; Moyle 1974; Turpin 2007b). Despite divergence within other literature, we have tried to use these terms systematically throughout this book with the following meanings:

 

​Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the authors and contributors included in this book. We especially acknowledge the long-term relationships and commitments in Warlpiri communities that have allowed the teams of authors to contribute to the rich quality of each of the chapters. We thank Mary Laughren and Theresa Napurrurla Ross for their work on the transcriptions and translations and checking of Warlpiri texts. We thank Jason Japaljarri Woods for creating the cover artwork and design and Brenda Thornley for the two maps. We also thank Jeff Bruer for his assistance in finding photographs and interview recordings in the Warlpiri Media Archives and Cecilia Alfonso for her generous access to the Warlukurlangu Artists database of profile photographs. We thank PAW staff, especially Tess Foxworthy, Grace Marshall and Tegan Rogers, who have been very helpful during the production stage. Individual photographers are credited within each of the chapters.

Research for and production of this book have been supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage project (LP160100743) with Chief Investigators Barwick, Peterson and Turpin, Partner Investigators Martin and Fisher, and Research Associate Curran. This project has been a partnership between the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, PAW Media and Kurra Aboriginal Corporation, who provided significant funding. We have also benefited from the support of the Indigenous Languages and Arts program. A grant from the Australian Academy for the Humanities has supported the publication of colour photographs in this book.

We thank the board of PAW Media for their role in supporting the co-publication of this book with Sydney University Press. This book has been peer-reviewed, and we are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback. Thanks must also go to the editorial staff at Sydney University Press.

Georgia Curran, Linda Barwick, Valerie Napaljarri Martin, Simon Japangardi Fisher and Nicolas Peterson

​References

Barwick, Linda. 1989. “Creative (Ir)regularities: The Intermeshing of Text and Melody in Performance of Central Australian Song”. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1: 12–28.

Burke, Paul. 2018. An Australian Indigenous Diaspora: Warlpiri Matriarchs and the Refashioning of Tradition. New York: Berghahn Books.

Curran, Georgia. 2020. Sustaining Indigenous Songs: Contemporary Warlpiri Ceremonial Life in Yuendumu, Central Australia. New York: Berghahn Books.

Dussart, Françoise. 2000. The Politics of Ritual in an Aboriginal Settlement: Kinship, Gender, and the Currency of Knowledge. Washington, DC; London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Ellis, Catherine. 1964. Aboriginal Music Making: A Study of Central Australian Music. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia.

Ellis, Catherine. 1967. “Folk Song Migration in Aboriginal South Australia”. Journal of the International Folk Music Council 19: 11–16.

Ellis, Catherine. 1969. “Structure and Significance in Aboriginal Song”. Mankind 7(1): 3–14.

Ellis, Catherine. 1983. “When is a Song Not a Song? A Study from Northern South Australia”. Bikmaus 4(3): 136–44.

Ellis, Catherine. 1992. “Connection and disconnection of elements of the rhythmic hierarchy in an Aranda song”. Musicology Australia 15(1): 44–66.

Hoogenraad, Robert, Mary Laughren with Warlpiri people from Yuendumu, Lajamanu, Willowra and Nyirrpi. 2012. Warlpiri Picture Dictionary. Alice Springs: IAD Press.

Laughren, Mary, Kenneth Hale, Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi, Marlurrku Paddy Patrick Jangala, Robert Hoogenraad, David Nash and Jane Simpson. 2022. Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Moyle, Alice. 1974. North Australian Music: Taxonomic Approach to the Study of Aboriginal Song Performances. PhD thesis, Monash University, Melbourne.

Nash, David. 1982. “An Etymological Note of Warlpiri Kurdungurlu”. In Languages of Kinship in Aboriginal Australia (Oceania Linguistic Monographs (24), edited by Jeffrey Heath, Francesca Merlan and Alan Rumsey, pp.141–59. Sydney: University of Sydney.

Turpin, Myfany. 2007. “The Poetics of Central Australian Song”. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2(1): 100–15.