Ceremonies are vital to the cultural identity of Warlpiri people living in communities across the Tanami Desert region of Central Australia (see Figure 1.1). At the heart of ceremonies are the songs that make ceremonies effective; that celebrate people’s relationships to the land; and that encode detailed information about Warlpiri Country, cosmology and kinship.

Warlpiri ceremonies are organised into named genres and repertories comprised of defined songs whose textual, musical and dance characteristics mark them as belonging to particular groups of people who also own the associated Country and cultural knowledge. Today, however, the ceremonies in which the songs are sung are in decline, and only a small group of the eldest generation has full knowledge of the songs and their associated meanings. For many Warlpiri people, as Valerie Napaljarri Martin emphasised above, this raises a level of uncertainty about how these important aspects of their cultural life will be carried forward into the future. Can the songs continue to have meaning without the ceremonial contexts?

In 2018 Warlpiri Elder Rex Japanangka Granites (c. 1949–2019) replied to questions on whether he was concerned about a decline in knowledge and practice of songs among younger generations of Warlpiri people in the following way:

In this way, he compared his Warlpiri Country to a living archival repository; because Warlpiri cultural heritage is held to be within Country eternally, he expressed his assured faith and optimism around its safety, continuity and future. As is the case for many Aboriginal peoples across Central Australia whose worldviews centre around a timeless creational epoch known in Warlpiri as jukurrpa, historical time merges with the present and the future (Myers 1986, 48–54), accounting for this affirmation of the ever-presence of Ancestral Beings and their songs and stories. Other Warlpiri Elders also share this view. For example, senior yawulyu singer Lorraine Nungarrayi Granites stated that:

While these assertions pervade the thinking of older generations of Warlpiri people, there is also deep reflection on the past vibrancy of ceremonial life and its decline in recent decades. When listening to recordings of Warlpiri women’s ceremony made in the 1970s, senior female singer Lynette Nampijinpa Granites nostalgically reflected:

The same Elders also reiterate the importance of making sure that younger generations have the means to reactivate and access the songs and ceremonies in the future. Another Elder and prominent yawulyu singer, Peggy Nampijinpa Brown, explained that:

Nyirrpi-based yawulyu singer Alice Nampijinpa Henwood (2018) explained how she addresses this concern by proactively teaching younger generations about songs and ceremonies and continually reiterating the importance of the stories for their family history and cultural heritage:

Responding to these concerns about the passing on of knowledge of ceremonies and their associated songs, this chapter addresses the tension between the continuity of tradition and the inevitability of change. Although Warlpiri people are often adamant that jukurrpa ancestors created traditional songs in the exact forms in which they are sung today, changes to and inventions within Warlpiri song forms are common and easily incorporated into this Warlpiri understanding of song transmission. Françoise Dussart (2000) has detailed the Warlpiri process of dreaming “new” songs – a phenomenon also addressed by Stephen Wild (1987) and illustrated in Chapter 4 of this book by Glowczewski and Gibson. Both Ken Hale (1984) and Peter Sutton (1987) have discussed processes by which songs are sung with slight but deliberate differences so that knowledgeable Elders have avenues for control of the dissemination of knowledge and creativity while maintaining the powerful essence at the core of the ceremonial manifestations of jukurrpa (see also Marett 1994; Merlan 1987; Sutton 1987). The renowned ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl explained this relationship of the past to the present as “the idea that something that a society maintains and shares can change in character and detail and yet remain essentially the same” (Nettl 1996: np).

This conceptual framework allows for change in different ways and at different rates, while also recognising the ever-presence of a life-force or essence that is referred to by Warlpiri people as jukurrpa or kuruwarri.1 This essence is held consubstantially within places on Warlpiri Country, within Warlpiri people with inherited ties to it, and within songs and ceremonies. In Chapters 3–10, the authors present case studies of different aspects of Warlpiri songs and ceremonies as they relate to continuity and change. Each of these is historically contextualised, some are based on ethnographies of past decades (e.g., Chapters 3, 4 and 9), some on more contemporary initiatives (e.g., Chapters 8 and 10), and others have as their focus the analytical aspects of musical details in recordings (e.g., Chapters 5, 6 and 7). In this chapter, we address some of the major themes that arise through this concern with continuity and change, particularly through an assessment of the present-day vitality of Warlpiri songs and ceremonies, barriers to intergenerational transmission and considerations for potential revitalisation. We begin, however, by setting out the social and musical context against which to consider these issues.

​The Warlpiri social and musical context

The Warlpiri region of Central Australia dominates the expansive Tanami Desert covering a broad region north-west of the major town of Alice Springs, flanked by Lake Mackay on the western side and Anmatyerr communities, including Yuelamu, Laramba and Ti-Tree, on the eastern side. Willowra lies on Warlpiri land, but many people residing there also have Kaytetye, Anmatyerr or Alyawarr links. The most northern Warlpiri community, Lajamanu, is located on Gurindji Country, but close by to the south is Warlpiri land with its associated jukurrpa, songs and ceremonies. The southern part of Warlpiri Country borders Luritja and Pintupi lands and the communities of Papunya, Haasts Bluff and Mount Liebig.

In Alice Moyle’s 1974 classification of musical regions of Australia, Warlpiri groups are within the region described as “‘C’ Central and South Central (interior Northern Territory to Bight)” (1974, xiv), encompassing a large section of the western half of South Australia and all the Central Australian region of the Northern Territory. Moyle described songs in this region (as well as many others in Australia) as “Continuous” in that they have “similar strings of syllables and melodic divisions marked by descents. The sound instruments used in accompaniment … belong to the idiophone class [percussion instruments]” [emphasis in original] (1974, 352). According to Moyle, other shared features across this region are the use of sound instruments to mark a finish to singing, song items of comparatively short duration (one minute or less) and several vocal descents within the one song item (Moyle 1974, 352). She also noted similarities with the region to the west, an influence recognised more recently by Treloyn (2017) despite Moyle’s categorisation of the Kimberley as a different “musical region”.

Aboriginal groups across this desert region and beyond engaged in significant trade and exchange of songs and ceremonies well before Europeans arrived. Some Elders today reflect on these histories to time-depths well beyond their own memories. A recent example of ceremonial borrowing is evident in the present-day Kurdiji ceremonies held each summer for the initiation of young boys into adulthood, in which the original Warlpiri Kirrirdikirrawarnu ceremony has been replaced by the simpler and less time-intensive ceremony Warawata, borrowed from Pintupi groups in the south (Curran 2020; Myers 1986). Despite the complexity of the interrelationships between different Aboriginal groups and the fluidity of ceremonial authority in contexts of trade and exchange, Warlpiri people are quite clear about the lines of authority with regards to being “boss” for ceremonies, so much so that there are bitter disputes on the rare occasions when this is questioned. Ceremonies, and their role in fostering social connections between groups, have been a primary reason for extensive travel across this region. Widespread travel continues to this day, with most Warlpiri people undertaking long-distance journeys to participate in initiation ceremonies in various locations across the desert, a practice only enhanced as more Warlpiri people have come to own cars since the 1970s (Peterson 2000).

Since the establishment of settlements across Warlpiri Country in the years following World War II, there has been a tendency for larger-scale ceremonies that are inclusive of more community members to predominate (Kolig 1981; for descriptions of the sweeping “Balgo business” in the 1980s, see also Laughren 1981; Wild 1981; Young 1981). By far and away, the most common of these today are the regional variations of the Kurdiji (for initiation), which has expanded significantly in scale in the last five decades, now often involving hundreds of people from numerous family groups. Smaller-scale site-based ceremonies are nowadays only held in connection with Kurdiji ceremonies. However, senior Warlpiri singers hold in their minds a score or more of different jukurrpa, each including many unique songs.

Table 1.1 lists the main Warlpiri song genres, named according to the ceremonies in which they are sung.2 The table distinguishes these different genres based on performative restrictions, the gender of the performers and the ceremonial contexts in which they are performed. These are the genres of Warlpiri songs and ceremonies currently known by singers living in Warlpiri communities today.

While some of these genres share names and basic forms with neighbouring Aboriginal groups (e.g., yawulyu, or awely in Arandic languages, are sung by women across Central Australia; Gurindji wajarra have similar entertaining purposes to purlapa), others are distinctly Warlpiri. Warlpiri songlines relating to sites on Warlpiri Country are also incorporated into imported ceremonial forms traded from other regions. For example, the Jardiwanpa/Ngajakula ceremonial complex, held high by people in Warlpiri communities, has historical links to the north-east from where it was brought south-west to Warlpiri Country in the early 20th century. A version of this ceremony was described by Spencer and Gillen (1901) as it was held among Warumungu people near Tennant Creek. Despite its origin, the Warlpiri Jardiwanpa does not relate to Warumungu Country but rather is centred around a songline beginning at Wirnparrku (west of Haasts Bluff) and travelling northwards through owned Warlpiri sites (see Chapter 8 for a discussion of a counterpart and similarly performed ceremony: Ngajakula). The larger-scale ceremonies held by Warlpiri people today, like Kurdiji, may include sections of different genres, with men and women separately performing parnpa and yawulyu in the earlier stages and later joining to sing Kurdiji songs in the all-night section of the ceremony.

​Musical vitality of Warlpiri song genres

Internationally, there are some standard measures of musical vitality, including trends in the number of proficient musicians, the age range of participants and the performance frequency and contexts. Catherine Grant’s “Musical Vitality Endangerment Framework” (2014) is a 12-factor assessment tool to systematically measure the vitality or endangerment of music genres worldwide. Both a quantitative and qualitative measurement is given against each of the factors. Schippers and Grant further argue that this systematic way of measuring musical vitality is important for at least three reasons:

1. To enable diagnosis of situations of music endangerment and determine the urgency to implement initiatives towards sustainability;
2. to ensure the right remedial action is taken, as assessing the factors causing endangerment will help establish focus and priorities for action, and
3. to enable methodical evaluation of the efficacy of any efforts to maintain or revitalise the music genre. (Schippers & Grant 2016, 106)

Such a tool provides one way to measure the vitality of Warlpiri songs against a broader international context. Additional measures specifically developed for Aboriginal Australian song include the average number of unique songs performed per occasion, changes in the relative frequency of performance of different songs and the musical diversity of song repertoires (e.g., how many different tempi, melodies and rhythmic types are performed per repertory over time; Treloyn and Charles 2021; Treloyn, Martin and Charles 2016). In Warlpiri contexts, the number and complexity of specific dances performed and kuruwarri designs painted are also important measures of ceremonial vitality.

While presenting points for comparison with the transmission of oral traditions on a broader international scale, such data must be set against broader understandings of transmission and vitality of ceremonial song in Aboriginal Australia developed by and with practitioners, including practitioner understandings of the contemporary decline in the holding of ceremonies and collaborative development of practical ways by which song transmission can be revitalised.

The assessment presented in Table 1.2 has taken “Warlpiri song” as a general category, encompassing all genres outlined in Table 1.1. We acknowledge that some Warlpiri genres, and certain repertories within these genres, have relative strength compared to others and have included more specific comments to this effect in italics in the “Assessment of Warlpiri songs” column. We have followed the guide as set out by Grant in undertaking this assessment (2014, 111–24). For further consideration of how the Warlpiri context compares to other international contexts on this scale, Grant’s guide is a useful reference. Grant’s assessment requires placement of the music genre on a scale from 0 to 5, representing increasing vitality.

Eight of the 12 factors (1–6, 8, 12) firmly place Warlpiri song in a category of endangerment, which is a red flag, as many senior and middle-age generations of Warlpiri people recognise, as do outsiders who understand these kinds of song traditions to be unique and valuable expressions of humanity (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 2021). As expressed by Fisher:

Despite their clear endangered status, the ceremonies and their related songs remain key to Warlpiri life and cultural heritage; Warlpiri people, young and old, express a deep desire for their continuation even if they are unable to muster the support to hold the ceremonies. It is significant to note from the above assessment of musical vitality that, despite the challenges to intergenerational transmission and struggles to pass on the knowledge required to sing songs, there is community interest in supporting the maintenance of Warlpiri song (Factors 9 and 10), and the relevant infrastructure continues to be available (Factor 7), as well as relatively good levels of support from outsiders including researchers and non-Warlpiri staff who work at community organisations (Factor 11). Although considerable efforts to document the songs have been made (Factor 12), existing documentation is patchy (especially indexing of older material, which affects searchability). Community-led efforts to improve documentation of certain genres (e.g., yawulyu) have served to highlight the urgency and complexity of undertaking this time-consuming work with other genres. This work is dependent on strong collaborative relationships between Warlpiri Elders, Warlpiri linguists and language workers; younger participants; and support from researchers and community organisations (Curran 2020; Curran, Fisher and Barwick 2018).

​Barriers to intergenerational transmission

Despite all this interest and concern, loss of song knowledge is unavoidably continuing apace. This is because it is an effect of modernisation. For older Warlpiri people, songs and the ceremonial contexts of their singing have been instrumental in achieving a wide range of practical ends ranging from affecting the weather, affecting people’s affections, curing sickness, making people fall sick, causing plants and animal species to flourish, making boys into men and resolving disputes, to mention the most important. The loss of song knowledge is driven by a complex of factors, including declining acceptance of the instrumental effectiveness of some of the ceremonies and, therefore, the motivation to hold them. Other important factors are changing world views and loss of detailed knowledge of Country (Barwick, Laughren and Turpin 2013). These key factors also reflect changing demographics within the Warlpiri communities, marked by an expanding young population and an older population with disproportionate levels of chronic illness. Although increased mobility has extended the range of social networks across the desert (Peterson 2000), leading to initiation ceremonies becoming larger than ever, this is putting disproportionate pressure on the few senior men who possess the knowledge and fitness required to sing the songs for them, and fewer individuals seem to be actually mastering the related songlines (Curran 2011; Peterson 2008).

While Grant’s music vitality assessment emphasises that a key indicator of the strength of a musical genre is the level of intergenerational transmission, the loss of song knowledge is not about musical tradition, as such, but rather the loss of the significance of the ceremonies and, therefore, the motivation of the younger generations to invest the necessary discipline and time required to learn the songs. The songs cannot just be picked up through rote learning or copying what is heard on a recording because their significance is embedded in ceremonial purpose and is highly multimodal, joining singing with dancing, body decoration and ceremonial constructions. Musically, these songs come together in complex ways, with the words and rhythms to which verses are set needing to be matched to melodic forms that are not the same each time the song is performed (Curran and Yeoh 2021). To be able to pick up these musical skills, extensive background experience participating in ceremonial contexts is essential; however, the issue of belief is also fundamental.

For songs to have a life independent of their traditional ceremonial context, there must be a repurposing that provides people with a meaningful motivation to learn and perform them. Warlpiri women have successfully achieved this in relation to the yawulyu genre that was in the past particularly linked to women’s health maintenance and conflict resolution but which has now found a role in the intercultural domain of cultural exchange such as exhibition openings (see Curran and Dussart 2023; Dussart 2004).

​Some ideas for community-led revitalisation

Strategies for supporting the survival of the important cultural knowledge held in song, especially as it relates to place, are necessary if future generations are to have a way of accessing this. These must recognise that the old motivations for holding ceremonies are fading fast (with the exception of the Kurdiji ceremonies) and that new and rewarding forums need to be created if interest in songs is to be revitalised. Targeted projects across Australia, including the Top End (Marett et al. 2006), Kimberley regions (Treloyn and Charles 2015, 2021) and Noongar region (Bracknell and Scott 2019), have shown some success in revitalisation efforts. Here, we suggest several strategies for community-led revitalisation and engagement with vulnerable musical traditions. These suggestions have been developed from discussions within our project (detailed in Chapter 2), as well as noted successes in other similar projects.

​1. Supporting existing ceremonial contexts

The late senior Elder H. Nelson highlighted that one of the main ways in which songs and ceremonial knowledge are passed on today is in the Kurdiji ceremonies held each summer, sometimes several times in individual Warlpiri communities (as well as other communities across Central Australia). Warlpiri people also travel widely across the desert to participate in these ceremonies in other communities with which they share social and ceremonial relationships. In these contexts, adult men often learn for the first time how to paint the designs of their patrilineally inherited jukurrpa, as well as how to dance to the parnpa. Women may also participate in yawulyu, and large numbers of people participate in dancing in the all-night component (Curran 2020). It is evident, however, that only a small group of senior men know how to sing the songs to pull this ceremony together. Providing practical and logistical support for these ceremonies, which are still being held annually, is perhaps one of the most crucial areas where revitalisation can occur.

​2. Setting up and supporting performance spaces and occasions in communities

In many Warlpiri communities, there are initiatives to set up new spaces for the performance of these vulnerable song traditions. For example, Warlpiri women from across the Tanami Desert communities participate biannually in the Southern Ngaliya dance camps in which community organisations support a camp-out in an outstation near a Warlpiri community, including transport, food and payments for participation. The Women’s Law and Culture meeting led by the Central Land Council is another example of this kind of support for a set-up context.

Men have generally not sought the same level of support, but there have been grassroots efforts to revitalise purlapa in southern Warlpiri communities with Elders singing while instructing young men on how to dance (Curran and Sims 2021). This is empowering for Warlpiri men but lacks frequency as it does not occur to a schedule or have external support. By contrast, the biennial Lajamanu-based Milpirri festival (designed, in Wanta Steven Jampijinpa Patrick’s words, to “make jukurrpa relevant to the 21st century”; Biddle 2019) is carried out with external funding and in partnership with Tracks Dance Company (discussed in Chapter 10). Chapter 8 of this volume describes a song documentation project that aspired to the revitalisation of song knowledge of Ngajakula in Willowra. Warlpiri women from Yuendumu have also become involved in many projects to support yawulyu events, including setting up dance camp events and staged performances in larger cities and towns (Curran and Dussart 2023).

​3. Documentation of song and ceremony

Song documentation, a recognised factor in Grant’s framework, has been undertaken for a number of decades in Yuendumu, with a recent surge in the last 10 years. While these documentary projects produce valuable resources that can be used by communities, it is the process of working on these materials that is one of the biggest factors contributing to revitalisation. Recent documentation work (Gallagher et al. 2014; Laughren and Turpin 2013; Warlpiri Women from Yuendumu and Curran 2017; many of the chapters in this book) has contributed to a better understanding of Warlpiri songs but has made it obvious that the substantial recorded legacy of this important element of Warlpiri cultural heritage is still inadequately documented and thus of limited usefulness as a basis for revitalisation. It is urgent to bring older and younger generations of Warlpiri people together to document further details of the language, music and other associated cultural information for these legacy recordings – not only to pass down the cultural knowledge embedded in them but also to plan how to sustain their traditions into the future.

​4. Engagement with archival materials

While we devote more attention to this in Chapter 2, it must be mentioned that engagement with archival resources contributes significantly to song knowledge. In reviewing and managing collections of audio, visual and audiovisual materials that have been made in Warlpiri communities, Warlpiri people can gain significant understanding and knowledge of vulnerable traditions (Curran, Fisher and Barwick 2018). In Chapter 2, we address this further.

​5. Promoting performance to a broader audience

Aboriginal Australian arts, culture and languages represent and are recognised as crucial and highly visible components of Australia’s national identity; this high level of outside recognition can contribute to slowing if not reversing progress towards further endangerment. Opportunities for Warlpiri people to perform in broader public contexts engender support from outsiders who recognise the value of this unique song tradition and its encoding of biocultural knowledge and practices (Curran et al. 2019). Community engagement with research also enables Warlpiri voices to participate in national and international debates on Indigenous cultural heritage and to contribute to current assessments of music vitality. This unique and innovative Indigenous perspective has a bearing on questions of song repatriation and revitalisation and, ultimately, to understandings of song change. By sharing information with other communities affected by similar issues and the broader community, new collaborations can emerge across Australia and internationally. The impacts of globalisation in Warlpiri communities have been pronounced, with all younger people having easy and frequent access to social media, which dominates a large part of their lives. While this connectivity provides greater access to entertainment from outside (with the consequent withdrawal of attention from local contexts), it also enhances sharing of cultural information via digital means with families and the broader Warlpiri diaspora, as well as the general public (Vaarzon-Morel, Barwick and Green 2021).

​Outline of book structure

This book includes profiles of a number of Warlpiri people who were involved in interviews conducted at Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications (PAW Media) in 2017–2019. Valerie Napaljarri Martin and Simon Japangardi Fisher led these interviews, which were conducted in Warlpiri, transcribed and then translated by Theresa Napurrurla Ross into English. In these interviews, some with respected Elders and some with emerging cultural leaders, individuals reflected on the changes to songs and ceremonies across their lifetimes and the value of access to written, audio, video and photographic documentation of these ceremonies through the Warlpiri Media Archive held at PAW Media. Perspectives from these interviews have been included in individual profiles and incorporated into the ideas presented in Chapters 1 and 2.

The chapters gathered in this book relate directly to the issues raised in this chapter addressing the central tensions for Warlpiri people who see songs as forever held in Country and fundamental to their cultural identity but struggle to maintain and foresee their relevance in the current and future Warlpiri lives in which ceremonies are becoming increasingly less important for social functioning.

Chapter 2, written collaboratively by a team of researchers who have been working in Yuendumu at PAW Media, focuses on archiving and the value of on-Country archiving in Warlpiri communities. The perspectives of Elders who were interviewed on this topic are central to this chapter; their voices articulate the ways in which archival resources can be utilised by future generations to connect to their cultural heritage. This chapter also outlines, through the history of Warlpiri Media Association, how many of these issues have been at the forefront of Warlpiri minds since the beginnings in the mid-1980s. It details documentary efforts reaching back to early expedition-style recordings to present-day Warlpiri-led efforts.

The remaining chapters all focus on particular songlines or ceremonial contexts. Chapters 3 and 4, both based on ethnography from the 1970s and 1980s, illustrate the ways in which change is inherent in Warlpiri ceremonies, with negotiation and adaptability being central features. Chapter 3 provides a case study of how the motivation to hold a certain class of ceremony is unintentionally destroyed by factors external to the Warlpiri community. It follows the specific negotiations required of Paddy Japaljarri Sims to hold a winter solstice ceremony that would form public community recognition of his succession to and control of an important area of Warlpiri Country. However, this traditional mode of proving links to land was made irrelevant by the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976; the 1979 success of the Warlpiri land claim meant that being on lists and genealogies held by the Central Land Council was the key to recognition of rights.

Chapter 4 documents the main way in which a songline can be changed not by loss but by addition. Gibson recounts and reflects on the process of dreaming a “new” song and the ways this was incorporated into established Ngapa “Rain” and Yankirri “Emu” jukurrpa collectively held by Warlpiri women. The authors also reflect on how this song responded to particular contemporary circumstances and was a necessary addition to the repertory as it renewed spiritual links to land by incorporating this song into those that had been passed down through generations.

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 all focus on analyses of the songs sung during particular recorded performance instances, all dealing with technical aspects of the musical, linguistic and performative complexity of classical women’s songs. Chapter 5 turns to the changes that have taken place in the Minamina yawulyu songline between 1972 and the 2010s. This chapter reveals that there have been significant changes in the extent and modes of performance, including song selection and explanation, musical setting and body designs; however, nevertheless, key themes expressed in song verses, music and body designs persist across the generations. In particular, those linked to connection to Country are emphasised, ensuring that a strong female cultural identity continues to be passed on to younger Warlpiri women.

Chapter 6 underlines the discipline and time that must be put into acquiring the old levels of performance, gives details of the rhythmic texts and reflects on the difficulty of working on the hard language of Warlpiri song in relation to two “edible seed” songlines. These are associated with Country around Jipiranpa and Pawurrinji, in the north-west of the Warlpiri region, as they were performed and explained by Fanny Walker Napurrurla. The analysis of the musical conventions of these songs as they are broken into verses uncovers thematic links to a trickster, Jakamarra, central to the jukurrpa storyline at Jipiranpa.

Chapter 7 unpacks the details of reduplication in a song set sung by Warlpiri women in Willowra, a Warlpiri region with many Kaytetye language influences. Through detailed examples of the Warnajarra verses recorded by Morais over 40 years ago, and more recently documented by the authors in 2019, they illustrate how the use of reduplication is associated with a particular faster syncopated meter, which relates to particular Warnajarra sites. In contrast, a slower rubato meter in which other verses are sung seems to relate more to other jukurrpa. This case study elegantly illustrates how rhythm and tempo encode the essence of the ancestors, furthering Catherine Ellis’s observations of the representation of particular Ancestral Beings in melodies.

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 turn to Warlpiri efforts to ensure that ceremonial songs maintain their purpose and function against shifting social contexts. Chapter 8 addresses the attempt to reanimate the songs associated with the Ngajakula ceremony by involving the community in mapping the long songline to give the songline new relevance. The past role of the Ngajakula and related Jardiwanpa revolved around the resolution of conflict, but current emphasis is on it reinforcing connections to particular Warlpiri jukurrpa and sites and the shared Law of all Warlpiri across a broad region. This gives the songs significance without the ceremony, which may or may not be revived with a new focus of celebrating interconnectedness between Countries.

Chapter 9 concerns the most successful repurposing of both songs and ceremony. It is a classic study of how one group of Warlpiri women, among the first in the early 1980s, took their yawulyu songs and dance to southern Australia for the opening of exhibitions and meetings. It follows the travels of a group of Warlpiri people from Yuendumu to Adelaide to perform the Warlukurlangu yawulyu. Importantly, it presents the motivation of the ritual leaders, Dolly Nampijinpa Daniels/Granites and Judy Nampijinpa Granites, via discussion of their negotiations around the choices of performances, and recognises the rewards of travel and compensation.

The final chapter addresses the radical transformation of ceremony into theatre. It describes an entirely new musical performance of the Milpirri at Lajamanu, examining whether this follows a traditional form and can, therefore, be called a purlapa – or whether it is a quite new form and a festival. Milpirri is an emergent event that has been held biannually in Lajamanu since 2005 and which is intended to provide a platform for the rejuvenation of specific forms of song and dance, including from men’s purlapa and women’s yawulyu, joining these with choreographed hip-hop primarily performed by children from the school. The authors show the influences from Ancestral ritual genres, from the church and from the emergence of popular reggae and rock bands, and how these have been integrated with the assistance of Tracks Dance Company from Darwin working closely with Artistic Director Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick and other community members. This event marks the complete transformation from ceremonies motivated by traditional purposes, replacing them with a theatrical event with contemporary motivations and purposes.

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Marett, Allan. 1994. “Wangga: Socially Powerful Songs?” The World of Music 36: 67–81.

Marett, Allan, Mandawuy Yunupiŋu, Marcia Langton, Neparrnga Gumbula, Linda Barwick and Aaron Corn. 2006. “The National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia: Year One in Review.” In Backing Our Creativity: The National Education and the Arts Symposium, 12–14 September 2005, 84–90. Surry Hills: Australia Council for the Arts. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1337

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Merlan, Francesca. 1987. “Catfish and Alligator: Totemic Songs of the Western Roper River, Northern Territory”. In Songs of Aboriginal Australia (Oceania Monograph 32), edited by Margaret Clunies Ross, Tamsin Donaldson and Stephen Wild, 142–67. Sydney: University of Sydney.

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

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Peterson, Nicolas. 2008. “Just Humming: The Consequences of the Decline of Learning Contexts among the Warlpiri”. In Cultural Styles of Knowledge Transmission: Essays in Honour of Ad Borsboom, edited by J. Kommers and Eric Venbrux, 114–18. Amsterdam: Askant.

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Treloyn, Sally. 2017. “Singing with a Distinctive Voice: Comparative Musical Analysis and the Central Australia Musical Style in the Kimberley”. In A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes, edited by Kristy Gillespie, Sally Treloyn and Don Niles, 147–69. Canberra: ANU Press.

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​Interviews

Granites, Lorraine Nungarrayi and Peggy Nampijinpa Brown. 2017. Interview by Valerie Napaljarri Martin, recorded by Georgia Curran, 8 April 2017. Yuendumu: Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications.

Granites, Rex Japanangka. 2017. Interviewed by Simon Japangardi Fisher, recorded by Georgia Curran and Linda Barwick, 25 May 2017. Yuendumu: Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications.

Henwood, Alice Nampijinpa. 2018. Interviewed by Valerie Napaljarri Martin, recorded by Georgia Curran and Linda Barwick, 15 May 2018. Yuendumu: Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications.

Nelson, Harry Jakamarra and Otto Jungarrayi Sims. 2018. Interviewed by Valerie Napaljarri Martin, recorded by Georgia Curran and Linda Barwick, 10 May 2018. Yuendumu: PAW Media and Communications.

​Rex Japanangka Granites (c.1948–2019)

Japanangka was born around 1949 and grew up in many different areas, including Yuendumu, the Granites and Lajamanu. He did his early schooling in Lajamanu and then moved to Yuendumu. He was one of the first groups of young blokes to go back to school after going through the Law. He remembers that in the mid-1960s, he would stay in the Munga business camp at night and then go to school in the morning. He also went through Kankarlu in the 1970s. He became a bilingual teacher at Yuendumu School in the 1970s, was Chairman of the Central Land Council in the 1990s and worked as an artist and in mediation and pastoring in his later years (see Granites 2009). Japanangka was kirda for Minamina jukurrpa.

​Reference

Granites, Rex. 2009. What I am Part of [unpublished autobiography].

​Harry Jakamarra Nelson (c.1944–2021)

Jakamarra was born at Mount Doreen Station as one of 12 children. He was kirda for the Country around Wapurtarli, close to the station area. When he was a child, his family moved into Yuendumu so that the children could attend school, and they became close to the Fleming family, who served as missionaries over many decades. He had a key role as an educator in the early years of the Yuendumu School’s bilingual education program. From a young age, Jakamarra acted as a cultural broker for his community’s engagements with visitors. He famously spoke at the National Aborigines Day in Martin Place in 1963 at the young age of 19. He was a passionate advocate for Warlpiri land rights and self-determination over many decades, including as a spokesperson against the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention and the prior amalgamation of councils in the NT. Jakamarra was the driving force in the establishment of the Yuendumu Men’s Museum built in the 1960s and its reopening as a refurbished museum in 2015. He was a leader (watirirririrri) for the annual ceremonies held over summer in Yuendumu and regularly travelled across a broad region of the Central Desert to assist other communities with their ceremonial activity. Jakamarra was involved in the production of Yarripiri’s Journey (Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media and Communications), which documented the Jardiwanpa songline for which he was responsible. Jakamarra sadly passed away in February 2021.

​Otto Jungarrayi Sims (c.1960)

Jungarrayi was born and grew up in Yuendumu and Nyirrpi. He is kurdungurlu for the Country around Wapurtarli (Mount Singleton, see profile photo). Following in the footsteps of both his father, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, and his mother, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, Jungarrayi is an internationally acclaimed artist. He works tirelessly as an advocate for Warlpiri culture to ensure that his cultural traditions remain strong into the future. Jungarrayi is the chairperson for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation.