Woven Together in Song: Collaborative Knowledge and the Creativity of Raypirri’

ABSTRACT

This dialogue between Wägilak ceremonial leader Daniel Wilfred and academic Samuel Curkpatrick explores the Yolŋu concepts of raki’ (string), raypirri’ (respect, discipline) and wetj (gift) as they relate to cross cultural understanding and collaborative performance. The ancestral raki’ twines different generations together in song and is strengthened through raypirri’, by which ancestral identities are extended as wetj to a new generation. Through these themes, we consider the role of manikay (public ceremonial song) in the formation of knowledge and responsibility, and the composition of yuta manikay (new songs) through collaborative engagements with the Australian Art Orchestra. By drawing together numerous exchanges between the authors during research activities, teaching and other personal discussions in 2021–22, we emphasise relational textures within Yolŋu epistemology and show how understanding develops through creativity and growth.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous
• Yolŋu
• collaboration
• manikay
• respect
• listening

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a recording of ‘Malka’, see audio example 4d from Curkpatrick (2020), available at, https://open.sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/singing-bones.html.

2 For a detailed study of Wägilak history and narrative as expressed through manikay, (see Curkpatrick 2020), where raki’ is considered on pages 5–6 and 86–89.

3 While raypirri’ is a foundational concept within Yolŋu thought and culture, it has gained little attention within academic research. The Why Warriors organisation (2020) considers two ‘intertwined meanings’: the teaching of discipline and culturally appropriate behaviour, including how to relate to others through responsibilities of gurrutu (kinship) and rules of ceremonial performance; and, self-discipline, self-control and endurance, in the sense of fulfilling responsibilities to Yolŋu law and culture. In consultation with Yolŋu leaders, Christie and Campbell (2013: 10) define raypirri’ as ‘congruence with the proper ancestral way of doing things.’ Raypirri’ is not only about discipline but might inform creativity and ingenuity, such as the design of appropriate housing: ‘We can say that good housing designs themselves reveal and enact raypirri’. They allow people to live in agreement.’

4 Marratja Dhamarrandji and Havea (2014: 13) has explored raypirri’ in a way that resembles raki’: ‘Raypirri makes us connect with those who have passed. When we pass raypirri on, we make our children and their children connect with those who have passed on. We need to do this, to pass raypirri on, for the sake of our children and our people.’

5 Wilfred is an artist with the AAO, whose most significant collaborations with that ensemble include Crossing Roper Bar (2005–15), Nyilipidji (2015–17), composed by Paul Grabowsky, and Hand to Earth (2018–ongoing). See Curkpatrick (2021a), Curkpatrick and Wilfred (2023a) for Grabowsky’s WATA: A Gathering for Songmen, Improvising Soloists and Orchestra (2021), composed for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. A timeline of Wägilak performances can be found in Curkpatrick (2020: appendix 3).

6 Educative formation through active participation in ceremonial performance and the concept of marŋi (simultaneously, ‘to know’, ‘to be able to’ and ‘to have rights in’) are explored in Corn et al. 2023.

7 See also Christie’s reflections (2011: 132) on reading Payi Linda Ford’s Aboriginal Knowledge Narratives and Country. Christie writes that it is the laughter, the good faith, the aesthetics, and the ‘rightness’ or ‘fittingness’ of what we produce together that evidences the ‘truth’ of our collaborative work. Similarly, Blakeman (2015: 107) explores Yolŋu concepts of connection and reciprocity that produce positive emotions, such as ‘making well’, ‘high spirits’ and ‘collective vitality.’

8 Langton and Corn (2023) explore the close relationships between ceremonial performance and law.

9 Exploring raypirri’ as a theological concept, Maratja Dhamarrandji and Havea (2014: 13) writes in a similar way, ‘The word raypirri refers to wisdom, gift, blessing, culture, and tradition. Raypirri is what fathers pass on to their sons, and mothers to their daughters, for they will be leaders of families in the future … Raypirri is what the leaders of today pass on to the leaders of tomorrow. Raypirri is handed over from one generation to the next. It is a set of gifts to guide the next generation. Raypirri is like the shadow of previous generations that current and future generations follow … When we see our shadow, we see the footprint of the sun in the shape of our body.’

10 For Wägilak singer Benjamin Wilfred, the land is not only the source of song but the potential for collaboration, for making new connections. ‘Collaboration coming out from my walk [through country]; collaboration coming out from the ground and from the land; collaboration coming out from my heart, and looking forward, and from the painting, and from the Grandpa’s story, and from the mokuy [ghost] called Wild Blackfella [Djuwalpada]. Every story and song coming out from … the country, and from the land, and from the ground. [In Crossing Roper Bar] we follow those tracks: just walk and walk. We always sing about Wild Blackfella [Djuwalpada], where he walked. We follow that track, where the elders in the olden days went, we follow them.’ Cited in Curkpatrick (2020: 28).

11 Cf. Brown and Treloyn (2017), who provide an account of ceremonial songs in the Kimberley and West Arnhem Land, that are understood to be received as a wurnan (gift) from the spirit of deceased ancestors. They focus on songs which, having been lost or forgotten, come to life through legacy recordings.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Divinity, under the research grant ‘Openings for collaborative theology through classical Yolŋu and Warlpiri epistemologies.

Notes on contributors

Samuel Curkpatrick

Samuel Curkpatrick is a researcher specialising in Indigenous Australian music and philosophical issues of language and epistemology. Sam completed a doctorate in ethnomusicology at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies (ANU, Canberra) and further postgraduate research in theology at the University of Divinity. Since 2010, he has worked closely with Wägilak singers from Ngukurr, notably Daniel Wilfred, teaching in the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO)'s annual Creative Music Intensive. Sam was an inaugural fellow of the Commonwealth Intercultural Arts Network at Cambridge University and is a Research Associate in Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Daniel Wilfred

Daniel Wilfred is a ceremonial leader from the Wägilak clan. His work as a member of the Australian Art Orchestra explores cross cultural understanding through Yolŋu narratives and performance. He has taught annually at the AAO's Creative Music Intensive with Samuel Curkpatrick since 2016. In 2019, Daniel received an NT Government Arts Fellowship and in 2020 the Australian Music Centre's Luminary Award for the Northern Territory. He has performed at numerous international arts festivals in Berlin, London, Hong Kong and Australia.