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ABSTRACT
Warlpiri women, as with other groups across Indigenous Australia, sing to sustain and nurture their relationships with Country and jukurrpa (dreamings). For the custodians of these singing traditions, spiritual agency and power are consigned to songs and their singers, and performances are centred around nurturing relational links between people with Country and to other participants. Within contemporary contexts, in which Warlpiri singers are finding fewer opportunities to perform and pass on songs, new performance spaces are being created to continue to carry forward the significant cultural work of maintaining social and spiritual order through song. In this article we consider a number of performance instances of Warlpiri women's yawulyu (ceremonial songs) and discuss the inter—group dynamics and negotiations which are central to these events. We explore the ways in which Warlpiri women are continuing the cultural work of maintaining the relational aspects central to yawulyu through these performances despite shifting purposes and performance contexts. We illustrate through examples from contemporary events, how the dynamics of the particular performance instances involving ceremonial songs, dances, and other activities, direct the ways in which participants assert and reshape their intimate links to Country and to broader social networks of others.
Acknowledgements
With acknowledgements to the custodians of the jukurrpa, songs and dances which we have discussed in the article, particularly Barbara Napanangka Martin, Ormay Nangala Gallagher, Maisy Napurrurla Wayne, and Molly Napurrurla Presley. With thanks also to Amanda Harris, Catherine Ingram, Joseph Toltz, and Toby Martin for comments on an early draft of this paper which has shaped the directions and conclusions considerably, to two anonymous peer reviewers and to guest-editor of this journal issue, Sam Curkpatrick, for their insightful comments. Georgia Curran’s ARC funded DECRA (DE200100120) has supported the research for this article. Previous ARC Linkage project (LP160100743) and support from the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts program has supported many of the performance events discussed. The project has approval from the University of Sydney’s Human Research Ethics Committee and custodians of the songs discussed have provided their informed consent for their publication. The content of this article includes cultural knowledge and practices which are owned by Warlpiri people and its use for any other purpose that has not been permitted by them is a breach of copyright and moral rights.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Myfany Turpin and Jennifer Green point out that in parts of Central Australia, the verb ‘singing’ implies affect and is differentiated from other verbs of vocalisation for this reason.
2 Curran, Barwick and Martin (Citationforthcoming), illustrate through comparison of Minamina yawulyu performance over a 50-year time span, that in contemporary performances the place-centred aspects of songs are the most emphasised and seen as the essence of a song which is vital to pass on to younger generations.
3 The use of this term in this article implies that the space is one of respect and desire for mutual understanding and is used rather than cross cultural, which may emphasise cultural difference.
4 The authors have undertaken collaborative work together and alongside other senior Warlpiri singers since 2005, largely focused on supporting song traditions by setting up spaces for their revitalisation, seeking out performance opportunities, and documentary work on song words, musical aspects, and stories (see Gallagher et al. Citation2014, Warlpiri Women from Yuendumu Citation2017, Curran 2020b).
5 It is important to note that the idea of an ‘audience’ for Warlpiri women’s yawulyu, alongside it’s framing as a ‘performance’ is a relatively new concept which has emerged with the rise of public performance opportunities beginning in the late 1970s and 1980s, and particularly linked to the requirement to showcase links to particular Country in the land claim era and provide context to the designs on Central Australian dot paintings, which at the time were beginning to occupy an international art market.
6 Yarlpurru-rlangu yawulyu were also performed for similar reasons when a Warlpiri group from Yuendumu visited the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra and danced for an audience of Aboriginal activists and other Canberra locals (see Curran and Sims Citation2021).
7 An age-brother in this instance refers to two men who went through Warlpiri initiation ceremonies (Kurdiji) together when they were teenagers.
8 Warlpiri people have an eight-part subsection system in which everyone is classified with a ‘skin name’ beginning with ‘J’ for men, and ‘N’ for women. Japanangka and Japangardi are the subsections which together form a patricouple and have ownership for the same jukurrpa.
9 This event was filmed and a creative digital output was produced by Incite Arts and circulated via online social media in 2020, when restrictions to holding live events were in place. The Warlpiri women’s Ngapa Yawulyu film was part of a series of performances.
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Notes on contributors
Georgia Curran
Georgia Curran is currently a Australian Research Council DECRA fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney. Her interests include Indigenous music, languages and performance. She has conducted research in collaboration with Warlpiri people and Yuendumu-based organisations since 2005 including publications of two Warlpiri women's song books (Batchelor Press 2014, 2017) and Sustaining Indigenous Songs (Berghahn, 2020) as well as numerous articles.
Enid Nangala Gallagher
Enid Nangala Oldfield is a senior Warlpiri community leader with many roles in various Yuendumu-based organisations, as well as the Southern Tanami Rangers. Enid envisaged and has led the Southern Ngaliya dance camps since 2010, working in collaboration with Incite Arts and the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation. She has been central to the conceptual development and content preparation for Yawulyu mardukuja-patu-kurlangu: a Warlpiri women's digital space.