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Abstract
The language of Aboriginal songs is often described by both researchers and Aboriginal people as being unintelligible to those who do not have the ritual knowledge to understand it. The Minamina yawulyu performed by Warlpiri women from Yuendumu community, Central Australia, is one such song cycle that is described in this way. However, it does not display many instances of ritual or archaic words or phonological skewing that would clearly differentiate this language from everyday Warlpiri. Instead the Minamina yawulyu uses regular language in a connotative way such that it is unintelligible without knowledge of the symbolic associations intended. In this way ritually knowledgeable people who understand the connotations of this language are required to interpret these songs giving them a degree of control over how this knowledge is transmitted. In this paper I will present some examples of metaphor, metonymy and image-schemata along with accompanying exegesis provided by Warlpiri informants. In highlighting this symbolic way of using language I will show that Warlpiri song language uses familiar physical and social experiences in Warlpiri people's lives such as those around landscape, kin relations and physical appearances and movement, to connote emotive responses to country and associated ceremonies. This paper will demonstrate the role of song in passing on the complexity of religious knowledge and also the ways in which ritually knowledgeable people control its transmission.
Notes
1 Yawulyu is the Warlpiri word for an overarching genre of women's ceremonies, including songs, dances and designs. Every Warlpiri woman has connections to several different Dreaming totems which each have associated yawulyu.
2Sports Weekend is held annually in Yuendumu with large numbers of people from various Desert communities gathering here to compete in football, softball, basketball and other events such as spear throwing.
3Women's Law and Culture week is held annually and is funded by the Central Land Council, Alice Springs. It is held in a different host community every year and large numbers of women from communities across South Australia and the Northern Territory attend.
4This song cycle is sung in Lajamanu for male initiation ceremonies. In Yuendumu a different song cycle is performed relating to a group of women from Kunajarrayi.
5I would like to thank Jeannie Nungarrayi Egan, Thomas Jangala Rice, Ruth Napaljarri Oldfield and Judy Nampijinpa Granites for their patience and persistence in helping to transcribe and explain the meanings of the songs presented in this paper.
6It should be emphasized that the songs used in the examples for this paper are not presented in the order in which they were performed. Instances where this is important for an understanding of this paper have been noted in the text.
8Minamina is the name of the home of the women who are the subjects of this song cycle. It is the place where they begin the journey. In everyday speech the name means a home, nest, lair or a protective entity where one sleeps. It also refers to landscape features such as soakages where Dreamings are said to emerge from the ground.
9This refers to a presentative form of the verb which is the verb plus the suffix -nya. The use of this verb form is common throughout Warlpiri songs but not in everyday speech.
10A japi is an entrance to a human or animal home—significantly the entrance to an ant's nest where there is a mound of soil.
7I was not able to identify the particular species of ant that is being referred to in this song.
11‘Loverboy’ is a word from Aboriginal English that is also frequently used in Warlpiri. It refers to men who consistently chase women in an attempt to seduce them.
12The gloss ‘red bird’ is used here as there is some contention as to what species this bird is. The Warlpiri Dictionary glosses it as a ‘mythological bird’. Gosford (2008: personal communication) has suggested that it is a Red Capped Robin Petroica goodenovii.
13This bird is a central character in the Ngarlu yawulyu, associated with a place near Mt Allan community.
14Wierzbicka (Citation2008) has also argued that in Warlpiri there are no colour terms. So rather than redness, Warlpiri people are conceptualizing ‘shininess’ or high visibility as the distinguishing visual feature.
15 Kanangka also refers to a daughter, young woman or girl, and is typically used by men in the paternal line such as a father or father's brother. This meaning is also being evoked in this song.
16Mulga trees are also often the trees of choice for the manufacture of these digging sticks.
17 Kana also refers to the female umbilical cord, whereas a tool used by men, karli ‘boomerang’, is used for the male umbilical cord.
18Catherine Ellis has referred to these ways of disguising meaning as ‘false fronts’ (Ellis Citation1985: 63).