‘This Painting Becomes His Body for Life’: Transforming Relations in Yolŋu Initiation and Funeral Rituals

ABSTRACT

Among the most striking images produced in north-east Arnhem Land today are the paintings given to young boys during their first initiation ceremony (dhapi). Skilfully applied on their chest over several hours, while singing and dancing proceeds on the ceremonial grounds nearby, these body paintings act as relational matrixes which locate the initiands within a socio-cosmic web of connections. At the other end of the male ritual life-cycle, the bodies of the deceased undergo a similar process of transfiguration, as they are made to resemble the groups’ most sacred objects, seen to instantiate the powers of specific ancestral beings. In the context of these rituals, the links between clans, places, and ancestral beings are expressed by being made visible on and around the body. Pragmatically composed and displayed for all to see, I suggest that Yolŋu ritual images appear as ‘matter(s) of relations’ par excellence, materialising various sets of social relationships. This paper examines the material logics behind this transfiguration process which, by turning people into ancestors, transform the relations between individuals and groups, between humans and non-human beings, and between the living and the spirits of the dead.

KEYWORDS:

• Body paintings
• images
• life-cycle rituals
• Arnhem Land
• ritual innovation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I am indebted to my families of the Dätiwuy clan for trusting me to recount this painful event a decade later. I thank Pascale Bonnemère and Sandra Revolon for challenging the participants to make use of this stimulating concept and the editors of this special issue for their useful comments. This paper has benefited greatly from the suggestions made by three anonymous reviewers.

2. While märr can be a source of strength, of striving and propitiating, it can also present a danger if perceived by the wrong people and bring sickness and death (Thomson 1975, 3, 7–8).

3. The public settings of contemporary dhapi ceremonies are shown in two recent films Yirritja Dhapi (2009) and Dhuwa Dhapi (2009) produced and distributed on DVD by the Yirrkala-based Mulka Project, https://yirrkala.com/the-mulka-project.

4. The only exceptions to my knowledge concern children who suffer from disability.

5. This symbolic set-up has its counterpart in funeral ceremonies, where the burial site of clan members of the Yirritja moiety can also be conceived of as a crocodile nest (see Dunlop 1979; Morphy 1984).

6. From the moment the young man was found dead in the bush to the actual burial of the body in one of the town's consecrated cemeteries, about three weeks elapsed. Preparations for the funeral started when the corpse was sent to Darwin for a post-mortem and the bäpurru ceremony itself lasted for eight days, from 12 to 19 September 2004. The dhapi was held on 16 and 17 September.

7. I wish to thank one of the anonymous reviewers for bringing this local criticism to my attention.

8. To my knowledge, there has been at least three other occasions in the past decade. A comparative analysis of these events would exceed the space allocated here, but would be of great worth to better understand the works of ritual dynamics in context.