Vamala Wannapi Warlkari Vukarnaawi

Vamala Wannapi Warlkari Vukarnaawi

Vamala Wannapi Warlkari Vukarnaawi Wikurutana Wildu Mantaawi

(Two spirits leaving the grave to travel to our Heaven via the Sea of the Dead and the Southern Cross)

This painting originated from my own personal interest and investigation into the spiritual beliefs of the Adnyamathanha Yura people in comparison to the beliefs of Christianity. It depicts what some of our people believe happens to the Wannapi (spirit) of a deceased person after death and burial.

But before that let me share with you some information about the traditional beliefs and practices of Adnyamathanha Yura when it comes to burial rites and funeral ceremonies.

Funeral ceremonies were more intricate and detailed than the funeral ceremonies that we hold today for our people and departed loved ones. Traditionally, it was very important to follow carefully the rites of our funeral ceremonies in order to avoid any trouble both with the spirit world and between the two separate moieties (marriage lines) and totems of our people: Ararru Vukarra Milana and Mathari Varpa Milana.

The place where a person has died was referred to as ‘Wingu Wata’. Wingu Wata is the combination of two Adnyamathanha Yura Ngawarla words: ‘Wingu’ meaning ‘breathe’ and ‘Wata’ meaning ‘long way around, detour’, thus ‘Wingu Wata’ can be literally translated as ‘the place we need to walk a long way around because it is the place where the breath of a person has left the body.’

When a person died it was the usual practice for our people to abandon the camp where that person had lived and resided and to establish a new camp in a different site and location. An inquest also usually followed to ensure that a person was not killed by any other person.

The name of the deceased person was also no longer to be used in either conversation or in the naming of another child. The general practice was to refer to the deceased person in other ways so that everyone still knew who was being talked about. This belief is still practiced today e.g. when my Ngami passed away for many years after, and still even today, whenever my relatives speak of her they never specifically mention her name in any conversation, instead, whenever they speak of her they would always refer to her as ‘Marvyn’s Mother’, because I am the oldest child in my family. Even today, whenever Adnyamathanha Yura has to make exceptions to mention the name of a deceased person for outsiders they feel an inner conflict within themselves and can often get upset because they know that they are breaking our laws and traditions by mentioning the name of a deceased loved one.

Today, we do now however name other children born into our family with the name of a deceased person in order to honour them and to keep them in remembrance within our family, but at the same time, we then also immediately give that child a nickname so that

again the name of the deceased person is never mentioned e.g. My Uncle Alwyn and Aunty Irene came to me to ask permission if they could name their daughter after my Mother and after I gave

them my consent, they named their daughter after my Mother and then immediately they gave their daughter the nickname of ‘Wabma’, which means ‘snake’ in the Adnyamathanha Yura Ngawarla language, so that my Mother’s name could still not be mentioned or used in general conversation when people now talk of their daughter or call out to her.

It was the responsibility of the deceased person’s moiety to carry out the ceremonial care and burial of the body. Some times relatives from the opposite moiety could assist with the burial rites if they were of the same generation of the deceased or they were grand kin of the deceased.

If the deceased person was married then the widows or widower of the deceased would have white lime applied to their whole body. All members of the deceased moiety would apply to their faces and hair with black carbon or manganese and all members of the opposite moiety would cover their faces and hair with white lime. This stage of the mourning process would last about two weeks. This practice of covering our faces and hair with lime, carbon or manganese can has been adapted in our culture whereby, today, we now wear the colours of black and white clothes to funerals. Most often people wear a white shirt with black trousers or they may wear shirts and trousers that are all black.

People of the opposite moiety were not permitted to watch the burial, nor the return of the mourners from the burial site and they were not permitted to discuss or mention the death. To maintain these funeral rules, traditionally, the people of the two moieties – Ararru and Mathari – were buried in separate areas from each other but this tradition has gone out of culture as most Adnyamathanha Yura people are now buried in Udnyu (white man/corpse) Warlkari cemeteries.

A grave is called a Warlkari and it was often roughly a metre or two deep and was dug by the relatives who belonged to the same moiety of the deceased person. The Warlkari was always situated out of sight of the new camp that had been established in order to prevent the Wannapi (Rising Spirit) of the deceased from finding out where the new camp site was located. Along the journey to the Warlkari the Women Elders would also sing a special Wudi (song, chant) in order to frighten away and prevent any other spirits that may follow them and the funeral party, and they would light fires along the way for the same purposes. This practice was also done to prevent the Wannapi of the deceased from also from following them back to the newly established camp site as well.

After being placed in the Warlkari the name of the corpse of the deceased was called Udnyu the same name we now use for white people for when our people first met Europeans they believed that they were actually seeing the bodies of their loved ones arisen from the Warlkari and walking once again upon the earth and among the living. At this sight I can well imagine how frightened and upset they would have been because they may have well believed that they had somehow failed to follow our funeral and burial ceremonies properly.

The body of the deceased was stretched out and their legs were tied together and their arms were also tied together.

The body of the deceased was carried to the Warlkari from the place of death on two Wirti (sticks). The path to and from the Warlkari would always be taken in a zigzag pattern in order to prevent the Wannapi of the deceased from following the mourners back to the new established camp site.

Long Wirtis were also placed in the Warlkari and the body was placed on them. On top of the body was placed Uldha (brush) and more Wirtis. On top of these were placed leaves from the Vartiwaka plant (Emu Bush – Eremophila longifolia) and dirt was then placed on top of the Vartiwaka leaves.

At the head of the Warlkari an Ngalda Warla (break) was placed in a curve that was usually made of earth, stones, wood and fresh leafy branches. A large creek stone will also be placed near the Warlkari in order to indicate to future visitors that there is a Warlkari in that place. The creek stone is often gotten from another place and would then be carried long distances to the place of the burial site.

The head of the deceased would be placed in a position where the head was always pointed to the South. However, I have been told by an Elder that for the two different moieties the head for Ararru people were placed so that it faced North and that it was only the head for Mathari people who were placed in such a way that their head faced South.

Before leaving the Warlkari and place of burial a fire would be lit by one of the deceased relatives to again prevent the Wannapi from following the people back to the camp. On the journey from the Warlkari the mourners would again make another zigzag path that was different from the one that was made to the Warlkari in order to prevent the Wannapi of the deceased to follow them back to the new established camp site.

Later on if relatives either visited the Warlkari on purpose or they and other people may come upon Warlkari by accident then the usual practice was to light a fire halfway back from the Warlkari in order to again prevent the spirit of the deceased from following you back home. If you failed to light a fire then there was a good chance that the spirit of the deceased would follow you back home and it would then haunt you and upset your sleeping.

After three days the relatives of the deceased would return to the Warlkari to look for signs that the Wannapi of the deceased had departed from the Warlkari. Often this visit to the Warlkari and search was done on a daily basis. The reason for this investigation was to check if the Wannapi had left the Warlkari and the body of the deceased.

The tradition and custom of visiting the Warlkari after this three day period was established by our Nguthuna Adambara and Artapudapuda.

The usual sign that was looked for was the emergence of a plant through a hole that was generally at the head of the Warlkari. If the plant appeared at the foot end of the Warlkari then this was often a bad sign that the Wannapi has not left the Warlkari and an indication that foul play may have been the result of the deceased person’s death. If it was thought that the deceased person’s death was a result of some foul play then it was the duty of the deceased relatives to search for the person who may have been responsible for the death of their loved one and to punish them. They had to do this in order to ensure that the Wannapi of their relative could leave the Warlkari.

When it comes to the Wannapi leaving the Warlkari and body I have found in my research that there are possibly two different beliefs held by Adnyamathanha Yura about what occurs after to the Wannapi.

The two different beliefs and accounts may either be one and the same or it could be because Adnyamathanha people are made up from different groups and each group had brought into our now united culture and people their own separate beliefs systems and stories.

The first belief is that the Wannapi leaves the Warlkari and body and travels back the place in the sky from whence they were originally conceived and created, in Wikurutana, in order to be cleansed by their spirit ‘Mothers’, the Maudlangami. Once cleansed by their Maudlangami, the spirit of the deceased can then return to its own country. This returned spirit was then called ‘Irijura’ and they could still bring trouble to the living and therefore other certain rituals were performed to prevent this from happening e.g. the lighting of the fires at a halfway mark between the Warlkari and the person walking away from it, not mentioning the name of the deceased, not visiting the grave after mid day etc.

The second belief is that some Adnyamathanha Yura believe that the Wannapi of the deceased rose up into the sky and began their spiritual journey to join our Ancestors in our conceptual belief of our heavenly place and abode, again, from whence our spirits were first conceived and created by our Maudlangami in Wikurutana.

This spiritual journey to Wikurutana was done by the Wannapi travelling to a place which we call Vukarnaawi (the water/river of the dead) and where the Wannapi resided and travelled along for awhile with their other Wardumathanha (Ancestors) who had died before them. Whilst in the waters of Vukarnaawi the Wannapi was washed and cleansed.

The Vukarnaawi can be seen clearly in the night sky as the large closely banded stars that seem to flow in a southerly direction towards Wildu Mantaawi. This long cluster of stars is actually the outward view of the most outer edges of our galaxy which the Utnyu call the Milky Way Galaxy and which we call and know as Wali Vari.

The name ‘Wali Vari’ literally means ‘a creek that wriggles or moves around’.

The Vukarnaawi eventually flowed into the constellation of stars that we call Wildu Mantaawi (Wedge Tail Eagle Foot) and is believed by some to be the gateway to our Wikurutana. The Utnyu now call and know these constellations of stars as the Southern Cross.

This concept and belief about Vukarnaawi may explain why some Adnyamathanha Yura believes that the stars within the night sky are actually the Wannapi of our deceased loved ones travelling to our heaven. Some Yura also believe that when the Wannapi of our departed loved ones finally reach Vukarnaawi and travel along it they look back down on us, watching and guiding us through our own life’s journey.

As the Wannapi nears Wildu Mantaawi the Wannapi it is believed that the Wannapi is then snatched and captured by the Mantaawi of the Wildu and drawn through the gateway to our Wikurutana.

It is interesting to note that we also have another name for our Wikurutana in the Adnyamathanha Yura Ngawarla language and it is the word Kindara.

In my personal research it has been difficult for me to find out if Wikurutana and Kindara are either the same place or that they may be two different places altogether. All I do know for sure is

that both places, Wikurutana and Kindara, are places firmly established within the sky and heaven above us.

Getting back to the comparison between beliefs of Adnyamathanha people and Christianity you can see from above that my people had complex rites and beliefs systems when it came to burials and life after death. We believed in a life after death, the resurrection of the Spirit from the grave and held a conceptual belief that the Spirit travelled back to dwell in a heavenly place in the sky.

Prior to the coming of Christianity to our lands and people I personally believe that my Adnyamathanha Wardumathanha Yura people already had within our culture the religious concept of God; a Great Creator who was above all of our other Nguthuna Spiritual Creation Beings and his name was Undakarra.

We also had another name for the Great Creator and it was ‘Nutuna’ and some people, like me; now believe that this name may have been our traditional name and pre-Christian cultural awareness of the nature and characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We may even have had a name for the ‘Holy Spirit’, which could well be the word ‘Mind-apatina’, another name that is given to ‘our spirit being after death’ and more importantly ‘the name given to the main spirit-boss who looks after our spirits when we do die’.

Has stated, and I must stress here, that this last belief about the foreknowledge of the nature of God within my culture prior to the coming of Christian missionaries to our lands are my own personal beliefs and does not necessarily mean they are generally shared and accepted by my other Adnyamathanha Yura Ngankini peoples.

The main point I am trying to make here is that maybe the reason why many of our Elder people had eventually adopted Christianity was that when they really looked into our culture they could see that these inherent religious and spiritual beliefs about God, the creational aspects of the world around us and the knowledge of our spiritual beings prior to our birth and after our death already existed in our culture before the coming of the Europeans. All that our Wardumathanha did previously were to express it differently and within our own cultural context.
I also firmly believe that the new Christian beliefs should have only then been incorporated into our cultural context and not replace our cultural traditional religious beliefs and expressions entirely altogether.

The way and manner in which European Gentile missionaries preached the Gospel to the Aboriginal people of Australia went against their very own teachings and edicts as contained in the Bible.

The Europeans Gentile missionaries were only commanded by their Bible to preach the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ to us and not force us to give up our lands, cultural ways, language, traditions, and laws.

In the Bible one of the very first ever debates and arguments that occurred in the newly established Christian faith was about the differences between the early Jewish Christians and the newly converted Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians.

Many of the Jewish Christians wanted the newly converted Gentiles to come under the laws and traditions as passed down by their elder Moses but then both Peter and James, two of the disciples and respected Elders of the early Church, stood up argued strongly against this notion. In the same manner this argument and its outcomes should have been held and remembered when the European Christian Gentiles first came to our nations of people to begin their preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe also that if the early European Gentile missionaries had only told our Wardumathanha people that within their own people and culture there were differently held beliefs and arguments about the nature and commandments of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and that there were also in the wider world many other different religious views, beliefs and expressions, then our Wardumathanha may have turned to them and said:

‘Before we can accept and incorporate these new things that you tell us about into our Muda, our culture, traditions and laws, we want you to go back to your people and make a final common decision and form a unity of ideas and opinions about what your people really believe in.

For if we have to give up some of our own traditional beliefs as taught and passed down to us by our Wardumathanha and established by our Nguthuna then we want to make sure that we will be giving some of them up for the truth and proper reasons.

We do not want to find out later that what you have told us was not the whole truth or that such beliefs are not shared and believed by other people in your culture and race.

Such dispute and arguments about your different religious beliefs that occurs amongst your people will only affect the common good and unity of our people and this we cannot allow to happen.’

Sadly, today, some of our people are now indeed separated by the different religious beliefs of the Gentile missionaries and the many other different religions that have come to our Yarta.

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