Indigenous Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand: People, Clans, Chiefdoms, Culture, Religion, Totemism, and Shamanism

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Indonesia

“Fossilized remains of Homo erectus, popularly known as the “Java Man,” suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited two million to 500,000 years ago. Homo sapiens reached the region around 43,000 BCE. Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to Southeast Asia from what is now Taiwan. They arrived in the archipelago around 2,000 BCE and confined the native Melanesians to the far eastern regions as they spread east. Ideal agricultural conditions and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the eighth century BCE allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the first century CE. The archipelago’s strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including with Indian kingdoms and Chinese dynasties, from several centuries BCE.” ref

Indigenous peoples in Indonesia

“Indonesia has a population of approximately 260 million people, and the government recognizes 1,331 ethnic groups. Recent laws and government decrees use the term Masyarakat adat to refer to Indigenous Peoples. The national organization of Indigenous Peoples, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), estimates that the number of Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia is between 50 and 70 million people. The Ministry of Social Affairs identifies some Indigenous communities as komunitas adat terpencil (geographically isolated Indigenous communities). However, many more people identify themselves or are considered by others as Indigenous. West Papua covers the western part of the island of New Guinea and comprises the two Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua (Papua Barat).” ref

“Indigenous peoples of Indonesia: Calling for recognition and respect. According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Indonesia is home to an estimated 50 to 70 million Indigenous peoples or 18% to 19% of the Indonesian population. While Indonesia has a law that “recognises and respects the unity and integrity of the Indigenous and tribal peoples”, the reality is that recognition and respect for the nation’s Indigenous peoples are still far below expectations. A great nation respects the culture, history, and leadership of its Indigenous peoples. AMAN urges President Joko Widodo and the Indonesian House of Representatives to immediately ratify the Bill on Indigenous Peoples (RUU MHA). The ratification of this law will help restore and protect the rights of Indigenous peoples in Indonesia and will set a positive benchmark in the global community in dealing with human rights issues.” ref

“Although Indonesia is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), government officials argue that the concept of Indigenous peoples is not applicable to the country, rejecting calls for them to consider the specific needs of groups that identify themselves as Indigenous. The UN Committee on Racial Discrimination has expressed its concern that Indonesia is not respecting the principle of Indigenous self-identification. The International Labour Organization’s Convention 169, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention also provides guidance on the right of Indigenous peoples’ self-determination but unfortunately Indonesia has not ratified this treaty.” ref

“There remains much work to be done in Indonesia on Indigenous peoples’ rights. Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) is an independent community organisation with a vision to create a just and prosperous life for all Indigenous peoples in Indonesia, with political sovereignty, economic independence and cultural dignity. AMAN works at local, national and international levels to represent and advocate for Indigenous peoples’ issues. As of January 2021, AMAN comprised 2,422 Indigenous communities and represented an estimated 20 million Indigenous people.” ref

“We believe recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights in Indonesia has important consequences for three specific rights:

1. The right to gain recognition, protection and respect for community territory. When decisions are made about forests and ancestral lands, communities must have the right to free, prior and informed consent. From the perspective of Indigenous peoples, forests are not only land, trees and rivers, but also a life history where traditional values are preserved. Yet from January to May in 2020, it is estimated that 1,488 hectares of forest in West Papua disappeared..

3. The right to be free from violence. The battle to protect the forest often leads to serious and sometimes fatal conflicts. Community activities must be supported by the government and their leaders not criminalised for defending their land and forests. AMAN’s 2020 end-of-year report documented at least 40 cases of criminalisation and violence against Indigenous peoples. as well as more than 39,000 Indigenous people who have suffered economic, social and moral losses because of acts of intimidation, violence, and criminalisation.
4. The rights to education and culture. Indigenous knowledge systems and practices have been passed down the generations for thousands of years, through ritual, storytelling, observing, listening, weaving, hunting, planting, cooking, and dreaming, among others. This cultural inheritance is threatened when Indigenous rights are not respected.” ref

“After 75 years of independence, Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia are still struggling for equality. Indigenous People fought alongside youth movements in the creation of an Indonesian nation. But, in the historical writing of Indonesia’s struggle for independence from colonial powers, stories of Indigenous People’s role are nearly non-existent compared to that of the elite educated youth leaders. This lack of representation reflects the marginalisation of Indigenous People’s, which continued throughout Indonesia’s 75 years of independence.” ref

“Mentawai (also known as Mentawei and Mentawi) people are the native people of the Mentawai Islands (principally Siberut, Sipura, North Pagai, and South Pagai) about 100 miles from West Sumatra province, Indonesia. They live a semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the coastal and rainforest environments of the islands and are also one of the oldest tribes in Indonesia. The Mentawai population is estimated to be about 64,000. The Mentawai tribe is documented to have migrated from Nias – a northern island – to the Mentawai islands, living in an isolated life for centuries until they encountered the Dutch in 1621. The ancestors of the indigenous Mentawai people are believed to have first migrated to the region somewhere between 2000 and 500 BCE. The Mentawai language belongs to the Austronesian language family. They follow their own animist belief system called Arat Sabulungan, that links the supernatural powers of ancestral spirits to the ecology of the rainforest. When the spirits are not treated well or forgotten, they might bring bad luck like illnesses and haunt those who forgot them.” ref

“Mentawai also have very strong belief towards objects they think are holy. The people are characterized by their heavy spirituality, body art and their tendency to sharpen their teeth, a cultural practice tied to Mentawai beauty ideals. Mentawai tend to live in unison and peace with the nature around them because they believe that all things in nature have a form of spiritual essence. “It is very common to see Mentawai people covered head to toe in tattoos, since they follow various traditional tribal rituals, and their tattoos identify their role and social status. The tradition of tattooing called Titi, is done with cane and coconut charcoal dye, a nail, a needle, and two pieces of wood fashioned into a hammer-like stick by a shaman called Sikerei. The shaman will pray for the charcoal before using it to make a tattoo. Tattooing on the island is an identity and a personal or communal reflection of the people’s relationship to nature, called Arat Sabulungan, although there are motivational and design differences from region to region and among clans. Mentawai people believe that these tattoos allow them to bring their material wealth into the afterlife and allows their ancestors to recognize them in the afterlife. Moreover, Mentawai tattoos are considered one of the oldest in the world, and symbolize the balance between foresters and nature.” ref

“The Mentawai, also known as the “Flower People”, never harvest a plant or take the life of an animal without asking for their spirit’s forgiveness first because they believe every part of the environment has a spirit. This belief is essential to their traditional religion of Arat Sabulungan. This complex cultural belief system gives reverence to the spirits of their ancestors, the sky, land, ocean, rivers, and all that is natural within. It also provides local people with the skills, knowledge, and values required to maintain a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle. As teachers, healers, and caretakers of this indigenous knowledge, local shaman, known as Sikerei, fulfill their responsibility to the wider community by educating them in the intricacies of Arat Sabulungan. They instill a comprehensive understanding of all that life is dependent upon within their people. Sikerei are the backbone of Mentawai culture and its sustainability. Presently, largely due to the gradual introduction and influence of foreign cultural, behavioral, and ideological change, the number of Sikerei still practicing the Arat Sabulungan lifestyle and their role has diminished to a few small clans located in the south of Siberut island.” ref

Belief and Religion

Majority Religions: Islam (mostly Sunni, minority Shia, and Non-denominational)

Minorities Religions: Christianity (Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy), Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism, Shamanism, Sunda Wiwitan, Kaharingan, Parmalim, Kejawen, Aluk To Dolo, Others.

“Indonesia’s islands are homes to a diverse ethnic and religious groups which have given rise to a large number of cultural practices. Despite their cultural wealth, Indonesian indigenous people have been facing many problems regarding their cultural heritage existence. Most of their problems occur due to the inharmonious relationship between them and the government. Therefore, cultural approach is needed as a means to bridge the gap between the indigenous groups with the government by socialising the cultural aspects in the academic environment. By doing so, people from the academic environment can take part in preserving those cultures by joining some performances, learning to play traditional instruments, and raising awareness in the society. As a result, people in academic environment will have a chance to show the government that those cultural heritages need to be preserved. At the same time, the indigenous people will understand that there are some people who are aware of the cultural values. In the end, the indigenous people can work hand in hand with the government in the cultural preservation and development.” ref

“Indonesia’s islands, which are more than 17,000 islands, are homes to a diverse ethnic and religious groups which have given rise to a large number of cultural practices. Since culture represents society’s thoughts and actions (Cooper, 1973), ethnic groups can show people their identity as a community. Ethnic groups occupied Indonesian territory long before the nation was established. Therefore, they are called indigenous people of Indonesia. Based on it, some parties consider all ethnic groups throughout Indonesia to be indigenous people. Another term used to define the concept of indigenous people was isolated people. The term as described in the Social Minister’s Decree, No.5 of 1994, referred to ”groups of people who live or are nomadic in geographically remote and isolated areas and are socially and culturally alienated and/or still underdeveloped compared to other Indonesian communities in general.” ref

“Indigenous people are those who are native to the lands they live in and having their own distinct languages and culture (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, n.d.). Despite their cultural wealth, Indonesian indigenous people have been facing many problems regarding their cultural heritage existence. According to AMAN—Indonesian Indigenous People Alliance (2016), indigenous people or broadly known as MasyarakatAdatin Indonesia experienced poverty, discrimination and political marginalisation. Most of their problems occur due to the inharmonious relationship between them and the government. Therefore, cultural approach is needed as a means to bridge the gap between the indigenous groups with the government by socialising the cultural aspects in the academic environment.” ref

“The mythology of Indonesia is very diverse, the Indonesian people consisting of hundreds of ethnic groups, each with their own myths and legends that explain the origin of their people, the tales of their ancestors, and the demons or deities in their belief systems. The tendency to syncretize by overlying older traditions with newer foreign ideas has occurred. For example, the older ancestral mythology might be merged with foreign mythology, such as Hindu, Islam, or Christian biblical mythology. Some native Indonesian ethnic groups that were isolated from the rest of the world until recent centuries have their own native myths and gods. These native mythologies are relatively free from foreign influences, such as Torajans, Nias, Bataks, Dayaks and Papuans. By contrast, Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese were influenced by Hindu–Buddhist Indian mythology as early as the 1st century CE. Hindu gods, legends, and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata were adopted and adapted into a uniquely local form.” ref

“Several different religions are practised in Indonesia. Indonesia is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state without an established state religion. The first principle of Indonesia’s philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state the belief in “the one and almighty God“. Although, as explained by the Constitutional Court, this first sila of Pancasila is an explicit recognition of divine substances (i.e. divine providence) and meant as a principle on how to live together in a religiously diverse society. Blasphemy is a punishable offence (since 1965, see § History), and the Indonesian government has a discriminatory attitude towards its numerous tribal religions, atheist and agnostic citizens. In addition, the Aceh province officially applies Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities.” ref

“From 1975 to 2017, Indonesian law mandated that its citizens possess an identity card indicating their religious affiliation, which could be chosen from a selection of those six recognised religions. However, since 2017, citizens who do not identify with those religions have the option to leave that section blank on their identity card. Although there is no apostasy law preventing Indonesians from converting to any religion, Indonesia does not recognise agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is considered illegal. According to a 2017 decision of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia, “the branches/flows of beliefs” (Indonesian: aliran kepercayaan) – ethnic religions with new religious movements – must be recognised and included in an Indonesian identity card (KTP). Based on data collected by the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), there are about 245 unofficial religions in Indonesia.” ref

“Until the beginning of CE, the peoples of Indonesia followed the local tribal Austronesian and Papuan ethnic religions and traditions. A number of ancestral animistic/polytheistic indigenous religions (Austronesian and Papuan ethnic beliefs) are present, which were dominant throughout the archipelago before the arrival of Dharmic and Abrahamic religions. Some still exist in some parts of Indonesia as either pure or syncretic. They include:

• Batak Parmalim
• Buginese Tolotang
• Dayak Kaharingan
• Javanese Kejawèn
• Karo Pemena
• Manusela Naurus
• Mentawai/Sakuddei Arat Sabulungan
• Minahasan Tonaas Walian
• Nias Fanömba adu (Pelebegu)
• Papuan (Asmat, etc.) Adat
• Sangirese Masade
• Sasak Wetu Telu
• Savu Jingi Tiu
• Sumbese Marapu
• Sundanese/Baduy Sunda Wiwitan
• Talaud Adat Musi
• Toraja Aluk Todolo, and others.” ref

“The non-official number of ethnic believers is up to 20 million. The government often views indigenous beliefs as kepercayaan adat (custom) rather than agama (religion) or as a variant of a recognised religion. Because of this, followers of these beliefs such as Dayak Kaharingan have identified themselves as Hindu as a result to avoid pressure to convert to Islam or Christianity. Several native tribal beliefs such as Sunda Wiwitan, Toraja Aluk Todolo, and Batak Parmalim — although different from Indian-influenced Balinese Hinduism — might seek affiliation with Hinduism to survive, while at the same time also preserving their distinction from mainstream Indonesian Hinduism dominated by the Balinese. In many cases, some of the followers of these native beliefs might convert to Christianity or Islam, at least registered as such on their KTP while still upholding and performing their native beliefs.” ref

“Sunda Wiwitan is a folk religion and ancient beliefs adhered to by the Sundanese (including Baduy people & Bantenese) in Indonesia.” ref

“Kaharingan is an indigenous monotheistic folk religion of the Dayak people such as Katingan, Lawangan, Ma’anyan, Ngaju, Ot Danum people native to the Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan region in Indonesia.” ref

“The term Parmalim or malim describes the followers of the Malim religion (Ugamo Malim or Batak nation religion), the modern form of the traditional Batak religion. People who are not familiar with the Batak language may erroneously assume Parmalim is the name of the religion rather than its practitioners.” ref

“Kejawèn (Javanese: ꦏꦗꦮꦺꦤ꧀, romanized: Kajawèn) or Javanism, also called Kebatinan, Agama Jawa, and Kepercayaan, is a Javanese cultural tradition, consisting of an amalgam of Animistic, Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu aspects. It is rooted in Javanese history and religiosity, syncretizing aspects of different religions and traditions.” ref

“Aluk To Dolo, Toraja’s indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or “the way” (sometimes translated as “the law”). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo’ Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo’ Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.” ref

“The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. The decline of the Toraja religion began with the Christianization under rule of the Dutch. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja’s death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished. The traditional Toraja religion is today only practiced by a small minority.” ref

“Creation myths explain the creation of the universe and the world and its lands. They often explain the story of their ancestors. Most native Indonesian ethnic groups, especially those not influenced by other traditions, explain the origin of the universe, gods, and deities, as well as their ancestors. Ancient people in Java and Bali believed in an unseen spiritual entity that has supernatural powers identified as Hyangs. This spirit can be either divine or ancestral. The reverence for this spiritual entity can be found in Sunda Wiwitan, Kejawen, and Balinese Hinduism. According to the myth of some ethnic groups in Sulawesi, the earth sat upon the back of gigantic babirusa. An earthquake happened when the boar felt itchy and rubbed its back against a gigantic palm tree. This myth has its counterpart, in the Hindu myth of Varaha, the third avatar of Vishnu as a gigantic boar that carried the world upon his back.” ref

“The Dayak indigenous religion, Kaharingan, is a form of animism. The Dayak arose from middle-earth out of a cosmic battle at the beginning of time between a primal couple, a male and female bird/dragon (serpent). Representations of this primal couple are among the most pervasive motifs of Dayak art. The primal mythic conflict ended in a mutual, procreative murder. The body parts became the present universe stage by stage. This primal sacrificial creation of the universe is re-experienced and ultimately harmoniously brought together in the seasons of the year, the interdependence of river (up-stream and down-stream) and land, the tilling of the earth and fall of the rain, the union of male and female, the distinctions between and cooperation of social classes, the wars and trade with foreigners, indeed in all aspects of life, even including tattoos on the body, the lay-out of dwellings and the annual cycle of renewal ceremonies, funeral rites, etc. The practice of Kaharingan differs from group to group, but shamans, specialists in ecstatic flight, are central to Dayak religion. They bring together the various realms of Heaven (Upper-world), earth, and Under-world, for example, healing the sick by retrieving their souls while they journey to the Upper-world land of the dead, accompanying and protecting the soul of the dead, presiding over annual renewal and agricultural regeneration festivals, etc. Death rituals are most elaborate when a noble (kamang) dies. On particular religious occasions, the spirit is believed to descend to partake in celebration, a mark of honour and respect to past ancestors and blessings for a prosperous future.” ref

“The Batak creation myth has many versions. Large collections of Batak tales were recorded by European scholars in their own languages (mostly Dutch) beginning in the mid-19th century. At the beginning of time there was only the sky with a great sea beneath it. In the sky lived the gods and the sea was the home of a mighty underworld dragon Naga Padoha. The earth did not yet exist and human beings, too, were as yet unknown. At the beginning of creation stands the god Mula Jadi Na Bolon. His origin remains uncertain. A rough translation of the name is the “beginning of becoming”. Everything that exists can be traced to him. Mula Jadi lives in the upper world, which is usually divided into seven levels. His three sons, Batara Guru, Mangalabulan and Soripada were born from eggs laid by a hen fertilized by Mula Jadi. Two swallows act as messengers and helpers to Mula Jadi in his act of creation. Their functions vary in the different versions. Mula Jadi begets three daughters whom he gives as wives for his three sons. Mankind is the result of the union of the three couples. Besides the three sons of Mula Jadi another god, Asiasi, has only unclear place and function. There is some evidence that Asiasi can be seen as the balance and unity of the trinity of gods. The ruler of the underworld, i. e. the primeval sea, is the serpent-dragon Naga Padoha. He too existed before the beginning and seems to be the opponent of Mula Jadi. As ruler of the underworld Naga Padoha also has an important function in the creation of the earth. All these six gods play a minor role in ritual. They do not receive sacrificial offerings from the faithful and no places of sacrifice are built for them. They are merely called on in prayers for help and assistance.” ref

“The origin of the Earth and of mankind is connected mainly with the daughter of Batara Guru, Sideak Parujar, who is the actual creator of the Earth. She flees from her intended husband, the lizard-shaped son of Mangalabulan, and lets herself down on a spun thread from the sky to the middle world, which at that time was a watery waste. She refuses to go back, but feels very unhappy. Out of compassion Mula Jadi sends his granddaughter a handful of earth so that she can find somewhere to live. Sideak Parudjar was ordered to spread out this earth and thus the Earth became broad and long. But the goddess was not able to enjoy her rest for long. The Earth had been spread out on the head of Naga Padoha, the dragon of the underworld who lived in the water. He groaned under the weight and attempted to get rid of it by rolling around. The Earth was softened by water and was almost destroyed. With the help of Mula Jadi and by her own cunning Sideak Parudjar was able to overcome the dragon. She thrust a sword into the body of Naga Padoha up to the hilt and laid him in an iron block. Whenever Naga Padoha twists in its fetters an earthquake occurs. After the lizard-shaped son of Mangalabulan, the husband the gods intended for her, had taken another name and another form, Sideak Parujar marries him. She becomes the mother of twins of opposite sexes. When the two have grown up their divine parents return to the upper world, leaving the couple behind on the Earth. Mankind is the result of their incestuous union. The couple settle on Pusuk Buhit, a volcano on the western shore of Lake Toba, and found the village of Si Anjur Mulamula. The mythological ancestor of the Batak, Si Raja Batak is one of their grandchildren.” ref

“Torajans indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or “the way” (sometimes translated as “the law”). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo’ Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo’ Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more. “The mythology of Fumeripits explain the origin of Asmat people, on the Southern coast of Papua. The myth explains that Fumeripits was the first man in Asmat lands. Fumeripits’ canoe sank in the sea and his body was stranded on Asmat coast. He was revived by magical bird. Feeling lonely he carved numerous wooden figures, and when he created tifa drum and played it, these wooden figures magically became alive as the ancestors of Asmat people.” ref

“According to Sunda Wiwitan beliefs of the Sundanese, a supreme god named Sang Hyang Kersa created the universe and also other gods such as Mother Goddess Batari Sunan Ambu and Batara Guru (identified as Shiva after the adoption of Hinduism). Many other gods were adopted from Hindu gods such as Indra and Vishnu. Batara Guru rules the kahyangan or svargaloka as the king of gods, while the Sang Hyang Kersa remains unseen. According to Sundanese legends, the land of Parahyangan highlands was magically created when the hyangs (gods) were happy and smiling. To fill the land Sang Hyang Kersa created animals and demons, while the myth of Dewi Sri explains the origin of rice and plants on earth as told in Wawacan Sulanjana.^[10] Sang Hyang Kersa also created seven bataras (lesser demigods) in Sasaka Pusaka Buana (The Sacred Place on Earth). The oldest of these is Batara Cikal who is considered the ancestor of the Kanekes people. Other bataras ruled various locations in Sunda lands and became the ancestors of human beings. Sundanese folklore also explains the origin of certain things and places. The myth of Sangkuriang explains the origin of Tangkuban Perahu volcano, and the collective memory of an ancient lake in Bandung. The epic tale of Ciung Wanara explains the relationship between Sundanese and Javanese people as the tale of two contesting brothers.” ref

Dukun is an Indonesian term for shaman. Their societal role is that of a traditional healer, spirit medium, custom and tradition experts and on occasion sorcerers and masters of black magic. In common usage the dukun is often confused with another type of shaman, the pawang. It is often mistranslated into English as “witch doctor” or “medicine man”. Many self-styled dukun in Indonesia are simply scammers and criminals, preying on people who were raised to believe in the supernatural. The dukun is the very epitome of the kejawen or kebatinan belief system indigenous to Java. Very strong and ancient beliefs of animism, ancestor worship, and shamanism are held by the people of the Nusantara. While medical doctors and revivalist Islam and Christianity have caused a decrease in the prominence of dukun, they remain highly respected and somewhat feared figures in Indonesian-Malay society, even in the most orthodox Muslim-dominant areas.

“Dukun are most common on the island of Java, though the island of Madura is especially feared for being very powerful practitioners of dark magic, and Bali is well regarded for its dukun. The Dayak people of Kalimantan are also feared for their use of dukun when head-hunting. In Sabah, the Kadayan community are known for their dukun who are said to look waif-like with red eyes. In common practice, a dukun is consulted when a person perceives they have an issue that has a supernatural or paranormal association. If a dukun is not known to the individual, their family or friends, word of mouth often creates a situation where the dukun will appear as if summoned, most especially in the case of possessions. The dukun’s knowledge is passed down orally, but the specific customs differ from one community to another. Initiates may voluntarily decide to learn the dukun’s craft, or the position might be inherited. Proto-Malay dukun often serve the dual role of both shaman and village chief, known as a tok batin. Dukun who inherited their knowledge from their parent or grandparent is held in higher esteem than one who served as another dukun’s disciple. Typically the initiation ritual involves meditation at a mountain, waterfall, cemetery or some other location away from people.” ref

“A bomoh (Southern Thai: โต๊ะบอมอ; RTGS: To Bomo) is a Malay shaman and traditional medicine practitioner. The term is used mainly in Malaysia and parts of Sumatra, whereas most Indonesians use the word dukun. It is often mistranslated into English as medicine man or witch doctor. In colloquial usage, the term bomoh is often interchangeable with another type of shaman or dukun, the pawang, but they generally serve different functions. The bomoh is primarily a healer, herbalist, geomancer, and sorcerer. The pawang on the other hand usually specialises in rituals involving weather, nature, animals, and a good harvest. Their roles do overlap, however, and both claim to act as intermediaries for the spirits and gods. The word bomoh (at times spelled bomo or bomor) has been in common usage since at least classical times. It is a loan of the Thai term maw or mohr (Thai: หมอ; RTGS: Mo, “doctor”). This word can mean either doctor or sorcerer, as in terms like mawpii (หมอผี; Mo Phi, “spirit doctor”) and mawduu (หมอดู; Mo du, “fortune-teller”).” ref

“Prior to the later introduction of the English-derived “doktor” or the Arabic word “tabib”, the bomoh served as healers and physicians in Malay society. Thai shamans or bomoh Siam are traditionally held in high regard in Malaysia. Shamanism in Southeast Asia can be traced to the region’s prehistoric tribal people. The bomoh’s original role was that of a healer and their expertise was first and foremost an in-depth knowledge of medicinal herbs and tajul muluk or Malay geomancy. This was supplemented by Sanskrit mantera (mantra) owing to the ancient Hindu–Buddhist influence in the region. Before European colonisation, bomoh – along with Buddhist monks and Hindu rishis – were often exempt from paying taxes, due to the fact that many of them had few material belongings. Malay metaphysical theory holds that the body, and in fact the universe itself, is made up of the four classical elements of fire, water, earth, and wind. Illnesses are often said to be caused by an imbalance of these elements. To restore this balance, patients are advised to bathe in cool water to which lime juice is added. The bomoh also works with rituals and incantations, called jampi.” ref

“A pawang is a type of shaman from Indonesia and Malaysia. The pawang deals with magic involving weather, wild animals and spirits, but they may also be employed for cases of sorcery. Pawang are usually associated with mountains and sky in contrast to the traditional healers (dukun or bomoh) who are most often linked to rivers. Particular variations of pawang exist. Some specialise in controlling weather such as the pawang hujan (rain pawang). Others prevent attacks from animals (especially a dangerous ones) such as the pawang harimau (tiger pawang) and the pawang buaya (crocodile pawang). Some of them are able to do particular rituals and chants for ensuring good luck, such as bountiful hunt, having a safe trip, or success in mining or construction. A pawang is said to control elements and entities by chanting and usually by having spirit servants to do his bidding.” ref

“Practitioners believe the spirits can perform healings, seek missing persons and things or even investigate reasons for bad luck. They further claim that spirits can be used to possess people, cause sickness and miseries and many other bad things. The British colonial administrator Frank Swettenham wrote about the role of the pawang in late nineteenth century Malaya in a chapter on ‘Malay Superstitions’ in his volume of essays Malay Sketches (1895). Swettenham described how the supposed victim of a bajang would employ a pawang to use various methods to determine the identity of their attacker, such as scraping an iron bowl with a razor to produce a corresponding loss of hair in the guilty party, divination by use of a water bowl or dowsing.” ref

“Shamanism is also practiced among the Malay community in Malay Peninsula and indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak. People who practice shamanism in the country are generally called bomoh, and analogously pawang on the Peninsula. In Sabah, the Bobohizan is the main shaman among the Kadazan-Dusun indigenous community. Babaylans (also balian or katalonan, among many other indigenous names) were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. These shamans specialized in harnessing the unlimited powers of nature and were almost always women or feminized men (asog or bayok). They were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities (anito or diwata) and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery. Babaylan were highly respected members of the community, on par with the pre-colonial noble class. In the absence of the datu (head of the domain), the babaylan takes in the role of interim head of the domain.” ref

“A totem, the spirit or sacred object, or symbol or emblem of a group of people, such as family, clan, lineage, or tribe, has special significance in tribal life. They believe that totemic character, sign, mark, letter, ideogram or any other identity, etc. serve as a reminder of the ancestry or mythic past of them. It signifies a spiritual, religious, social, and cultural association between a clan or lineage and a bird, animal, or natural phenomenon. India is the home to large number of indigenous people, who are still untouched by the life style and beliefs. Of the 8.6% of the total population of the country (Census 2011), the diversified tribal groups of tribal of the country are scattered across the country. The tribal people have their own physical, cultural, religious, and spiritual identity. Most of the tribes living in India believe in the concept and practice of totem. The idea, concept, and message that totemism communicates has a spiritual connection or kinship with creatures or objects of nature. The totemic belief of the tribal people is not only an integral part of their social-cultural, religious, and spiritual behavior. The objective of this study is to understand and document the significance of totemic belief of the tribal people of India.” ref

“The Iban tribes of Malaysia practice a form of individual totemism based on dreams. If a spirit of a dead ancestor in human form enters the dream of an individual and proceeds to offer protection in the name of an animal, the dreamer must then seek the named animal as their personal totem. The attainment of such a spirit animal is so important that young men will go to such measures as sleeping on graves or fasting in order to aid the dream state. If a dream involving animals has been experienced, then the chosen individual must observe the spirit animal in its natural environment and come to understand its behaviors. Subsequently, the individual will often carry a part (or parts) of their totem animal with them, which represents their protector spirit, and will present sacrificial offerings to its spirit. Strong taboos are placed upon the killing or the eating of the entire species of the spirit animal, which are passed along from the bearer of the spirit to their descendants.” ref

“Among the Iban of Sarawak (Malaysia), individual totemism has been the tradition. Particular persons dream of a spirit of an ancestor or a dead relative; this spirit appears in a human form, presents himself as a helper and protector, and names an animal (or sometimes an object) in which he is manifested. The Iban then observe the mannerisms of animals and recognize in the behaviour of the animals the embodiment of their protector spirit (ngarong). Sometimes, members of the tribe also carry with them a part of such an animal. Not only this particular animal, but the whole species, is given due respect. Meals and blood offerings are also presented to the spirit animal.” ref

“Young men who wish to obtain such a protector spirit for themselves sleep on the graves of prominent persons or seek out solitude and fast so that they may dream of a helper spirit. Actually, only a few persons can name such animals as their very own. Individuals with protector spirits have also attempted to require from their descendants the respect and the taboo given the animal representing the spirit. As a rule, such descendants do not expect special help from the protector spirit, but they observe the totemistic regulations anyway.” ref

“Ancient humans lived in East Timor 44,000 years ago, archaeologists find. Together with neighboring Indonesia and Australia the region is home to some of the oldest evidence of human life. Timor is located north of Australia and Oceania, and is one of the easternmost Sunda Islands. Together with Sumba, Babar, and associated smaller islands, Timor forms the southern outer archipelago of the Lesser Sunda Islands with the inner islands of Flores, Alor, and Wetar to the north, and beyond them Sulawesi. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor in the eastern part and Indonesia in the western part. Prior to the Indonesian invasion in 1975, the Austronesian people of Timor were animist/totemist polytheists with practices similar to those seen in Madagascar and Polynesia. A few prominent myths remain, such as the island’s conception as an aging crocodile, but today, practitioners of indigenous religions constitute a very small minority. Under Indonesia’s religion law, Timorese had to list one of the approved monotheistic religions, and a great majority listed the Catholic religion of Portugal, the Church also won Timorese over with its campaign to help them get their freedom from Indonesia.” ref, ref, ref

“Anthropologists identify eleven distinct ethno-linguistic groups in Timor. The largest are the Atoni of western Timor and the Tetum of central and eastern Timor. Most indigenous Timorese languages belong to the Timor–Babar branch of the Austronesian languages spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Although lexical evidence is lacking, the non-Austronesian languages of Timor are thought to be related to languages spoken on Halmahera and in Western New Guinea. Some are so mixed that it is difficult to tell which family they descend from. The official languages of East Timor are Tetum and Portuguese, while in West Timor it is Indonesian, although Uab Meto is the local Atoni language spoken throughout Kupang, South Central Timur, and North Central Timur Regencies. Indonesian, a standardized dialect of Malay, is also widely spoken and understood in East Timor. Christianity is the dominant religion throughout the island of Timor, at about 90% of the population. However, it is unequally distributed as West Timor is 58% Protestant and 37% Catholic, and East Timor is 98% Catholic and 1% Protestant. Islam and animism make up most of the remainder at about 5% each across the island.” ref

“Uma Lulik, Lospalos, East Timor, These sacred totem houses connect the Fatakulu people with the spirits of their ancestors. THE FATALUKU PEOPLE OF TIMOR-LESTE (East Timor) are an ethnic minority renowned for their elegant totem houses on stilts, sacred houses called uma lulik. These holy huts symbolize a link between the past and present, the dead and the living. There are traditional uma lulik still in place throughout the Indigenous villages of East Timor, as well as several replica houses built more recently to honor the tradition and to display the Fataluku people’s craftsmanship. Fataluku (also known as Dagaga, Dagoda’, Dagada) is a Papuan language spoken by approximately 37,000 people of Fataluku ethnicity in the eastern areas of East Timor, especially around Lospalos. It is a member of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family, which includes languages spoken both in East Timor and nearby regions of Indonesia. Fataluku’s closest relative is Oirata, spoken on Kisar island, in the Moluccas of Indonesia.” ref, ref

“The Bunak (also known as Bunaq, Buna’, Bunake) people are an ethnic group that live in the mountainous region of central Timor, split between the political boundary between West Timor, Indonesia, particularly in Lamaknen District and East Timor. Their language is one of those on Timor which is not an Austronesian language, but rather a Papuan language, belonging to the Trans–New Guinea linguistic family. They are surrounded by groups which speak Malayo-Polynesian languages, like the Atoni and the Tetum. According to legend, there was once a man named Mau Ipi Guloq who first domesticated the water buffalo. Together with his brother Asa Pharan, he one day caught two sows, which turned into women. His brother, however, claimed both women for himself, which eventually led Mau Ipi Guloq to part with him after a fight. One day a crow disturbed his buffalo, and so Mau Ipi Guloq shot a golden arrow at the bird with a golden blowpipe that he had borrowed from his brother.” ref

“The crow flew with the arrow, and Mau Ipi Guloq followed her into the underworld, where he met her sick ruler. Mau Ipi Guloq offered his help and discovered that his golden arrow was stuck in the ruler. He exchanged it with a bamboo arrow, which he soaked in his betel pouch. The ruler of the underworld was restored to health and gave Mau Ipi Guloq two oranges from a tree in the Underworld that turned into princesses. Asa Pharan asked his brother to exchange one of his wives for one of the princesses. But when he refused, Asan Paran threw Mau Ipi Guloq into a ravine and killed him. However, Mau Ipi Guloq’s wives found him and brought him back to life by using an oil from the Underworld. He returned home healthy and brought back to his youth again; his brother also asked for a bath in the oil in order to be young again. Mau Ipi Guloq’s wives heated the oil bath so much that Asa Pharan was scalded and died. Mau Ipi Guloq also married his brother’s wives and became one of the main ancestors of the Bunak people.” ref

“Just as with any other Timorese ethnic group, there was originally no written tradition. All history and traditions were passed in by word of mouth until the coming of European colonization. Rich traditions do exist among the Timorese, especially the Bunak people. These narrative traditions are recited with repetition, rhyme, and alliteration. This helps the performer remember the verses. In general, it is assumed that Melanesians migrated to Timor around 3000 BCE, to be partially displaced by later Proto-Malayo-Polynesian groups from 2500 BCE. Some claim that the Fataluku people might have reached Timor from the east only after the Austronesians and that they were repressed or assimilated. There has been speculation of such a scenario even with the Makasae language. In the case of the Bunak people, however, there are only place names of Papuan linguistic origin in the homeland country, thus the Bunak people must have settled here before the Austronesians. Moreover, as the Bunak people have common non-Austronesian vocabulary with the Fataluku language, Makasae language, and Makalero language, the existence of a Proto-Timor-Papuan language, from which all the Papuan languages of Timor originate, had been postulated.” ref

“The social isolation has also been reinforced part of the reputation of Bunak people. They have been described as rough and aggressive by their neighbors. This characterization can also be found in a Bunak legend, in which Kemak people have long ears, and the Bunak people have small ears. The metaphorical length of the ears in the Bunak people points to a short-tempered and impatient temperament, while the Kemak people are described as calm and patient. Although Bunak and Atoin Meto people differ culturally, the social organization and the ecology of both cultures belong in the same context where both the cultures of Atoin Meto and Bunak people benefit from each other. The approach of the Bunak people from a cultural and linguistic point of view is so far that Louis Berthe described it in 1963 as a mixture of Papuans and Austronesian roots.” ref

“The smallest social unit in the Bunak society is the clan or the house, which for example, in the upper Lamaknen is called deu. Several clans live together in villages (tas). Each village has its own territory. The clans have a different status. The clans of the nobles are called sisal tul (meaning, bones piece). The name derives from a ritual in which the bones of an animal that was sacrificed belonging to the noble clan. The highest of the nobility houses belong to the clan of the “feminine” chieftain. This man decides in case of problems in the village. The second highest clan represents the “masculine” chieftain who takes care of the village’s relations with the outside world. Other clans are the consultants of the village chefs. Despite their extensive power (oe nolaq), the two chiefs are subordinate to the ritual chief. This has a limited power (oe til) within the affairs of the clan. Together with one of his sisters, the ritual chief is also the guardian of the holy objects in the clan house. In Lamaknen the siblings are called “the man holding the black basket” (taka guzu hone mone) and the “woman holding the black basket” (taka guzu hone pana).” ref

“The different clans are connected to each other in the system of the malu ai. The malu clan are in this case in a partnership, the woman and feminine goods such as pigs and clothes, while from the ai baqa, clan receive wives and give masculine goods. This used to include gold, silver and water buffalo, now replaced by money and cattle. On ceremonial occasions, such as funerals or of the clan house repair, goods between are again malu and ai baqa replaced. However, women rarely leave their clan. In the majority of the Bunak family, a matrilineal system prevails for the succession. The man traditionally moves into the clan of the bride (Matrilocality), where the later children also grow up. The husband has to provide as a mane pou (“new man”) his children and wife, but is not considered a family member. He also has no claims or rights over his wife and children, even if he had to pay a high bride price. In 1991 this was about US dollars 5,100. If the wife dies first, the widower must leave the village and even his own children, and return to his old home village. This may also be necessary through certain ceremonies.” ref

“He is not allowed to take any valuable property, therefore, he is dependent on the help of his clan and his family. He also does not receive the support from his own children as a clan. When the woman moves into an ai baqa clan, one speaks of the clipping of the woman from her clan. She is admitted to her husband’s clan, where the family forms a new line of lineage (dil), establishing a new malu – ai baqa relationship. The children also belong to the clan of the father. Clans can maintain as much as fifteen malu relationships but there can never be more than three to six dil. They maintain their status in the further course of the mother line. The members of the dil lead the name of the maternal clan and keep their property and their sacred objects. In Ainaro, however, the influence of the neighboring Mambai people has led to a patrilineal structure. Also here the Mambai and Bunak people share a common legend. Thus, the Bunak people from Mau-Nuno derive from the same mythical ancestral couple, and the summit of the mountain from which they are derived has both a Bunak and a Mambai name.” ref

“Holy objects are handed down by the men to his uterine nephew. In any case of the marriage type, the father can only pass on to the son the objects which he has acquired in the course of his life. Other holy objects belong to the entire clan. They are generally regarded as sources of life energy. They are kept in the clan houses, where only the guardians reside. Previously, all clan members lived together in single lineage or clan house. Sometimes, the guardians still have a young couple who would help them with the daily work. Every clan house has an altar that can be found both inside and outside the house. In the house is the altar on one of the two piles which carry the first beam (lor bul). Across the street is the fireplace. On the common altar of the village (bosok o op, meaning “altar and height”) are aligned to all the clan houses’ lor bul. The village altar (bosok o op) represents the vital energy of the inhabitants. It is also called pana getelmone goron‘; meaning “root of women, leaves of men”, a metaphor for vitality where leaves move and roots allow plants to absorb water. The longer the roots, the longer the plant lives. Bunak people wishes each other a long life by saying i etel legul (meaning “Let our roots be long”) or i sth huruk (meaning “Let our roots be cool”). Cooling, in conjunction with water, symbolizes fertility; Heat is associated with danger and death. Other altars can be located at water sources, others were only used in the event of war.” ref

Totemism and exclusivism: A case study of Tolak Angin advertising with figure of Rhenald Kasali from Indonesia

“Totemism and exclusivism are currently a concern of advertisers in presenting their work in connection with the tendency of people to worship or glorify something, in the form of objects or people and to consider themselves as part of a community. This tendency is used to attract consumers’ attention to the advertised goods or services. The purpose of this study is to comprehend the formation of a new style of totem related to symbols and meanings that change the value system in the audience so as forming exclusivism. This study focuses on the advertisement for Tolak Angin with the figure of Rhenald Kasali. The research was conducted using the semiotic research method of Roland Barthes’ structural model with descriptive-interpretative techniques by analyzing the structure of the advertising text starting from denotation and connotation which then carried out a semiotic process through the relationships between signs to myths. This study found that Tolak Angin uses Rhenald Kasali as the totem of the advertisement with the meaning of “smart person”. Rhenald Kasali represents a group of people who consider themselves smart. Totem makes a symbol of value system that unite consumers or society, this power will later form “exclusivism” in a group that forms a certain class that has the same attachment to the product “Tolak Angin” with the totem as “smart people”. The results of this study are expected to be a reference for advertising practitioners by utilizing the phenomena of totemism and exclusivism that develop in society.” ref

“Totemism is a primitive belief system in the past in the form of worship of animals or plants as protectors or as calamity carriers, as well as a spiritual bond in certain societies (Pickering, Citation2009). Currently this belief system is reviving through other forms in daily life, it can be in the form of worship of objects or figures of someone who has influence, this generally occurs in Indonesia. Totemism in daily life can be found in advertising, especially through the phenomenon of changing technology of media using, from offline to online, making advertising easier and faster to reach the public, but how does totemism develop in advertising.” ref

“Advertising as a product of popular culture displays many signs which become binding symbols due to the similarity of perceptions within groups of people, resulting in exclusivity, this group feels as part of a large group of fans of the products or figures featured in advertisements (Berger & Ward, Citation2010). Rhenald Kasali’s version of the “Tolak Angin” advertisement that was broadcast on television and on social media YouTube was used as a case study. In Indonesia, the figure of Rhenald Kasali is a well-known professor in the field of management at a well-known university, automatically he has many followers and is adored as a smart person, a person who has extensive knowledge, because of this he is used as an endorser by the company Sido Muncul through the product Tolak Angin, Rhenald Kasali is used as a kind of binder for a group that thinks they are smart. The endorsement of Rhenald Kasali is expected to increase brand equity. The process of tying symbols into advertisements provides a concrete form for the division, classification, and solidarity of groups or ethnicities, this process is totemic. As stated by Comaroff (Citation1987) who examines the fundamental similarities between totemism and ethnicity in terms of sign, opposition, symmetry, inequality, and difference. Totemism is the result of developing a personal relationship with the urban environment and the symbols that come from them.” ref

“Advertising has become a part of human life, and various forms and styles exist to convey their messages (De Mooij, Citation2004), one of which is the Tolak Angin advertisement, which is a transition from Myth to a logo or from traditional to modern Myth. Tolak Angin originates from a drink or traditional medicine made from natural ingredients, thus believing that it is mystical, non-rational, non-scientific, and considered powerful. However, in the advertisement for Tolak Angin with the figure Rhenald Kasali, traditional Tolak Angin becomes rational, scientific, and modern because besides being made from natural ingredients, it is also carried out through research and laboratory studies so that it has strength and safety for its consumers. In addition, consumers are determined to be smart because they consume Tolak Angin as an option. Professor Rhenald Kasali becomes a value system for consumer confidence and attachment to a product.” ref

“Advertisements on television and on social media are cultural products and the culture is a sign system. These signs come in various forms in advertising products and convey a variety of styles and messages, as stated by Hoed (Citation2014), that various approaches to conveying advertising messages are carried out to influence the audience. The use of signs aims to build trust for potential customers, so that consumers will be bound by the product, then consumers will identify the product as a symbol, which is called totemism (Hoed, Citation2014). Thus, it can be said that totemism is a system that binds and is related to spirituality, as well as forming a value system between products and consumers. Various ways of advertising packaging are carried out because manufacturers’ competition to become the choice of consumers is getting tougher day by day, manufacturers are competing to package their product advertisements in such a way as to continue to attract public attention (Indriani et al., Citation2019). Several previous studies have used the theoretical foundation of totemism, including Fauziyyah (Citation2018), who found that Lippo Group’s advertising attempts to make Meikarta a totem by associating it with modernity and ease of life. According to the findings of Christianna’s (Citation2012), the totems utilized in Mie Sedaap advertisements use products and/or brand ambassadors to inspire consumer trust. Meanwhile, the findings of Sari’s (Citation2020) indicate that advertisements for Lux Beauty Powers soap reinforce patriarchal constructions and demonstrate gender bias and stereotypes of women in society.” ref

“This study aims to comprehend and reveal the rationalization of the new style totem as a sign that forms a value system, thus forming a strong connotation in society and forming a new myth about something or someone so that it is worshiped and becomes a kind of totem that can bind groups of people spiritually, this can explains how the articulation of the Tolak Angin ad which uses narrative and visual elements becomes a contemporary myth. Roland Barthes said that contemporary myths are discontinuous, these myths are no longer present in the form of long narratives with standard formats, but only in the form of discourse (Barthes, Citation2013). In addition, Durkheimian sociology termed myth as a collective representation that appears in the form of utterances in the world of advertising or whatever is consumed by the masses.” ref

Big man (anthropology)

“A big man is a highly influential individual in a tribe, especially in Melanesia and Polynesia. Such a person may not have formal tribal or other authority (through for instance material possessions, or inheritance of rights), but can maintain recognition through skilled persuasion and wisdom. The big man has a large group of followers, both from his clan and from other clans. He provides his followers with protection and economic assistance, in return receiving support which he uses to increase his status. The American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins has studied the big man phenomenon. In his much-quoted 1963 article “Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia“, Sahlins uses analytically constructed ideal-types of hierarchy and equality to compare a larger-scale Polynesian-type hierarchical society of chiefs and sub-chiefs with a Melanesian-type big-man system.” ref

“The latter consists of segmented lineage groups, locally held together by faction-leaders who compete for power in the social structure of horizontally arranged and principally equal groupings (factions). Here, leadership is not ascribed, but rather gained through action and competition “with other ambitious men”. A big man’s position is rarely secured as an inherited position at the top of a hierarchy. Rather, big men commonly compete with one another in an ongoing process of reciprocity and re-distribution of material and political resources. Spreading the word of his power and capabilities – thereby establishing reputation and recognition among outsiders – requires the delivery of resources as tribute to relevant big men of other groups. Simultaneously, he must secure resources for his own followers in order to maintain their satisfaction and confidence in his leadership. As such, the big man is subject to a transactional order based on his ability to effectively balance these mutually opposed tasks.” ref

“Concepts of the role and what it entails are relatively fluid and can vary between groups. Typically, any authority a big man may possess is neither formally defined nor universally recognized by others. His position is usually not heritable and his descendants are not guaranteed the right to succession or any otherwise elevated status. In the Island of Malaita in Solomon Islands the big man system is dying away, but the big man system can be seen at the political level. Every four years in the Solomon Islands‘ national elections, the system can be clearly seen, especially in the Melanesian Islands. The first use of the term may be found in the English-translation of Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee (1907) by Richard Parkinson.” ref

“The term may be often found in many historical works dealing with Papua New Guinea. Andrew Strathern applies the concept of big-men to a community in Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea. Traditionally, among peoples of non-Austronesian-speaking communities, authority was obtained by a man (the so-called “big man”) recognised as “performing most capably in social, political, economic and ceremonial activities”. His function was not to command, but to influence his society through his example. He was expected to act as a negotiator with neighbouring groups, and to periodically redistribute food (generally produced by his wives). In this sense, he was seen as ensuring the well-being of his community. Such a system is still found in many parts of Papua New Guinea, and other parts of Melanesia.” ref

“A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as an intermediate stage between the band society of the Paleolithic stage and civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Anthropologist Elman Service distinguishes two stages of tribal societies: simple societies organized by limited instances of social rank and prestige, and more stratified societies led by chieftains or tribal kings (chiefdoms). Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings are thought to have flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with urban civilisations and empires beginning in the Bronze Age. In the case of tribal societies of indigenous peoples existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states, tribal chiefs may represent their tribe or ethnicity in a form of self-government.” ref

“Classical sources of information about tribal societies are external descriptions such as from Greco-Roman ethnography, which identified societies, surrounding the societies of the ethnographers, as tribal. States and colonialism, particularly in the last centuries, forced their central governments onto many remaining tribal societies. In some instances tribes have retained or regained partial self-government and their lifestyles, with Indigenous peoples rights having been fought for and some being secured on state or international levels. Terms of specific tribal chiefdoms in the Americas:

• Lonco (mapudungun: longko, “head”) among the Mapuche
• Morubixaba — tribal Cacique (chief) of the Tupi people
• Oubutu (among the Kalinago people of the southern Caribbean)
• Rajiv (among the central Trinidadian people of Freeport)
• Tyee, a tribal chief of the Chinookan peoples in the Pacific Northwest of the present-day United States
• Cacique, a term used among the Taino Nation of the Caribbean islands, later adopted by the Spanish to refer to all heads of chiefdoms whom they encountered: Cuauhtémoc, Tecun Uman, Tenamaxtli, Atlácatl, Lempira, Nicarao (cacique), Tupac Amaru II
• Sachem, term of chiefdom of the Algonquian nations of present-day New England in the United States
• Afro Bolivian king” ref

“The band is the fundamental unit of governance among the First Nations in Canada (formerly called “Indians”). Most bands have elected chiefs, either directly elected by all members of the band, or indirectly by the band council, these chiefs are recognized by the Canadian state under the terms of the Indian Act. As well, there may be traditional hereditary or charismatic chiefs, who are usually not part of the Indian Act-sanctioned formal government. There were 614 bands in Canada in 2012. There is also a national organization, the Assembly of First Nations, which elects a “national chief” to act as spokesperson of all First Nations bands in Canada.” ref

“Generally, a tribe or nation is considered to be part of an ethnic group, usually sharing cultural values. For example, the forest-dwelling Chippewa historically built dwellings from the bark of trees. On the Great Plains, where trees were rare, some tribes typically dwelt in skin-covered tipis, usually acquiring the lodgepoles by trade, while other Plains tribes, such as the Pawnee, built their lodges of earth. The Pueblo people of the Southwest built their dwellings of stone and earth. A chief might be considered to hold all political power, say by oratory or by example. But on the North American continent, it was historically possible to evade the political power of another by migration. The Mingos, for example, were Iroquois who migrated further west to the sparsely populated Ohio Country during the 18th century. Two Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Hiawatha and the Great Peacemaker, formulated a constitution for the Iroquois Confederation.” ref

“The tribes were pacified by units of the United States Army in the nineteenth century, and were also subject to forced schooling in the decades afterward. Thus, it is uncommon for today’s tribes to have a purely Native American cultural background, and today Native Americans are in many ways simply another ethnicity of the secular American people. Because formal education is now respected, some like Peter MacDonald, a Navajo, left their jobs in the mainstream U.S. economy to become chairpeople of their tribal councils or similar self-government institutions. Not all tribal leaders are or were men. Wilma Mankiller was a well-known chief of the Cherokee Nation. Also, the chief may not free to wield power without the consent of a council of elders of some kind. For example: Cherokee men were not permitted to go to war without the consent of the council of women.” ref

“Historically, the U.S. government treated tribes as seats of political power, and made treaties with the tribes as legal entities. Be that as it may, the territory of these tribes fell under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as reservations held in trust for the tribes. Citizenship was formerly considered a tribal matter. For example, it was not until 1924 that the Pueblo people were granted U.S. citizenship, and it was not until 1948 that the Puebloans were granted the right to vote in state elections in New Mexico. In Wisconsin, the Menominee has its own county Menominee County, Wisconsin with special car license plates; 87% of the county’s population is Native American. Mainstream Americans often find pride and comfort in realizing that at least part of their ethnic ancestry is Native American, although the connection is usually only sentimental and not economic or cultural. Thus, there is some political power in one’s ability to claim a Native American connection (as in the Black Seminole).” ref

“The most common types are the chairman of a council (usually of “elders“) and/or a broader popular assembly in “parliamentary” cultures, the war chief (may be an alternative or additional post in war time), the hereditary chief, and the politically dominant medicineman. The term is usually distinct from chiefs at lower levels, such as village chief (geographically defined) or clan chief (an essentially genealogical notion). The descriptive “tribal” requires an ethno-cultural identity (racial, linguistic, religious etc.) as well as some political (representative, legislative, executive and/or judicial) expression. In certain situations, and especially in a colonial context, the most powerful member of either a confederation or a federation of such tribal, clan or village chiefs would be referred to as a paramount chief.” ref

One thinking could see the power transition as moving from Big Man/Person promoted by talents-work/actions-charisma-etc. Then, a small chef/Mayor, then a simple chiefdom, then a complex chiefdom, then kings/Empresses, and then empires.

“An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, “usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries”. The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) exercises political control over the peripheries. Within an empire, different populations have different sets of rights and are governed differently. Narrowly defined, an empire is a sovereign state whose head of state is an emperor or empress; but not all states with aggregate territory under the rule of supreme authorities are called empires or are ruled by an emperor; nor have all self-described empires been accepted as such by contemporaries and historians (the Central African Empire, and some Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in early England being examples).” ref

“The institution of chiefship is found in all Polynesian societies, be it with a different type of legitimacy than that of their African colleagues. There is every reason to think that chiefship was already found in the Ancient Polynesian Culture some two thousand years ago. Thomas offers a succinct overview of the characteristics of these functionaries, which I will summarize here in broad outlines. The key element of Polynesian chiefship is a genealogical and mythological construction of rank on the basis of successive primogeniture. An elder brother is the ancestor of a metaphorical senior lineage, while the junior lineages trace descent from his younger brother(s).” ref

“These notional connections are traced all the way back to the first quasi-human deities, so that principal ancestors are linked in a direct way with the first-born chiefly line and in an indirect way only with the rest of society. This social construction is usually called ‘ramage’. The access of ordinary people to the main deities is mediated by the chiefs. Food production is dependent upon certain rituals on behalf of the ancestor gods, and the knowledge of these ritual practices and their ritual practices were generally monopolized by the chiefs. All land was held under a twofold ownership: a general abstract ownership on the part of the chief and an immediate tenure on the part of the users. The abstract ownership was associated with a flow of goods towards the chief.” ref

“Some were ritual first fruits in direct acknowledgment of ‘the work of the gods’; others were related to his status in a more general way. Since the survival and regeneration of the group as a whole was dependent upon the work of the chief there was a sense that everybody was indebted to him. The well-being and productiveness of the land were seen to flow from a generalized condition of chiefly well-being and chiefly ritual in particular. Thomas further states that the relation between chief and people was asymmetrical, rather than reciprocal. It is here that Thomas’s views are in need of some correction.” ref

“People did indeed pay heavily in labor, food, goods, and daughters. The system worked satisfactorily – as long as the chiefs fulfilled their part of the ‘deal’ by procuring fertility and well-being. Where this was not (or no longer) the case, a chief could be disposed off. Well-known cases of such a deposal are found on Easter Island and in the Marquesas Islands. In both cases, the degradation of fertile soil, periods of drought, overpopulation, and political tensions occasioned lower food production, which led to hunger, and, finally, to the removal of the chiefs. In both cases, a kind of shamans took over the religious responsibilities, while a kind of war leaders led local groups against each other in endless fights.” ref

“Although the model sketched above may give the impression of quiet, well-governed societies, in actual practice most of the islands were ridden by a fierce status rivalry, a term coined by Goldman (1970). Its cause is the problems with the succession by the eldest, the highest son, for, when there are more sons by several spouses, which of them has the highest status? Is it simply the first-born one, or is it the son by the highest placed wife, who, because of the status of his mother, might have a higher status?” ref

“In such cases, sometimes the advice is sought of old and wise men who know very well the status of every lineage in the island, and soon not only fathers’ pedigree, but also the pedigrees of father’s line of each of the spouses are investigated – and so on, till finally a decision is reached. In other cases a decision is found after fierce fights between the competing brothers. The ‘lower’ son usually leaves the village and founds a village of his own somewhere else on the island – or leaves his society to conclude elsewhere a ‘strategic marriage’ with the daughter of another chief in the hope to succeed her father, or in any case to lay a claim for his son.” ref

“With some minor variations this type of chiefship is found all over Polynesia. Referring to Muller’s remark on the African situation, also Polynesia is characterized by ‘a single ideological model’ (Muller 1981). There are, of course, large differences in power and wealth between the chiefs of the high islands, such as Hawaii, Tonga, and Tahiti, on the one hand, and the small Marquesan chiefs or the chiefs of the Tokelau atolls, on the other hand (Claessen and van Bakel 2006; Huntsman and Hooper 1996), but the underlying principles are the same.” ref

Papua New Guinea

“Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago. They were descendants of migrants out of Africa, in one of the early waves of human migration. A 2016 study at the University of Cambridge by Christopher Klein et al. suggests that it was about 50,000 years ago that these peoples reached Sahul (the paleocontinent consisting of present-day Australia and New Guinea). The sea levels rose and isolated New Guinea about 10,000 years ago, but Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years ago. Evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo found that people of New Guinea share 4%–7% of their genome with the Denisovans, indicating that the ancestors of Papuans interbred in Asia with these archaic hominins. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 7000 BC, making it one of the few areas in the world where people independently domesticated plants. A major migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples to coastal regions of New Guinea took place around 500 BCE. This has been correlated with the introduction of pottery, pigs, and certain fishing techniques.” ref

Indigenous people of New Guinea

“The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahul and, much later, a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago. They also left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples. Linguistically, Papuans speak languages from the many families of non-Austronesian languages that are found only on New Guinea and neighboring islands, as well as Austronesian languages along parts of the coast, and recently developed creoles such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Unserdeutsch, and Papuan Malay.” ref

“The term “Papuan” is used in a wider sense in linguistics and anthropology. In linguistics, “Papuan languages” is a cover term for the diverse, mutually unrelated, non-Austronesian language families spoken in Melanesia, the Torres Strait Islands, and parts of Wallacea. In anthropology, “Papuan” is often used to denote the highly diverse aboriginal populations of Melanesia and Wallacea prior to the arrival of Austronesian-speakers, and the dominant genetic traces of these populations in the current ethnic groups of these areas. Ethnologue‘s 14th edition lists 826 languages of Papua New Guinea and 257 languages of Western New Guinea, a total of 1083 languages, with 12 languages overlapping. They can be divided into two groups, the Austronesian languages, and all the others, called Papuan languages for convenience. The term Papuan languages refers to an areal grouping, rather than a linguistic one. So-called Papuan languages comprise hundreds of different languages, most of which are not related.” ref

“The origin of Papuans is generally associated with the first settlement of Australasia by a lineage dubbed ‘Australasians’ or ‘Australo-Papuans’ during the Initial Upper Paleolithic, which is “ascribed to a population movement with uniform genetic features and material culture” (Ancient East Eurasians), and sharing deep ancestry with modern East Asian peoples and other Asia-Pacific groups. It is estimated that people reached Sahul (the geological continent consisting of Australia and New Guinea) between 50,000 and 37,000 years ago. Rising sea levels separated New Guinea from Australia about 10,000 years ago. However, Aboriginal Australians and Papuans had diverged genetically much earlier, around 40,000 years BP. Papuans are more closely related to Melanesians than to Aboriginal Australians.” ref

“The majority of Papuan Y-DNA Haplogroups belong to subclades of Haplogroup MS, and Haplogroup C1b2a. The frequency of each haplogroup varies along geographic clines. The genetic makeup of Papuans is primarily derived from Ancient East Eurasians, which relates them to other mainland Asian groups such as the “AASI,” Andamanese, as well as East/Southeast Asians, although Papuans may have also received some gene flow from an earlier group (xOoA), around 2%, next to additional archaic Denisovan admixture in the Sahul region. Papuans may harbor varying degrees of deep admixture from “a lineage basal to West and East-Eurasians which occurred sometime between 45,000 and 38,000 years ago”, although they are generally regarded “as a simple sister group of Tianyuan” (“Basal East Asians”).” ref

“In a 2005 study of ASPM gene variants, Mekel-Bobrov et al. found that the Papuan people have among the highest rate of the newly evolved ASPM Haplogroup D, at 59.4% occurrence of the approximately 6,000-year-old allele. While it is not yet known exactly what selective advantage is provided by this gene variant, the haplogroup D allele is thought to be positively selected in populations and to confer some substantial advantage that has caused its frequency to rapidly increase.” ref

“There is evidence that the ancestors of Papuans and related groups “underwent a strong bottleneck before the settlement of the region, and separated around 20,000–40,000 years ago”. Papuans display pronounced genetic diversity, explained through isolation and drift between different subgroups after the settlement of New Guinea. The most notable differentiation was found to be between Highlanders and Lowlanders. Papuan Highlanders fall into three clusters, but form a single clade compared against Lowlanders. The Highlanders underwent a population bottleneck around 10,000 years ago, associated with the adoption of Neolithic lifestyles. Papuan Lowlanders display increased diversity and can be broadly differentiated into a Southern Lowlander cluster and a Northern Lowlander cluster. The genetic differentiation among Papuans is suggested to date back at least 20kya, while the sub-structure among Highlanders dates back around 10kya, with higher diversity among western Highlanders than Eastern ones. The genetic diversity is paralleled by linguistic and cultural diversity.” ref

Belief and Religion

“Traditional ethnic religions are often animist, and many have elements of ancestor worship, as well as tamam witches. The Asabano people of Papua New Guinea had traditional methods of treating human remains that varied based on the type of relationship the survivors planned to have with the deceased. These methods included corpse exposure with curation or disposal of bones, disposal of corpses in rivers, and even cannibalism. However, after their conversion to Christianity in the 1970s, the Asabano began burning or burying bone relics and commenced coffin burial in cemeteries.” ref

“The Papuans are one of four major cultural groups of Papua New Guinea. The majority of the population lives in rural areas. In isolated areas, there remains a handful of the giant communal structures that previously housed the whole male population, with a circling cluster of huts for the women. The Papuan people are Melanesian people composed of at least 240 different peoples, each with its own language and culture. Sago is the staple food of the Papuan, supplemented with hunting, fishing, and small gardens. Papuans may be related to the Iatmul on the Sepik River and to the Asmat and Marind-anim farther west along the coast. There the cultures share concepts of village “big men”, great longhouses, huge dugout canoes, headhunting, and, in some areas, cannibalism.” ref

“Ancestors are important, but not necessarily revered in Papuan culture. The important quality is called “imunu”, the power that pervades things, including ritual objects. Imunu is personified in the masked ceremonies. Most representations are of humans or ancestors, not plants or animals. Traditional cultural ceremonies on a large scale existed into the 1950s, but declined as Christian missionaries converted the villages.” ref

“Animistic beliefs, as well as ancestor worship, are an important part of the widespread traditional rituals and beliefs of the Papuan culture. The practical aspects of life in the region often speak to the types of deities that are revered or worshipped in said region. For example, farming communities often place great emphasis on the weather, accordingly celebrating aspects of fertility and harvest. Placating the spirits of ancestors is also a dominant theme in traditional beliefs, while the fear of sorcery and witchcraft is widespread. Many religions in post-Missionary Papua New Guinea combine elements of Christianity with these more traditional religious beliefs, to varying degrees.” ref

“Papuan art forms are as diverse as they are distinctive. In a country where language varies from village to village, it can be expected that artistic expression will differ in style just as dramatically. Pottery, weapons, carvings, basketwork, and musical instruments are produced by different people in different places, according to their traditional skills and beliefs. Most provinces specialize in different kinds of weaponry. Bows and arrows are traditional in several areas. Shields have a decorative and spiritual role just as important as their defensive purposes. Gope boards are believed to possess the spirits of powerful warriors or to act as guardians of the village. Before hunting or war expeditions, the spirits were called upon to advise and protect the men. Story boards are a modern version of the fragile bark carvings villagers used to make. The boards illustrate incidents of village life in raised relief.” ref

“It is estimated that more than one thousand cultural groups exist in Papua New Guinea. Because of this diversity, many styles of cultural expression have emerged. Each group has created its own expressive forms in art, dance, weaponry, costumes, singing, music, architecture and much more. Most of these cultural groups have their own language. People typically live in villages that rely on subsistence farming. In some areas people hunt and collect wild plants (such as yam roots and karuka) to supplement their diets. Those who become skilled at hunting, farming, and fishing earn a great deal of respect.” ref

“Seashells are no longer the currency of Papua New Guinea, as they were in some regions—sea shells were abolished as currency in 1933. This tradition is still present in local customs. In some cultures, to get a bride, a groom must bring a certain number of golden-edged clam shells as a bride price. In other regions, the bride price is paid in lengths of shell money, pigs, cassowaries or cash. Elsewhere, it is brides who traditionally pay a dowry. People of the highlands engage in colourful local rituals that are called “sing sings.” They paint themselves and dress up with feathers, pearls and animal skins to represent birds, trees or mountain spirits. Sometimes an important event, such as a legendary battle, is enacted at such a musical festival.” ref

“On the island of Papua New Guinea, indigenous tribes believe that illness and calamity are caused by dark spirits, or masalai, which cling to a person’s body and poison them. Shamans are summoned in order to purge the unwholesome spirits from a person. Shamans also perform rainmaking ceremonies and can allegedly improve a hunter’s ability to catch animals.” ref

“Doktas and Shamans Among the Sambia of Papua New Guinea. Shamans were the key traditional healers. Others, such as local ritual experts, would also perform magical spells or recommend indigenous medicines and related treatments for those seeking care. The aid post in the Sambia Valley had a rocky start due to staffing and supply difficulties. 45% said they no longer used shamans for healing. This dramatic social change must be interpreted in the light of increasing acculturation on many fronts among the Sambia, including the decline in the great prestige of traditional shamanism.” ref

“Glass Menand Spirit Women in Papua New Guinea. In Papua New Guinea, the loss of traditional spiritualities has been particularly severe because most groups experienced first contact with the West in the last 100 years. Novel religious forms have come into being, however, through the collision of cultures. The Asabano, a group of 200 living at Duranmin, near the center of New Guinea Island, are among the most recently contacted groups. Traditional spiritualists, known in Papua New Guinea’s lingua franca Tok Pisin as ol glas man—“glass men” or seers—have been replaced by mainly female Christian spiritualists called ol Spirit meri, or “[Holy] Spirit women.” Both types of practitioners use soul travel that is characteristic of shamanism and spirit possession that is characteristic of mediumship to contact supernatural beings.” ref

“Pre-Contact Shamanistic Healers: Techniques to directly contact supernatural beings through altering consciousness and dreaming were a relatively informal part of traditional Asabano religion. Both men and women were involved, though male practitioners were more common, and people varied in the intensity with which they pursued healing, hunting, and other practical ends through direct spiritual contact. The specialist or glass man, known in the vernacular as sanewalemawdu or “secret-sacred man,” was able to see sprites (wild, powerful, humanoid beings) and deceased ancestors, who the Asabano believed provided wild game, enabled healing, and gave other support for people. Glass men could also see the nefarious activities of witches, sorcerers, and evil spirits of trees, stones, and waters. Glass men could see these spiritual beings and doings because “sprites put something in their eyes,” and they were able to travel at night, primarily in dreams, to visit the supernatural beings. They also smoked tobacco to consult with the sprites, who, they say, sat on their backs, caused them to shake, and told them what to say.” ref

“When someone was sick, they consulted a glass man to find out the cause, which Asabano understood to be the actions of witches who cannibalized people; sorcerers who poisoned them; or vindictive spirits of stones, trees, and waters who trapped human souls at their haunts. Glass men compelled tree spirits to release souls by offering a pig and singing and identified witches and sorcerers who could be killed. “Before, when someone was sick they thought a stone or arrowhead was inside the sick person,” elaborated Kanau, a middle-aged father. “So if you were sick, the sprites could come and take it out. The sick person would point to the part that hurt, and they [the glass men working with the sprites] could take it out, show it to the person and then throw it away. But [we now know that] the sprites are not able to break this [magic], only the Spirit of God can do so. Before, witches made people sick. So a man or woman would stand next to a sprite and speak, and remove the object —he or she was a friend of the sprites. The person would smoke, begin to shake just like when the Spirit of God possesses a person, and then he or she would be able to remove the object. The sprite comes and talks with the person, who sees the sprite and the sprite can tell him or her what’s wrong, and then he or she translates.” ref

“In traditional Asabano thought, each person has a little soul, responsible for selfish behavior, and a big soul, responsible for generous behavior. The little soul stays with the body at all times, but the big soul journeys abroad in dreams and death. The big soul is the quintessentially positive self who is capable of meaningful sociality. Glass men exploited the practical implications of these traditional beliefs: dreaming as a way of gathering information, and spirit work to initiate a benevolent social exchange with the sprites. In dreams, the big souls of all people could explore and discover, but those of glass men, with their “opened” eyes, could see what was hidden from most, including the destructive actions of malevolent tree spirits, witches, sorcerers, and little souls of the dead. Through spirit work, when glass men smoked and shook, their big souls could seek contact with benevolent sprites on behalf of people in need. Both of these means allowed them to work for the good of their people.” ref

“Missionaries arrived in the 1970s and before the decade ended a charismatic “revival” converted all the Asabano to Baptist Christianity. The movement began with a series of dramatic possession experiences. These mainly struck women, who shook, collapsed, saw visions, and spoke in tongues. Many also experienced dreams in which Jesus and other Christian spirits appeared. These so-called “Spirit women” believe the Holy Spirit descended into them, and continues to do so periodically for a few specialized in “Spirit work.” Christian spirit work has replaced traditional spirit work with sprites, who missionaries and pastors have labeled “Satan’s family.” Spirit women pray with the sick person, and may experience changed consciousness similar to that which characterized the early revival. In this condition of spirit work, or in a dream on the following night, they say the Holy Spirit shows them pictures, like a video, revealing the cause of the illness, exactly as the sprites formerly showed these things to traditional glass men. Christian spirit workers’ diagnoses are almost identical to those of traditional glass men, with the addition of the client’s own sinfulness as a cause of illness.” ref

“If sin is revealed to be the cause, prayer and repentance are prescribed. Spirit women prescribe forms of prayer for any illness, though their discoveries tell them how to direct the prayer. If a stone spirit is holding the soul of the person, following fervent prayers a wooden cross is constructed and placed in the path revealed to have been used by the offending spirit, so that Jesus will block it. As an elder named Fugod explained, “The Spirit women say to plant a cross at a certain place, and then when they do the sick person will get better … just like the glass men who would say where to give the offering.” A Spirit woman named Isaguo said that following a Spirit woman’s prayer, “the sick person will get better. When we feel the Holy Spirit go through our belly we feel very happy and nice, and feel like talking. We feel like moving and singing songs. … If people are talking a lot about fighting or other sins are coming up, then the Holy Spirit will come to the [Spirit] woman and help her to say, ‘Stop this, let’s have church.’ … I think it is the Holy Spirit, not me who is talking.” ref

“Asabano believe that in their spirit work, other spirits may approach and communicate with them; on the other hand, while in a dream, their own spirit leaves their body and may approach the spirits. The term “shaman” is typically applied to practitioners who send their soul away from their body, while practitioners who receive visits from spirits in their own bodies are usually called “mediums.” Both traditional and Christian Asabano practitioners made use of both techniques in dream and possession experiences. For glass men and spirit women, however, changing clients’ health was not their only purpose. Both also aided in hunting and other practical purposes. For supernatural practices like shamanistic healing, conversion to a new religion may mean the loss of perceived contact with one set of spirits but a concomitant gain of contact with another set. The most important thing, for those who continue to value religious sensibility, is to retain some means of contact with spiritual forces relevant to continued life. The Asabano, having lost certain religious traditions, have succeeded in continuing to perceive a sense of contact with spiritual powers that are central to their culture.” ref

“Among the Nor-Papua people, who live in the northern region of New Guinea, exogamous patrilineal groups are commonly associated with various species of fish. These totems have an unprecedented cultural presence and appear in numerous representations, including ceremonial flutes within which they take the form of spirit creatures, as well as sculpted figures that are present in every household. Individuals in the various groups are believed to be born from the fish totems. These children come from a holy place, the same holy place to which the totem fish are believed to bring the souls of the dead. Upon reaching responsible age, children are given the choice of whether they will accept the totem of their mother or father. Because of this immense totemic importance, numerous species of fish are classified as taboo for killing or eating.” ref

“Among the Nor-Papua of New Guinea, patrilineal, exogamous groups (consanguineous sibs) are spread over several villages and are associated with animals, especially fish. They believe that they are born from totems, and they make them taboo. Children are given an opportunity to decide during their initiation whether they will respect the paternal or maternal totem. Each group of relatives has a holy place to which the totem animal brings the souls of the dead and from which the souls of children are also believed to come. Totem animals are represented in various manifestations: as spirit creatures in sacred flutes, in disguises, and in figures preserved in each man’s house. At the end of initiation ceremonies, the totems are mimicked by the members of the group.” ref

“The Mount Kare Python and His Gold: Totemism and Ecology in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, lying between the Huli and Paiela Peoples of the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Mt. Kare the Site of a Gold Rush from 1988 to 1990, Presently Inspires Millenarian Speculations about an Imminent Cosmic Revolution. Mt. Kare was Traditionally a Ritual Site Where Pigs were Sacrificed to Taiyundika, a Totemic Python, to Promote the Fertility of Plant, Animal, and Human Species.” ref

“Crocodile Men and Animal Totems, in the Middle Sepik region, where initiated men in the Crocodile Clan embody the crocodile: their totem and symbol of strength and power. They believe that humans are the offspring of migrating ancestral crocodiles; their initiation ceremony (for males only!) takes boys and moves them through androgyny and into manhood – albeit with a crocodile spirit. Men of the crocodile clan are heavily scarified to look like the reptiles they epitomise. Circles of scar tissue surrounding their nipples mimic crocodile eyes; nostrils are carved near the abdomen. Their backs are scarred in the form of the powerful animal’s rear legs and tail.” ref

“American anthropologist Nancy Sullivan, who lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for many years, was present during a crocodile-clan initiation ceremony. The young men were taken, under the protection of their mothers’ brothers, to the haus tambaran (spirit house), where hundreds of cuts were incised: symbolically bleeding out their mothers’ postpartum blood to make them ‘men’ of their father’s lineage. Tigaso tree oil and clay were applied to the open wounds. Then the boys lay down by a smoky fire to infect the wounds so that keloid scar tissue was produced. During the whole process, flutes and hour-glass shaped kundu drums played to ‘confuse the women’. Other sources talk about the two months that the young men are sequestered in the spirit houses, learning their clan genealogies, the significance of every clan song and ceremony, and the origins and spiritual purpose of every image or object in the haus tambaran. (For a much more detailed – and somewhat graphic – account of the whole process, have a look at the fascinating article by ‘tattoo anthropologist’ Lars Krutak.)” ref

“In the village of Kanganaman in the Middle Sepik, there is sing-sing – a festival of culture, dance, and music by a gathering of tribes, villages, or clans. Clan culture is strong here: crocodiles (pukpuk) are not the only clan spirits or totems. Eagles (taragau), snakes, cassowary (muruk), pigs, birds of paradise, and other animals, can each represent a spirit clan, and each village usually has several clans and sub-clans. The inter-relationship of these totems is complex, and although one man tried to explain his attachments (separately through his mother and his father) to two spirit symbols, I can’t begin to understand how it all works. It is said, however, that the more diverse clans and spirits a village has, the stronger the village will be – especially in protecting against black magic. Sorcery still looms large in the regional psyche.” ref

“The people along the Sepik River had almost no contact with Westerners until the 19th century, and the region is still relatively remote and difficult to access (see: Welcome to the Spirit House!). Life here has changed little here for thousands of years. There is no electricity (except by generator for the few hardy tourists) and no running water. What there is is unremitting heat that envelopes one like a wet blanket, and the constant buzz of insects – including hordes of mosquitos, which may or may not be carrying malaria, dengue fever, or Japanese encephalitis. The Kanganaman spirit house is lofty and large. Local women (and young men who are not initiated) are not allowed inside, but we are permitted – as long as we take our hats off and don’t touch anything without checking. Many of the objects – including the wicker cone-shaped tumbuan dance costumes on the left, are sacred.” ref

“Inside the haus tambaran – the spirit house – the village elders set up drum rhythms. Garamut (slit drums) like this one, are carved from a tree trunk, and engraved and painted in stages. They are kept in the men’s spirit houses and pounded with poles during special ceremonies.  For the Crocodile Men, the patterns of scarification are all somewhat different – depending on the cutter who has done them and the design within the father’s family. But, they are all impressive! Like all the art and artefacts inside the spirit house, this crocodile skull has significance: we were told very clearly not to touch it. Shells are central to PNG culture, and were once used as currency. So, this skull has monetary worth as well as artistic and spiritual value.” ref

“The face painting is a long, delicate process, but because the designs follow a prescribed village pattern, the men can take turns working in the stifling spirit-house heat. The dancers at the sing-sing illustrate that idea of villages having representatives of different clans. Each village comes with its own ancestral story-dance and their unique face-paint representing their spirit totem. While each village has a ‘set’ costume, the men add on their own personal touches. This old kina shell pectoral adornment is very valuable and has probably been passed down for generations. When the dancers from neighbouring villages have all gone home, we gather in the spirit house.” ref 

“Papua New Guinea Story Poles, eight nineteenth and twentieth-century men’s house posts from the Middle Sepik River Region of Papua New Guinea are on display on The Muck grounds. These pieces of history are generously on long term loan from the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. A display much too large indoors, ranging from ten to fifteen feet, these poles can be seen on the lawn near the main parking area. The natural beauty of the estate is a fitting location for these poles that are heavulty inspired by the natural world. Upon closer inspection, a viewer can see detailed animal and nature carvings.” ref

“The poles were created by Latmul craftsman who lived near the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. The poles were both ornamental and pracitcal. They were used to support the ceremonial Latmul men’s homes. These homes were a center for men to discuss important community matters, socialize , and initiate young boys and men into the various phases of life. When the poles would begin to deteriorate they were retired and left on the outskirts of the village to return to nature. The poles that we have featured for public viewing were among those that could have been retired in this way, but instead they were preserved for their cultural significance.” ref

“The poles feature natural elements that would have been observed by the Latmul people living near the Sepik River. This includes crocodiles, fish, flowers, and birds among others. One of the most featured animals seen in these poles is the crocdile which holds a special importance to the Latmul people. According to the Latmul creation story, the heavens and Earth were created from the great ancestral crocodile that split in two. His upper jaw became the heavens and his lower jaw became the Earth. When viewing the poles be sure to stand back to appreciate their striking size as well as look closer to see these intricate details.” ref

“A totemic figure from Papua New Guinea, this anthropomorphic male figure made of polychrome wood comes from the Maprik District (Abelam Wosera people) in Papua New Guinea. The association of anthropomorphic figures with a bird (or two birds) on the top of its head is quite a common feature throughout the area. The representation of a hornbill on the top of the head, although seemingly refering to a possible clan’s totemic bird (jaambu), seems more general. Hornbills play an important part in announcing the incoming harvest of the yams. Associated with the sun, they also were a model for the flat carved figures presented on the front of the ceremonial house.” ref

“Abelam Wosera people live in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea and are divided into several subgroups; the most prominent is the Wosera, who are so named after the area they inhabit. This is the southernmost group of the Abelam. Abelam (or Ambulas, Abulas) is the third and most prevalent of the Ndu languages of Sepik River region of northern Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Maprik, Wingei, Wosera-Kamu, Wosera-Mamu.” ref, ref

“In prehistoric times, the Sepik-Ramu Basin was flooded with salt water, this inland sea probably reached its maximum extent 5,000 to 6,000 years ago when it reached as far westward as Ambunti. The sea then began to drop gradually until it attained its present level around 1,000 years ago. During that span of time the Sepik Basin with its young floodplains began to develop and became separated from the Ramu Basin by the Bosman Plateau. Linguists point out that the Ndu Family of languages had a common ancestry, which suggests a common settlement history. Linguistic evidence also suggests that the Ndu speakers moved into the Sepik Plains from the south of the river.” ref

“All land is owned by lineages and clans (kim). The wealthiest clans, if they have enough members, are the most powerful within a settlement as they will own, at least in part, the historically and thus ritually most important ceremonial grounds. A lineage’s claim on land is demonstrated by their regularly using land for gardens. The individual plots owned by different lineages are marked by perennial plants; these are often overgrown by shrubs but are quickly rediscovered by old men when disputes over land arise. If a man clears land for a new garden or plants trees on ground not used by him before and nobody protests against it, he is regarded as the rightful owner. In subsistence activities there exists a more or less strict division of labor.” ref 

“Most clans are split into Lineages, members of which often live together as a local unit. In a hamlet generally two or three clans (or rather lineages) are represented. This arrangement means that, within a lineage, a man with his brothers and their sons, as well as most of the in-marrying wives of their children, live together. Relations between siblings are close, expressing themselves also in continuous mutual assistance in all kinds of matters, with such assistance also extended to the children of brothers. The elder brother has some authority over the younger who pays him respect. Each nuclear family has several houses: a sleeping house for the father, a dwelling house for the mother and her children, and one or several storehouses for the root crop. In polygamous marriages not all in-marrying cowives live Together in the same hamlet—where they live depends on the relationship between cowives. But a man wants his wives to live on his own land. Otherwise, if his children are born on another clan’s land, his claim over his children may be challenged. Although, ideally, Abelam clans are said to be patrilineal, affiliations with other lineages and clans are very flexible.” ref

“Continuous relations with one’s mother’s relatives (living on the land of the mother’s brother), fosterage, and adoption give many opportunities for temporary and/or Permanent association. This flexibility also leads to many disputes over landownership, rights of land use, etc. And Because of this associational flexibility and also the absence of elaborate genealogies, clans as social organizational units are only predominant in questions of landownership. Clans are associated with the names of spirits, specific water holes where the spirits are temporarily found, magical leaves, and emblems (mostly birds). Most of these attributes become relevant only in ritual context but even then they are not applied systematically but rather casually or in a flexible manner. Sometimes they are used as attributes for moieties rather than clans.” ref

“Lineages are said to be exogamous and Marriages within them are frowned upon. Marriages take place within a village. In some parts of Maprik region endogamy within the ceremonial moieties (ara ) prevail in order to prevent competition between father and son-in-law. Sister Exchange is a preferred form of marriage. In general, considerable freedom of choice is acknowledged to women in cases where the parents had not arranged intermarriage of their children. In former days marriage took place soon after first menstruation. In marriage transactions shell rings (nowadays supplemented by money) play an important role. Marriage payments can be substituted by giving at least one child back to the wife’s clan. Sometimes, if no marriage payment at all is given, a man with his family has to live on his father-in-law’s land and assist him, as a member of that household, in all communal subsistence activities such as clearing brush, planting, and harvesting. Divorce is not uncommon and Usually occurs with the wife’s return to her own family; in such cases the bride-wealth is returned by her kin or by her new husband upon remarriage.” ref

“Apart from households, lineages, and clans within the village, the nonlocalized moiety system provides the structure for male initiations as well as for yam festivals. Members of one moiety (ara ) have their personal yam exchange partners, and each ara initiates the sons of their exchange partners. Thus, all ceremonial activity is balanced between ara. Although membership is primarily inherited from one’s father, the equality of the two aras’ Membership may be maintained by occasionally transferring members from one ara to the other. Within the ara but also within assemblies held by hamlets or larger parts of the villages (as in disputes) the role of “big men” (nemandu ) as the actual leaders becomes apparent. Apart from ritual knowledge (often transmitted to the first-born son), which is used as religious legitimation for political actions, oratorical skill is an important qualification for becoming a nemandu or an influential man.” ref

“Ceremonial houses (korambo) and Ceremonial grounds (amei) are the focus of most rituals connected with the life-cycle events for men and women. For a girl parts of the first-menstruation ritual as well as the presentation of shell rings as marriage payments take place in front of the korambo. During the death ritual, the corpse is left there for one night. The korambo is also important for its mere presence and does not really serve as a meetingplace. It is mainly for housing those spirits (ngwalndu ) who visit the living temporarily before going back to another world. In a ceremonial building the huge carved ngwalndu figures may be stored until they are used for an initiation. The large painted facade of a korambo is visually dominated by big faces associated with ngwalndu spirits. Although ngwalndu are to some extent ancestral spirits, no genealogy is reported linking the living with these powerful beings who influence the life of men, plants, and animals. The soul of a man (that soul which is associated with clan membership) is thought to live after death with a ngwalndu. While ngwalndu seem to be the most important supematurals, there are nevertheless many others as well, both male and female.” ref

“Initiations of boys and men into the secrets of Abelam religion are divided into many stages, the first taking place when the boy is 5 or 6 years old, the last between 30 and 50. In each initiation boys are acquainted with one category of spiritual beings. This begins at an early age with the least important, and as adults they learn, after they have seen ngwalndu, the last secret beyond which there is only a boundless void. Important parts of initiation ceremonies take place in the ceremonial house where artists arrange elaborate compositions of carved, painted, or plaited figures, decorated with shell rings, feathers, flowers, and leaves. No explanation is given to the initiates. The aim of these rituals is to show them the secrets rather than to verbalize a meaning. For each display of artifacts in a ceremonial house there is an associated dance. In these dances men are painted and decorated all over—thus they are transformed into beings from another world.” ref

“There is almost no “natural” death recognized, apart from those old people who had been sitting already for a long time “at the ashes of a fire.” All other deaths are attributed to magic and sorcery mostly performed in other villages. Symbols of people’s life souls are kept in specialized villages. As soon as a lethal illness is suspected these are checked in order to find the cause and origin of the Sorcery performed. After death the corpse is displayed in front of the ceremonial house and a wake is held. The body is buried the following morning. There are many rituals held over Several years until the soul is eternally freed from its bond to life. There are different souls, one associated with blood, one with bones. The latter is considered the eternal one, who becomes visible during the night as a shining star.” ref

“The Big Man And Chiefdom Societies In New Guinea, in the big man and chiefdom societies, gift-giving is sometimes used as a means of attack to gain personal prestige. The Kwakiutl are a prime example as well as various groups in New Guinea. According to the lecture notes, the way it works is the citizens of the Big Man societies come and pay their debt to their leader, then are invited to a huge feast in which the leader gives all that he has received away to everyone, rich or poor. He becomes known as a generous leader and gains respect and admiration from his followers. The Big Man societies follow the rule that the more prestige you gain, the higher your political power and status will be. The chiefdoms, however, do not follow this rule. Instead, they follow a ranked system.” ref

“There has been a resurgent interest in traditional “chiefs” in eastern Melanesia, both as symbols of identity and power and as agents for the facilitation and legitimization of postcolonial reform. However, Papua New Guinea seems to have made relatively little use of such models of authority. The distribution of Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages within Melanesia helps account for this difference. Austronesian languages appear to be characterized by what is called “a lexicon of hierarchy,” in which concepts related to chiefly models of authority are not uncommon, whereas non-Austronesian languages generally lack such terms. Speakers of Austronesian languages predominate in Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands, whereas non-Austronesian languages predominate in Papua New Guinea. Chiefly, models seem to arise periodically in Papua New Guinea in Austronesian contexts but are rejected by non-Austronesian-speaking cultures when an attempt is made to apply the models more broadly. Results have important implications for the practical implementation of legal and political reform in contemporary Papua New Guinea.” ref

“from New Guinea, with its much larger population of both Indigenous peoples and anthropologists? In this paper, I argue that the answer is linked to the distribution of Austronesian and Papuan languages in Melanesia, and to the differing cultural characteristics of the speakers of those languages. The writer argues that hierarchy, and consequently “chiefs,” are primarily Austronesian characteristics and concerns. Speakers of Austronesian languages predominate or are exclusively present in Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. By contrast, speakers of non-Austronesian or Papuan languages constitute the overwhelming majority in Papua New Guinea and Irian ]aya.” ref

“The author further argues that much of the rhetoric about chiefs that do derive from Papua New Guinea seems to originate from or be associated with Austronesian-speaking regions or peoples, a fact that is critical in assessing its significance and impact. I believe that linguistic and cultural differences between Austronesian and non-Austronesian Pacific peoples, which have not received adequate attention in the analysis of social equality and inequality in Melanesia, provide a key for understanding critical differences in chiefly models and politics between eastern and western Melanesia. Because the use of chiefly models is becoming increasingly important in postcolonial legal and political reform in the Pacific, results have important implications for Papua New Guinea’s involvement in the application of these “traditional” forms of leadership in contemporary contexts.” ref

“Papuan chief Mundiya Kepanga: The voice of ancient trees, A native of Papua New Guinea, where one quarter of the forests have been destroyed in the past 30 years, customary chief Mundiya Kepanga travels the world to pass on the message of his ancestors: the forest is the mother of all living things. Every time an ancient tree is cut down, a part of humanity dies.” ref

“(Re?)Discovering Chiefs: Traditional Authority and the Restructuring of Local Level Government in Papua New Guinea. By the mid-1990s, Papua New Guinea was (re)discovering chiefs on a wide front and looking to traditional ‘chiefly’ structures as part of a move towards more extensive political decentralization. Examining the discussion of traditional authority in the anthropological literature, examines the emerging political discourse on ‘chiefs’ within Papua New Guinea, and comments on its contemporary political significance. The author looks at the following: Bigmen and chiefs in pre-colonial society; chiefs in East Sepik; chiefs in the North Solomons (Bougainville); and chiefs in the political system. It remains to be seen whether the shift towards traditional leadership represents a permanent change in the nature of Papua New Guinea’s political system, or whether it is primarily philosophical and semantic in nature. Any attempt at a wholesale (re)introduction of chiefly structures seems problematic and unlikely to meet expectations.” ref

Australia

“Indigenous Australians comprise two broad groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland (and surrounding islands including Tasmania), and the Torres Strait Islanders, who are a distinct Melanesian people. Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. It is uncertain how many waves of immigration may have contributed to these ancestors of modern Aboriginal Australians. The Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land is possibly the oldest site showing the presence of humans in Australia. The oldest human remains found are the Lake Mungo remains, which have been dated to around 41,000 years ago. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. At the time of first European contact, Aboriginal Australians were complex hunter-gatherers with diverse economies and societies, and spread across at least 250 different language groups.” ref

“Estimates of the Aboriginal population before British settlement range from 300,000 to one million. Aboriginal Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. Certain groups engaged in fire-stick farming, fish farming, and built semi-permanent shelters. The extent to which some groups engaged in agriculture is controversial. The Torres Strait Islander people first settled their islands around 4,000 years ago. Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. Agriculture also developed on some islands and villages appeared by the 1300s.” ref

“Indigenous Australians’ claims to be the most ancient continuous civilization on Earth have been backed up by the first extensive testing of their DNA. Their origins date back more than 50,000 years to the Old Stone Age, according to the research. The new study shows the original explorers first reached a prehistoric supercontinent called Sahul about 58,000 years ago. This huge landmass included present-day Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania, before they were separated by rising sea levels. Scientists took DNA samples of modern populations in Australia to find the genetic traces of the ancient civilization and reconstruct their journey out of Africa 72,000 years ago.” ref

Aboriginal Australians

“Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. People first migrated to Australia at least 65,000 years ago, and over time formed as many as 500 language-based groups. They have a broadly shared, complex genetic history, but only in the last 200 years were they defined by others as, and started to self-identify as, a single group. Aboriginal identity has changed over time and place, with family lineage, self-identification, and community acceptance all of varying importance. Aboriginal Australians have a wide variety of cultural practices and beliefs that make up the oldest continuous cultures in the world. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, the Aboriginal people consisted of complex cultural societies with more than 250 languages and varying degrees of technology and settlements.” ref

“In the past, Aboriginal people lived over large sections of the continental shelf. They were isolated on many of the smaller offshore islands and Tasmania when the land was inundated at the start of the Holocene inter-glacial period, about 11,700 years ago. Despite this, Aboriginal people maintained extensive networks within the continent, and certain groups maintained relationships with Torres Strait Islanders and the Makassar people of modern-day Indonesia. Studies of Aboriginal groups’ genetic makeup are ongoing, but evidence suggests that they have genetic inheritance from ancient Asian but not more modern peoples. They share some similarities with Papuans, but have been isolated from Southeast Asia for a very long time.” ref

“Genetic studies have revealed that Aboriginal Australians largely descended from an Eastern Eurasian population wave during the Initial Upper Paleolithic. They are most closely related to other Oceanians, such as Melanesians. The Aboriginal Australians also show affinity to other Australasian populations, such as Negritos, as well as to East Asian peoples. Phylogenetic data suggests that an early initial eastern lineage (ENA) trifurcated somewhere in South Asia, and gave rise to Australasians (Oceanians), Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI), Andamanese and the East/Southeast Asian lineage, including ancestors of the Native Americans. Papuans may have received approximately 2% of their geneflow from an earlier group (xOOA) as well, next to additional archaic admixture in the Sahul region.” ref

“Aboriginal people are genetically most similar to the indigenous populations of Papua New Guinea, and more distantly related to groups from East Indonesia. They are more distinct from the indigenous populations of Borneo and Malaysia, sharing drift with them than compared to the groups from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This indicates that populations in Australia were isolated for a long time from the rest of Southeast Asia. They remained untouched by migrations and population expansions into that area, which can be explained by the Wallace line.” ref

“In a 2001 study, blood samples were collected from some Warlpiri people in the Northern Territory to study their genetic makeup (which is not representative of all Aboriginal peoples in Australia). The study concluded that the Warlpiri are descended from ancient Asians whose DNA is still somewhat present in Southeastern Asian groups, although greatly diminished. The Warlpiri DNA lacks certain information found in modern Asian genomes, and carries information not found in other genomes. This reinforces the idea of ancient Aboriginal isolation.” ref

“Dispersing across the Australian continent over time, the ancient people expanded and differentiated into distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 400 distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified, distinguished by names designating their ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. According to noted anthropologist, archaeologist, and sociologist Harry Lourandos, historically, these groups lived in three main cultural areas, the Northern, Southern, and Central cultural areas. The Northern and Southern areas, having richer natural marine and woodland resources, were more densely populated than the Central area.” ref

“Genetic data extracted in 2011 by Morten Rasmussen et al., who took a DNA sample from an early-20th-century lock of an Aboriginal person’s hair, found that the Aboriginal ancestors probably migrated through South Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, into Australia, where they stayed. As a result, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied the same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal Australians are the direct descendants of the eastern wave, who left Africa up to 75,000 years ago. This finding is compatible with earlier archaeological finds of human remains near Lake Mungo that date to approximately 40,000 years ago. The idea of the “oldest continuous culture” is based on the Aboriginal peoples’ geographical isolation, with little or no interaction with outside cultures before some contact with Makassan fishermen and Dutch explorers up to 500 years ago.” ref

“The Rasmussen study also found evidence that Aboriginal peoples carry some genes associated with the Denisovans (a species of human related to but distinct from Neanderthals) of Asia; the study suggests that there is an increase in allele sharing between the Denisovan and Aboriginal Australian genomes, compared to other Eurasians or Africans. Examining DNA from a finger bone excavated in Siberia, researchers concluded that the Denisovans migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia and that they interbred with modern humans in Southeast Asia 44,000 years ago, before Australia separated from New Guinea approximately 11,700 years ago. They contributed DNA to Aboriginal Australians and to present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in the Philippines known as Mamanwa. This study confirms Aboriginal Australians as one of the oldest living populations in the world. They are possibly the oldest outside Africa, and they may have the oldest continuous culture on the planet.” ref

“A 2016 study at the University of Cambridge suggests that it was about 50,000 years ago that these peoples reached Sahul (the supercontinent consisting of present-day Australia and its islands and New Guinea). The sea levels rose and isolated Australia about 10,000 years ago, but Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years ago, possibly because the remaining land bridge was impassable. This isolation makes the Aboriginal people the world’s oldest culture. The study also found evidence of an unknown hominin group, distantly related to Denisovans, with whom the Aboriginal and Papuan ancestors must have interbred, leaving a trace of about 4% in most Aboriginal Australians’ genome. There is, however, increased genetic diversity among Aboriginal Australians based on geographical distribution.” ref

“Carlhoff et al. 2021 analysed a Holocene hunter-gatherer sample (“Leang Panninge”) from South Sulawesi, which shares high amounts of genetic drift with Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. This suggests that a population split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. The sample also shows genetic affinity with East Asians and the Andamanese people of South Asia. The authors note that this hunter-gatherer sample can be modelled with ~50% Papuan-related ancestry and either with ~50% East Asian or Andamanese Onge ancestry, highlighting the deep split between Leang Panninge and Aboriginal/Papuans.” ref

“Mallick et al. 2016 and Mark Lipson et al. 2017 study found the bifurcation of Eastern Eurasians and Western Eurasians dates to least 45,000 years ago, with indigenous Australians nested inside the Eastern Eurasian clade. Two genetic studies by Larena et al. 2021 found that Philippines Negrito people split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans before the latter two diverged from each other, but after their common ancestor diverged from the ancestor of East Asian peoples.” ref

“The dingo reached Australia about 4,000 years ago. Near that time, there were changes in language (with the Pama-Nyungan language family spreading over most of the mainland), and in stone tool technology. Smaller tools were used. Human contact has thus been inferred, and genetic data of two kinds have been proposed to support a gene flow from India to Australia: firstly, signs of South Asian components in Aboriginal Australian genomes, reported on the basis of genome-wide SNP data; and secondly, the existence of a Y chromosome (male) lineage, designated haplogroup C∗, with the most recent common ancestor about 5,000 years ago.” ref

“The first type of evidence comes from a 2013 study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology using large-scale genotyping data from a pool of Aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, island Southeast Asians, and Indians. It found that the New Guinea and Mamanwa (Philippines area) groups diverged from the Aboriginals about 36,000 years ago (there is supporting evidence that these populations are descended from migrants taking an early “southern route” out of Africa, before other groups in the area). Also, the Indian and Australian populations mixed long before European contact, with this gene flow occurring during the Holocene (c. 4,200 years ago). The researchers had two theories for this: either some Indians had contact with people in Indonesia who eventually transferred those Indian genes to Aboriginal Australians, or a group of Indians migrated from India to Australia and intermingled with the locals directly.” ref

“However, a 2016 study in Current Biology by Anders Bergström et al. excluded the Y chromosome as providing evidence for recent gene flow from India into Australia. The study authors sequenced 13 Aboriginal Australian Y chromosomes using recent advances in gene sequencing technology. They investigated their divergence times from Y chromosomes in other continents, including comparing the haplogroup C chromosomes. They found a divergence time of about 54,100 years between the Sahul C chromosome and its closest relative C5, as well as about 54,300 years between haplogroups K*/M and their closest haplogroups R and Q. The deep divergence time of 50,000-plus years with the South Asian chromosome and “the fact that the Aboriginal Australian Cs share a more recent common ancestor with Papuan Cs” excludes any recent genetic contact.” ref

“The 2016 study’s authors concluded that, although this does not disprove the presence of any Holocene gene flow or non-genetic influences from South Asia at that time, and the appearance of the dingo does provide strong evidence for external contacts, the evidence overall is consistent with a complete lack of gene flow, and points to indigenous origins for the technological and linguistic changes. They attributed the disparity between their results and previous findings to improvements in technology; none of the other studies had utilized complete Y chromosome sequencing, which has the highest precision. For example, use of a ten Y STRs method has been shown to massively underestimate divergence times. Gene flow across the island-dotted 150-kilometre-wide (93 mi) Torres Strait, is both geographically plausible and demonstrated by the data, although at this point it could not be determined from this study when within the last 10,000 years it may have occurred—newer analytical techniques have the potential to address such questions.” ref

“Bergstrom’s 2018 doctoral thesis looking at the population of Sahul suggests that other than relatively recent admixture, the populations of the region appear to have been genetically independent from the rest of the world since their divergence about 50,000 years ago. He writes, “There is no evidence for South Asian gene flow to Australia …. Despite Sahul being a single connected landmass until [8,000 years ago], different groups across Australia are nearly equally related to Papuans, and vice versa, and the two appear to have separated genetically already [about 30,000 years ago].” ref

Belief and Religion

“Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime (the Dreaming), songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature. Aboriginal spirituality often conveys descriptions of each group’s local cultural landscape, adding meaning to the whole country’s topography from oral history told by ancestors from some of the earliest recorded history. Most of these spiritualities belong to specific groups, but some span the whole continent in one form or another.” ref

“An Australian linguist, R. M. W. Dixon, recording Aboriginal myths in their original languages, encountered coincidences between some of the landscape details being told about within various myths, and scientific discoveries being made about the same landscapes. In the case of the Atherton Tableland, myths tell of the origins of Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine, and Lake Euramoo. Geological research dated the formative volcanic explosions described by Aboriginal myth tellers as having occurred more than 10,000 years ago. Pollen fossil sampling from the silt which had settled to the bottom of the craters confirmed the Aboriginal myth-tellers’ story. When the craters were formed, eucalyptus forests dominated rather than the current wet tropical rainforests. Dixon observed from the evidence available that Aboriginal myths regarding the origin of the Crater Lakes might be dated as accurate back to 10,000 years ago. Further investigation of the material by the Australian Heritage Commission led to the Crater Lakes myth being listed nationally on the Register of the National Estate, and included within Australia’s World Heritage nomination of the wet tropical forests, as an “unparalleled human record of events dating back to the Pleistocene era.” ref

“Since then, Dixon has assembled a number of similar examples of Australian Aboriginal myths that accurately describe landscapes of an ancient past. He particularly noted the numerous myths telling of previous sea levels, including:

• the Port Phillip myth (recorded as told to Robert Russell in 1850), describing Port Phillip Bay as once dry land, and the course of the Yarra River being once different, following what was then Carrum Carrum swamp.
• the Great Barrier Reef coastline myth (told to Dixon) in Yarrabah, just south of Cairns, telling of a past coastline (since flooded) which stood at the edge of the current Great Barrier Reef, and naming places now completely submerged after the forest types and trees that once grew there.
• the Lake Eyre myths (recorded by J. W. Gregory in 1906), telling of the deserts of Central Australia as once having been fertile, well-watered plains, and the deserts around present Lake Eyre having been one continuous garden. This oral story matches geologists’ understanding that there was a wet phase to the early Holocene when the lake would have had permanent water.” ref

“Other volcanic eruptions in Australia may also be recorded in Aboriginal myths, including Mount Gambier in South Australia, and Kinrara in northern Queensland. Aboriginal Myth Inspired By 37,000-year-old Volcano Could Be The Oldest Story Ever Told. Long ago, four giant beings arrived in southeast Australia. Three continued to travel inland, following the songline, paths across the land that, according to the belief system of Aboriginal Australians, mark the route followed by creator beings during the Dreamtime, when the world was created. However, one being bent down close to the ground, transforming his body into a mountain called Budj Bim, his teeth becoming molten rock, pouring from his mouth into the surrounding landscape. This traditional story by the Aboriginal Gunditjmara people may be based on real geological events, as new research published in the journal Geology suggests. Studying lava fields of the two volcanic mountains of Budj Bim, located in the Gunditjmara territory, geologists were able to date a volcanic eruption about 37,000 years ago. It is not impossible that humans living in the area observed the eruption, even if the oldest accepted evidence for human occupation of the area dates back no more than about 13,000 years. If so, it would make the Gunditjmara people story one of the oldest myths retold to this day.” ref, ref

“Similar research published in 2017, discussing the age of ancient lava flows in Queensland, northeastern Australia, suggests that a myth describing the actual eruption may survived for at least 5,000 years until today. The dated volcanic rocks formed some 5,000 to 9,000 years ago, making the Queensland volcanic district one of the youngest signs of volcanic activity on the continent of Australia. According to the involved geologists, stories of the local Aborigines tribe, the Gugu Badhun people, describe how once a pit formed in the plains. Dust filled the air, a river of fire emerged from the ground, and many people died. If this myth really describes a volcanic eruption, the memory of the event has been passed by storytelling down through more than 230 generations, until the 1970s, when anthropologists recorded for the first time this myth.” ref

“Australian Indigenous people have beliefs unique to each mob (tribe) and have a strong connection to the land. Contemporary Indigenous Australian beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonization, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared by dancing, stories, songlines, and art—especially Papunya Tula (dot painting)—collectively telling the story of creation known as The Dreamtime. Additionally, traditional healers were also custodians of important Dreaming stories as well as their medical roles (for example the Ngangkari in the Western desert). Some core structures and themes are shared across the continent with details and additional elements varying between language and cultural groups. For example, in The Dreamtime of most regions, a spirit creates the earth then tells the humans to treat the animals and the earth in a way which is respectful to land.” ref

“In Northern Territory this is commonly said to be a huge snake or snakes that weaved its way through the earth and sky making the mountains and oceans. But in other places the spirits who created the world are known as wandjina rain and water spirits. Major ancestral spirits include the Rainbow Serpent, Baiame, Dirawong, and Bunjil. Similarly, the Arrernte people of central Australia believed that humanity originated from great superhuman ancestors who brought the sun, wind, and rain as a result of breaking through the surface of the Earth when waking from their slumber. Contemporary Aboriginal beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonisation, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared through dancing, stories, songlines, and art that collectively weave an ontology of modern daily life and ancient creation known as Dreaming.” ref

The Dreaming/Dreamtime

“The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Sir Baldwin Spencer, and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who, however, later revised his views. The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of Everywhen, during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods, as they did not control the material world and were not worshipped but only revered. The concept of the Dreamtime has subsequently become widely adopted beyond its original Australian context and is now part of global popular culture.” ref

“The term is based on a rendition of the Arandic word alcheringa, used by the Aranda (Arunta, Arrernte) people of Central Australia, although it has been argued that it is based on a misunderstanding or mistranslation. Some scholars suggest that the word’s meaning is closer to “eternal, uncreated.” Anthropologist William Stanner said that the concept was best understood by non-Aboriginal people as “a complex of meanings.” Jukurrpa is a widespread term used by Warlpiri people and other peoples of the Western Desert cultural bloc. The station-master, magistrate, and amateur ethnographer Francis Gillen first used the terms in an ethnographical report in 1896. Along with Walter Baldwin Spencer, Gillen published a major work, Native Tribes of Central Australia, in 1899. In that work, they spoke of the Alcheringa as “the name applied to the far distant past with which the earliest traditions of the tribe deal.” Five years later, in their Northern Tribes of Central Australia, they gloss the far distant age as “the dream times”, link it to the word alcheri meaning ‘dream’, and affirm that the term is current also among the Kaitish and Unmatjera.” ref

“Early doubts about the precision of Spencer and Gillen’s English gloss were expressed by the German Lutheran pastor and missionary Carl Strehlow in his 1908 book Die Aranda (The Arrernte). He noted that his Arrernte contacts explained altjira, whose etymology was unknown, as an eternal being who had no beginning. In the Upper Arrernte language, the proper verb for ‘to dream’ was altjirerama, literally ‘to see God’. Strehlow theorised that the noun is the somewhat rare word altjirrinja, which Spencer and Gillen gave a corrupted transcription and a false etymology. “The native,” Strehlow concluded, “knows nothing of ‘dreamtime’ as a designation of a certain period of their history.” ref

“Strehlow gives Altjira or Altjira mara (mara meaning ‘good’) as the Arrente word for the eternal creator of the world and humankind. Strehlow describes him as a tall strong man with red skin, long fair hair, and emu legs, with many red-skinned wives (with dog legs) and children. In Strehlow’s account, Altjira lives in the sky (which is a body of land through which runs the Milky Way, a river). However, by the time Strehlow was writing, his contacts had been converts to Christianity for decades, and critics suggested that Altjira had been used by missionaries as a word for the Christian God.” ref

“In 1926, Spencer conducted a field study to challenge Strehlow’s conclusion about Altjira and the implied criticism of Gillen and Spencer’s original work. Spencer found attestations of altjira from the 1890s that used the word to mean ‘associated with past times’ or ‘eternal’, not ‘god’. Academic Sam Gill finds Strehlow’s use of Altjira ambiguous, sometimes describing a supreme being, and sometimes describing a totem being but not necessarily a supreme one. He attributes the clash partly to Spencer’s cultural evolutionist beliefs that Aboriginal people were at a pre-religion “stage” of development (and thus could not believe in a supreme being), while Strehlow as a Christian missionary found presence of belief in the divine a useful entry point for proselytising.” ref

“Linguist David Campbell Moore is critical of Spencer and Gillen’s “Dreamtime” translation, concluding: “Dreamtime” was a mistranslation based on an etymological connection between “a dream” and “Altjira“, which held only over a limited geographical domain. There was some semantic relationship between “Altjira” and “a dream”, but to imagine that the latter captures the essence of “Altjira” is an illusion.” ref

The complex of religious beliefs encapsulated by the Dreamings are also called:

• Ngarrankarni or Ngarrarngkarni by the Gija people
• Jukurrpa or Tjukurpa/Tjukurrpa by the Warlpiri people and in the Pitjantjatjara dialect
• Ungud or Wungud by the Ngarinyin people
• Manguny in the language Martu Wangka
• Wongar in North-East Arnhem Land
• Daramoolen in Ngunnawal language and Ngarigo language
• Nura in the Dharug language
• Nyitting in the Noongar language” ref

“In English, anthropologists have variously translated words normally understood to mean Dreaming or Dreamtime in a variety of other ways, including “Everywhen”, “world-dawn”, “ancestral past”, “ancestral present”, “ancestral now” (satirically), “unfixed in time”, “abiding events” or “abiding law”. Most translations of the Dreaming into other languages are based on the translation of the word dream. Examples include Espaces de rêves in French (“dream spaces”) and Snivanje in Croatian (a gerund derived from the verb for ‘to dream’).” ref

“The concept of the Dreaming is inadequately explained by English terms, and difficult to explain in terms of non-Aboriginal cultures. It has been described as “an all-embracing concept that provides rules for living, a moral code, as well as rules for interacting with the natural environment … [it] provides for a total, integrated way of life … a lived daily reality”. It embraces past, present and future. Another definition suggests that it represents “the relationship between people, plants, animals and the physical features of the land; the knowledge of how these relationships came to be, what they mean and how they need to be maintained in daily life and in ceremony.” ref

“According to Simon Wright, “jukurrpa has an expansive meaning for Warlpiri people, encompassing their own law and related cultural knowledge systems, along with what non-Indigenous people refer to as ‘dreaming‘.” A dreaming is often associated with a particular place, and may also belong to specific ages, gender or skin groups. Dreamings may be represented in artworks, for example “Pikilyi Jukurrpa” by Theo (Faye) Nangala represents the Dreaming of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs) in the Northern Territory, and belongs to the Japanangka/ Nanpanangka and Japangardi/ Napanangka skin groups.” ref

“Dreaming” is now also used as a term for a system of totemic symbols, so that an Aboriginal person may “own” a specific Dreaming, such as Kangaroo Dreaming, Shark Dreaming, Honey Ant Dreaming, Badger Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their country. This is because in the Dreaming an individual’s entire ancestry exists as one, culminating in the idea that all worldly knowledge is accumulated through one’s ancestors. Many Aboriginal Australians also refer to the world-creation time as “Dreamtime”. The Dreaming laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.” ref

“Creation is believed to be the work of culture heroes who travelled across a formless land, creating sacred sites and significant places of interest in their travels. In this way, “songlines” (or Yiri in the Warlpiri language) were established, some of which could travel right across Australia, through as many as six to ten different language groupings. The dreaming and travelling trails of these heroic spirit beings are the songlines. The signs of the spirit beings may be of spiritual essence, physical remains such as petrosomatoglyphs of body impressions or footprints, among natural and elemental simulacra. Some of the ancestor or spirit beings inhabiting the Dreamtime become one with parts of the landscape, such as rocks or trees. The concept of a life force is also often associated with sacred sites, and ceremonies performed at such sites “are a re-creation of the events which created the site during The Dreaming”. The ceremony helps the life force at the site to remain active and to keep creating new life: if not performed, new life cannot be created.” ref

“Dreaming existed before the life of the individual begins, and continues to exist when the life of the individual ends. Both before and after life, it is believed that this spirit-child exists in the Dreaming and is only initiated into life by being born through a mother. The spirit of the child is culturally understood to enter the developing fetus during the fifth month of pregnancy. When the mother felt the child move in the womb for the first time, it was thought that this was the work of the spirit of the land in which the mother then stood. Upon birth, the child is considered to be a special custodian of that part of their country and is taught the stories and songlines of that place. As Wolf (1994: p. 14) states: “A ‘black fella’ may regard his totem or the place from which his spirit came as his Dreaming. He may also regard tribal law as his Dreaming.” In the Wangga genre, the songs and dances express themes related to death and regeneration. They are performed publicly with the singer composing from their daily lives or while Dreaming of a nyuidj (dead spirit).” ref

“Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia, with variations on the same theme. The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin in The Dreaming, and certain places have a particular potency or Dreaming. For example, the story of how the sun was made is different in New South Wales and in Western Australia. Stories cover many themes and topics, as there are stories about creation of sacred places, land, people, animals and plants, law and custom. In Perth, the Noongar believe that the Darling Scarp is the body of the Wagyl – a serpent being that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways and lakes and who created the Swan River. In another example, the Gagudju people of Arnhemland, for whom Kakadu National Park is named, believe that the sandstone escarpment that dominates the park’s landscape was created in the Dreamtime when Ginga (the crocodile-man) was badly burned during a ceremony and jumped into the water to save himself.” ref

“The Australian Dreaming Project (ADP): The ADP is the fundamental set of principles and practices for Medicine Ways and shamanism within Australian which has emerged from over 20 years of work in the Central Desert, specifically at the Hugh River, which informs the on-going life and development of the Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society.” ref

“In Australia, various aboriginal groups refer to their shamans as “clever men” and “clever women” also as kadji. These aboriginal shamans use maban or mabain, the material that is believed to give them their purported magical powers. Besides healing, contact with spiritual beings, involvement in initiation and other secret ceremonies, they are also enforcers of tribal laws, keepers of special knowledge, and may “hex” to death one who breaks a social taboo by singing a song only known to the “clever men.” ref

“A cleverman is a traditional healer and keeper of culture in many Aboriginal cultures of Australia. The roles, terms for, and abilities of a cleverman vary between different Aboriginal nations. Some clevermen heal bodily injuries and illnesses, while others heal spiritual ailments. They heal using plants, songs, and spiritual knowledge. Exceptionally powerful clevermen are believed to have magical powers and may heal both physical and spiritual ailments. Some sources also refer to clevermen having the ability to kill using magic, although this may be illegal within the culture or a separate form of harmful ‘sorcery’ from that used by cleverman healers. Clevermen also serve as cultural keepers and are experts in stories and spiritual beliefs. They have a strong understanding of sacred places and lore (which includes cultural heritage, laws, spiritual beliefs, behaviors, and rituals) and a deep connection to the Dreaming. Clevermen may be men or women, depending on the culture.” ref

“Older clevermen choose a younger community member to take their place as a cleverman, teach them the necessary skills over many years, and conduct initiation ceremonies which are often kept secret. Clevermen are deeply respected members of Aboriginal communities. A cleverman’s role bears some similarities to overseas traditional roles commonly referred to as shamans, witch-doctors, medicine men, and other practitioners of cultural-based healing and spirituality. For this reason, some sources also refer to clevermen by these names. Upon European colonisation of Aboriginal lands the traditions of clevermen were suppressed, especially by Christian missionaries. However, the practices of clevermen continue into the present day.” ref

“Clevermen may perform surgery using physical and spiritual methods and some may have the ability to kill using magic. They may use magic substances such as quartz, kidney fat, or pearl to perform supernatural acts. Some clevermen use sacred tools, such as the human hair cords used by Wiradjuri clevermen to extract poison or to kill. Some clevermen such as those of the Weilwan people have an intimate knowledge of Aboriginal astronomy. Other clevermen communicate with spirits such as the mimih, who long ago taught the marrkidjbu of the Bininj Kunwok people the ritualistic steps of carving up a kangaroo.” ref

“Some ceremonies, including those of the Wiradjuri people, involve communication with spiritual beings, the granting of supernatural abilities, and absorbing magical objects into the body. One Wirdajuri apprenticeship ceremony involves summoning the god Baiami to walk amongst the initiates, Balamo then conducts supernatural events such as granting “X-ray’ vision” and apparating and singing a naked flame into the chest of the initiate. Some clevermen may have spiritual beings that reside within their body and help perform supernatural acts, such as the Wiradjuri’s totemic beings or the Yolngu’s ‘soul-children.” ref

“The Wayilwan (also rendered Weilwan or Wailwan; also known as Ngiyambaa Wayilwan and Ngemba Wayilwan) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales. They are a clan of the Ngiyambaa (nee-yam-bar) nation. The Wayilwan ethnonym is derived from their word for “no” in the Ngiyambaa language, (wayil/weil/wail). Like other Ngiyampaa people such as the Wangaaypuwan, they also referred to themselves according to their home country. The Wayilwan were divided into kin groups, one of which is known: the Waiabara.” ref

“The ABC drama series Cleverman depicts a superheroic cleverman by combining traditions of various clans’ clevermen roles and ‘hairy man’ creatures. However, “hairymen” or ‘yowies’ are distinct creatures in various Aboriginal clans’ traditions that are not necessarily related to cleverman traditions. “Other similar roles: Kurdaitcha or ‘featherfoot’: a traditional spiritual assassin and lawman of the Arrernte culture and other Aboriginal cultures. Their harmful ‘sorcery’ overlaps with many of the killing powers attributed to some clevermen. Ngangkari: traditional healers in Aṉangu culture. Often referred to as synonymous with ‘cleverman’ in sources.” ref

“Australian anthropologists willing to generalize suggest Aboriginal myths still being performed across Australia by Aboriginal peoples serve an important social function amongst their intended audiences: justifying the received ordering of their daily lives; helping shape peoples’ ideas; and assisting to influence others’ behavior. In addition, such performance often continuously incorporates and “mythologises” historical events in the service of these social purposes in an otherwise rapidly changing modern world. It is always integral and common… that the Law (Aboriginal law) is something derived from ancestral peoples or Dreamings and is passed down the generations in a continuous line. While… entitlements of particular human beings may come and go, the underlying relationships between foundational Dreamings and certain landscapes are theoretically eternal … the entitlements of people to places are usually regarded strongest when those people enjoy a relationship of identity with one or more Dreamings of that place. This is an identity of spirit, a consubstantiality, rather than a matter of mere belief…: the Dreaming pre-exists and persists, while its human incarnations are temporary.” ref

“Aboriginal specialists willing to generalize believe all Aboriginal myths across Australia, in combination, represent a kind of unwritten (oral) library within which Aboriginal peoples learn about the world and perceive a peculiarly Aboriginal ‘reality’ dictated by concepts and values vastly different from those of western societies: Aboriginal people learned from their stories that a society must not be human-centred but rather land centered, otherwise they forget their source and purpose … humans are prone to exploitative behavior if not constantly reminded they are interconnected with the rest of creation, that they as individuals are only temporal in time, and past and future generations must be included in their perception of their purpose in life. People come and go but the Land, and stories about the Land, stay. This is a wisdom that takes lifetimes of listening, observing, and experiencing … There is a deep understanding of human nature and the environment… sites hold ‘feelings’ which cannot be described in physical terms… subtle feelings that resonate through the bodies of these people… It is only when talking and being with these people that these ‘feelings’ can truly be appreciated. This is… the intangible reality of these people…” ref

“In 1926 a British anthropologist specializing in Australian Aboriginal ethnology and ethnography, Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, noted many Aboriginal groups widely distributed across the Australian continent all appeared to share variations of a single (common) myth telling of an unusually powerful, often creative, often dangerous snake or serpent of sometimes enormous size closely associated with the rainbows, rain, rivers, and deep waterholes. Radcliffe-Brown coined the term ‘Rainbow Serpent’ to describe what he identified to be a common, recurring myth. Working in the field in various places on the Australian continent, he noted the key character of this myth (the ‘Rainbow Serpent’) is variously named: Kanmare (Boulia, Queensland); Tulloun: (Mount Isa); Andrenjinyi (Pennefather River, Queensland), Takkan (Maryborough, Queensland); Targan (Brisbane, Queensland); Kurreah (Broken Hill, New South Wales);Wawi (Riverina, New South Wales), Neitee & Yeutta (Wilcannia, New South Wales), Myndie (Melbourne, Victoria); Bunyip (Western Victoria); Arkaroo (Flinders Ranges, South Australia); Wogal (Perth, Western Australia); Wanamangura (Laverton, Western Australia); Kajura (Carnarvon, Western Australia); Numereji (Kakadu, Northern Territory).” ref

“This ‘Rainbow Serpent’ is generally and variously identified by those who tell ‘Rainbow Serpent’ myths, as a snake of some enormous size often living within the deepest waterholes of many of Australia’s waterways; descended from that larger being visible as a dark streak in the Milky Way, it reveals itself to people in this world as a rainbow as it moves through water and rain, shaping landscapes, naming and singing of places, swallowing and sometimes drowning people; strengthening the knowledgeable with rainmaking and healing powers; blighting others with sores, weakness, illness, and death. Even Australia’s ‘Bunyip‘ was identified as a ‘Rainbow Serpent’ myth of the above kind. The term coined by Radcliffe-Brown is now commonly used and familiar to broader Australian and international audiences, as it is increasingly used by government agencies, museums, art galleries, Aboriginal organisations and the media to refer to the pan-Australian Aboriginal myth specifically, and as a shorthand allusion to Australian Aboriginal mythology generally.” ref

“A kurdaitcha, or kurdaitcha man, also spelt gadaidja, cadiche, kadaitcha, karadji, or kaditcha (Arrernte orthography: kwertatye), is a type of shaman and traditional executioner amongst the Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group in Central Australia. The name featherfoot is used to denote the same figure by other Aboriginal peoples. The kurdaitcha may be brought in to punish a guilty party by death. The word may also relate to the ritual in which the death is willed by the kurdaitcha man, known also as bone-pointing. The word may also be used by Europeans to refer to the shoes worn by the kurdaitcha, which are woven of feathers and human hair and treated with blood.” ref

“Among traditional Indigenous Australians there is no such thing as a belief in natural death. All deaths are considered to be the result of evil spirits or spells, usually influenced by an enemy. Often, a dying person will whisper the name of the person they think caused their death. If the identity of the guilty person is not known, a “magic man” will watch for a sign, such as an animal burrow leading from the grave showing the direction of the home of the guilty party. This may take years but the identity is always eventually discovered. The elders of the mob that the deceased belonged to then hold a meeting to decide a suitable punishment. A kurdaitcha may or may not be arranged to avenge them. An illapurinja, literally “the changed one”, is a female kurdaitcha who is secretly sent by her husband to avenge some wrong, most often the failure of a woman to cut herself as a mark of sorrow on the death of a family member. Believed to be entirely mythical, the fear of the illapurinja would be enough to induce following the custom.” ref

“The expectation that death would result from having a bone pointed at a victim is not without foundation. Other similar rituals that cause death have been recorded around the world. Victims become listless and apathetic, usually refusing food or water with death often occurring within days of being “cursed”. When victims survive, it is assumed that the ritual was faulty in its execution. The phenomenon is recognised as psychosomatic in that death is caused by an emotional response—often fear—to some suggested outside force and is known as “voodoo death“. As this term refers to a specific religion, the medical establishment has suggested that “self-willed death”, or “bone-pointing syndrome” is more appropriate. In Australia, the practice is still common enough that hospitals and nursing staff are trained to manage illness caused by “bad spirits” and bone pointing.” ref

“The following story is related about the role of kurdaitcha by anthropologists John Godwin and Ronald Rose: In 1953, a dying Aborigine named Kinjika was flown from Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory to a hospital in Darwin. Tests revealed he had not been poisoned, injured, nor was he suffering from any sort of injury. Yet, the man was most definitely dying. After four days of agony spent in the hospital, Kinjika died on the fifth. It was said he died of bone pointing. “Bone pointing” is a method of execution used by the Aborigines. It is said to leave no trace, and never fails to kill its victim. The bone used in this curse is made of human, kangaroo, emu or even wood. The shape of the killing-bone, or kundela, varies from tribe to tribe. The lengths can be from six to nine inches. They look like a long needle. At the rounded end, a piece of hair is attached through the hole, and glued into place with a gummy resin. Before it can be used, the kundela is charged with a powerful psychic energy in a ritual that is kept secret from women and those who are not tribe members. To be effective, the ritual must be performed faultlessly. The bone is then given to the kurdaitcha, who are the tribe’s ritual killers. These killers then go and hunt (if the person has fled) the condemned.” ref

“The name, kurdaitcha, comes from the slippers they wear while on the hunt. The slippers are made of cockatoo (or emu) feathers and human hair — they virtually leave no footprints. Also, they wear kangaroo hair, which is stuck to their bodies after they coat themselves in human blood, and they also don masks of emu feathers. They hunt in pairs or threes and will pursue their quarry for years if necessary, never giving up until the person has been cursed. Once the man is caught, one of the kurdaitcha goes down onto one knee and points the kundela. The victim is said to be frozen with fear and stays to hear the curse, a brief piercing chant, that the kurdaitcha chants.” ref

“Then, he and his fellow hunters return to the village and the kundela is ritually burned. The condemned man may live for several days or even weeks. But, he believes so strongly in the curse that has been uttered, that he will surely die. It is said that the ritual loading of the kundela creates a “spear of thought” which pierces the victim when the bone is pointed at him. It is as if an actual spear has been thrust at him and his death is certain. Kinjika had been accused of an incestuous relationship (their mothers were the daughters of the same woman by different fathers). Instead of going to his trial, he fled the village. The hunters found him and cursed him. It is said that is why he died. In 2004, an Indigenous Australian woman who disagreed with the abolition of the Aboriginal-led government body Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission cursed the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, by pointing a bone at him.” ref

“In this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly, readers are introduced to the extraordinary category of people who have come to be known as “shaman”—those otherworldly men and women chosen by the spirits to mediate between the human and spiritual dimensions. In a collection of papers from numerous settings assembled by anthropologist Michael Winkelman, shamanism’s universal features become apparent, including the characteristics of the elusive practitioners who have the power to negotiate life and death in some communities. The term “shaman” comes from the Evenki reindeer herders of Siberia, but cross-cultural studies have shown remarkable similarities in terms of shamanic experience and religious practice in hunter-gatherer societies across the globe. As a young ethnographer in the early 1980s, I sought out the shaman in Australia’s Outback. I wondered if the elders described in anthropologist A.P. Elkin’s classic text Aboriginal Men of High Degree could be described as shaman. Were such people still influential in Aboriginal lives?” ref

“The stories I heard about shamanism from Aborigines and others became more passionate, more heartfelt, and certainly more fantastic the further north I traveled, but I was finding the quest to locate the shaman somewhat chimerical. The Australian Aborigines of Queensland’s Channel Country were impressed by the supernatural powers of the “bush” Aborigines of the Gulf Country to their north, and regarded them with a certain admiration. But it was an admiration tinged with fear. The Channel Country “shamans” tended to downplay the extent of their powers and believed the northerners, more attuned to the ways of old, were in closer touch with the spirits, and therefore could wield far greater power. “Don’t spit on the ground, or urinate anywhere near where they might walk,” I was warned. “They might do something to you.” They advised me that if I asked too many questions, I might be bewitched. “The Gulf Country. That’s where the real shamans are.” ref

“Gulf “shaman,” however, also downplayed or denied their healing capabilities. Rather, they drew my attention to the Aborigines of Arnhem Land to their north, and those special elders who traveled upon the clouds and send down cool winds during blistering summers. The northern shaman would check to see that all is well with their southern relatives, and make sure the relatives were fulfilling their part of the time-honored “cosmic” deal of “holding up the universe” by living according to law (or the Dreaming). At that time, the Australian government was holding a commission of inquiry into the feasibility of reintroducing tribal law in the Outback; in the Gulf, one Aboriginal leader said many Aborigines feared that with the reintroduction of tribal law, they would “all end up in the gully with a spear in their side.” They had compromised the ancestral ways too much and feared retribution at the hands of ritual specialists from the north—“where the real shamans are.” ref

“From Arnhem Land, there was no further north to travel. At the airport, I was told by an influential church leader to stay alert, that the people were strong “dreamers.” This is the place, I thought. Soon I was introduced to, and became friends with, a former community leader who was deemed to be the most powerful “magician” in the region, an old man who could, among other things, turn himself into a leaf on a tree or a drop of water on a blade of grass, and converse with owls. In many ways, he was in spiritual exile, his exotic knowledge and shamanic practice no longer deemed appropriate in a Christian setting. Needless to say, he denied his abilities—like all the rest. “That’s all gone now,” he said. “When I first came to live on the mission some people tried to show me new tricks, to make my power stronger, but I lost it all. I couldn’t fly anymore.” He instead introduced me to an old lady, saying in private beforehand that she was the last of her kind—the only traditional healer left in Arnhem Land. And yet, not surprisingly, she had little to say, for she trusted only in Jesus. Her healing hands were at the Lord’s disposal, she insisted. “There is only one person left who can talk to you about magic, and that’s that old friend of yours. He’s the real shaman!” ref

“My old friend merely smiled, and impressed upon me the possibility that every single “healer” from the Channel Country to the Gulf, and Arnhem Land, was just that. Denial of one’s powers was either a necessary characteristic of contemporary practice, or a reflection of the self-doubt that plagues Aboriginal lives in times of rapid change. “I will tell you the truth,” he said. “The real shamans live on the islands to the north of Australia, in what is now Indonesia. Those sea hunters used to visit here a long, long time ago, but not any more. They are the real owners of the ceremonies of my clan, the real healers. They would remove pain and suffering from a sick person with their left hand, while singing the praises of Allah. We have that song, that ritual. Today they send us the things we want on the tide, and we send them the spirits of our dead. If you go looking for that place, you won’t find it. It exists only in our dreams. But our forefathers said that they had traveled there by canoe in the distant past, and they told us that this is where the real shamans are.” ref

“By the time I had set out on my search, colonization, decimation, protection, and paternalism had left its mark on Australia’s First Peoples. Social chaos had accompanied the breakdown of traditional authority, and Aborigines often saw sorcery and the “spirit of the liar” (the habit of lying that had entered the Aboriginal world with the arrival of white settlers) as the root cause of all ills. While traditional healers remained elusive, there seemed to be no shortage of sorcerers, so common were the accusations. Most were erroneous of course, and reflected the unfortunate unstable nature of tribal and family affairs. At a personal level, people blamed each other for their ongoing misfortunes and sought retribution. But not all sorcerers were vengeful. In some cases, they had also taken on a “healing” role of their own.” ref

“Time and time again, I was referred to the escapades of one middle-aged Aborigine—an odd-looking, somewhat awkward “social outcast”—the son-in-law of my old friend. His name was always whispered—even by me—lest he be induced to pay an unscheduled visit. His powers were not doubted, and at various times he would reveal his hand. On one occasion, a young leader had unexpectedly died and the community was in an uproar. The wailing carried on through the night. The deceased was described as a “rock,” a “foundation” for the community, and the people loved him very much. How would they go on? The only explanation for his untimely passing was “black magic,” or so the people believed, and if the sorcerer in their midst was not to blame, then who? At this point, the “outcast”—who had been standing on the sidelines silently observing the proceedings—announced that he would find the killer and dispatch him quickly. The people felt reassured and thankful, even though his cold calculations would certainly lead to the death of an innocent person.” ref

“Another time, the community was deeply divided over the behavior of several teenagers. At a town meeting, there was talk about how the two would be punished. The teenagers had broken taboos, and there was a growing backlash against their families. Close relatives selected by the kinship system would have to beat, banish, or even spear the teenagers in the thigh, for tolerating their behavior might set a trend that would eventually undermine the laws of old, their raison d’etre. The meeting had an air of hysteria and, after much heated discussion, it was adjourned without resolution. That night, in the wee hours, the teenagers’ family members were awoken by a strange scratching sound on the roof. At first light they investigated and a found a sting-ray barb—the sorcerer’s calling card—on a ledge above the door. The discovery sent a shockwave through the households and scared the youngsters into the “right way of behaving.” And yet the sorcerer’s intention was not to invoke fear, I was told. He acted decisively in the interests of the community—removing impediments to the normal flow of life, healing rifts in society’s fabric. The sorcerer had come to kill the teenage offenders by magically stealing the fat from their kidneys and performing a secret incantation. Perhaps something had disturbed him and kept him from carrying out his mission, or he had been called away on another job—no one knew.” ref

“In his book Shamanism, Piers Vitebsky says that the shaman has an ambiguous place in society, being simultaneously an insider and an outsider. The shaman is at once all things to all people—a “medicine-man,” religious specialist, social worker, madman, and mystic—and their identity is always clouded in mystery. In Arnhem Land, I encountered a contemporary sorcerer at work. Perhaps he was also a “real” shaman.” ref

“Aboriginals of Australia on Father Sky, among the Aboriginals of Australia in the Dieri country the sky is understood to be a vast plain inhabited by wild tribes that are the prototype of the Aboriginals themselves.  When a drought threatens the people on earth they call upon their supernatural relatives in the sky to make rain happen to save the peoples on earth. The Southeastern tribes of Australia believe in supernatural Sky Beings called “All-Fathers” or “Sky Beings.”  The Father of them all is Nurrundere who made all things on the earth, bestowed weapons of war and hunting onto the humans and also instituted all rites and ceremonies.  The sky is his homeland. One connects with the sky god through ceremony as for example if the tribe kills a wallaby and the wallaby is cooked, the hunters chant as the fire, kindled by women, raises smoke to the sky.  As the smoke ascends the hunters rush in and lift their weapons and branches towards heaven. A second tribe, the Wiimbaio, believe the Nurelli made the trees, animals and land and after giving laws to the humans, he went up to the sky and is now one of the constellations.” ref

“Other tribes call the Supreme Being who once lived on the earth as a Great Man but eventually ascended to the sky “Our Father” or “Father of All of Us.”  The son of God is Binbeal, the rainbow, who teaches the Kulin people the arts of life and social institutions and who ascended to the sky land from where he oversees the tribe. Interestingly, among the Aboriginals, there is a special encounter with the “Father” whose voice resembles that of the distant thunder during puberty rites of boys becoming men.  When a person dies, this Supreme Being meets and cares for his spirit.  Thus the spirit, like smoke from the fire, ascends into the heavens and returns to the ancestors there.  The ancestors are the stars.  These stories of celestial supreme beings antecede any presence of western missionaries among the ancient tribes of Australia. What instructs you among these ancient teachings of Father Sky among the ancient tribes of Australia?  Notice the connection between ceremonies and drawing in the power of Father Sky.  And between death and our return to Father Sky.” ref

“Earth and Sky Philosophies: Dr Nandisvara’s essay also reports that there is a tradition of personal spiritual aspiration in Aboriginal society that is similar to that found in yoga. This is not surprising as the shamanic tradition is the ancestral precursor to all the yogic traditions. The four stages of life in Hinduism are: brahmacharya-unmarried student; grihastha-married householder with children; vanaprastha-forest dweller; and sannyasa-wanderer. During the last years of their lives, many of the Aboriginal elders leave their communities and go off alone into the mountains to engage in spiritual practices, much as in the last two stages of the Hindu system which are characterized by solitary retirement to the forest, a striving for spiritual understanding, and preparation for death. One of the techniques reported by Dr. Nandisvara practiced by such “renunciate Aboriginal elders” is gazing at the sky with wide-open eyes. This is not a type of astronomy or astrology. Rather it is a meditative method used to obtain spiritual inspiration and intuition directly from the cosmos.” ref

“In Buddhism, Yoga, Judeo-Christianity, and other relatively recent religious systems, ‘sky philosophies’ predominate in which the concepts of space and sky deities are of greatest religious import. In opposition to this are the earlier religious as well as indigenous traditions in which ‘earth philosophies’ were the norm, focused as they were upon the Earth as Mother as well as other earthly deities, power animals or fertility goddesses as the predominate objects of reverence. Interestingly, in Aboriginal thought, both philosophies are present. The Earth is the basis for all spiritual studies during the first and intermediate stages of life. But with the approach of life’s end, the basic Earth study is completed and there is a refocusing of the still embodied spirit of the individual toward the boundless reaches of the sky. Thus, for the Australian Aboriginals, the highest spirituality is associated not with the Earth, but with the shamanic Upper Worlds and with the infinity of space—with Cosmic Consciousness itself. This again is in complete alignment with the great teachings of the Perennial Philosophy. The practice of dadirri—the deep listening and quiet stillness of the soul-that all ways will be made clear to them in time.” ref

“At this stage, both the body and the mind have become absolutely still. This is not the same state associated with the chakras as described in kundalini yoga and the other esoteric schools, for it is beyond such experiences. It is in fact a withdrawal of energy from the charkas so that they no longer have any effect on the mind whatsoever. This is the state of dadirri… the deep listening. Dr. Nandisvara describes this state as the borderland between the mind that is connected to this world, and the mind that is not connected to this world—the mind that is absolutely free. It is the interface been the explicate and implicate orders of reality of the physicist David Bohm… the intimate one on one connection with the ‘higher self’ of the mystic. This is the state that the Aboriginal elders seek as they leave their homes and go off to live in the mountains to practice gazing at the sky. This is the shaman’s invitation to the spiritual cosmic force to approach and embrace the focus of our mind. It is and was and will forever be, union with the infinite—authentic non-dual mysticism.” ref

“The Thousand-Year-Old Shamanistic Tradition of Healing Touch in the Northeast Australian Rain Forrest. We have interviewed a shaman, Harold “Mooks” Tayley, who claims to be a shaman in the original traditional line of the rain forest shamans, and we have observed the healing ritual. The traditional shamans of the North East Australian rain forest where aboriginals have been living for thousands of years are using touch and talk for healing. They enter a state of trance that allows them to see the blocked and disturbed body-energy (information) and they are able to manipulate the blockages and free the body and mind from the energetic causes of diseases. The existence of remaining healer-shaman in the ancient line of the rainforest aboriginal medicine men calls for thorough scientific exploration and documentation of the way different people and diseases are treated, and for documenting of the affectivity of the shamanistic treatment. We encourage the Australian authorities to fund research in aboriginal shamanistic healing, as this might be a way to support the Australian indigenous cultures, and preserve inherited tradition and wisdom of the tribes which are very close to getting lost forever. The acknowledgment of a living, healing tradition might also help improving the respect and understanding for the ingenious people, who lack written traditions. A deep, scientific analysis of their healing art might also help understanding the spiritual dimensions of ancient and new aboriginal art, much of which is about spiritual growth and healing.” ref

“A significant body of research on aboriginal healing exist. but very little has been written on the healer-shamans of the North East Australian rain forest. The ingenious people of Australia, the aboriginals, have an ancient tradition of healing using only talk and touch as the active principles. While the shamans and healers of many other pre-modern cultures use psychedelic drugs for healing and self-exploration, i.e. the shamans of the amazon jungle (DMT in Ayahuasca.), the North American natives (Mescaline in San Pedro and Peyote, psilocybin in magic mushrooms.), and the African Sangomas (Ibogain in Iboga.), the shamans of the Australian rain forest do not use any drugs or medicine plants for their sacred, healing rituals (called “Molgulbanga”) but only touch and talk. While they know that several jungle plants can be used as pain killers and antiseptics, they believe that these plants only remove the patient’s symptoms, they do not heal the patient. For healing, touch and talk are necessary. The aboriginals do not have a written language, so the tradition of healing is oral, one shaman passing the tradition on by giving an initiation into the art of healing to his apprentice. The young followers must be recognized as “a person having the gift of magical power of healing” before he is taken as a student; the talent of healing are seen as an inborn quality, and this quality is always noticed in the coming shaman already as a young child.” ref

“In October 2016, we traveled through the northern Australian rainforest from Cairns to Cock Town, from tribe to tribe, to find healers working in an unbroken tradition of aboriginal healers. After weeks of search we managed to find one such shaman, Harold Tayley (with the native/spiritual name “Mooks”), who claimed to be the last existing original shaman healer in the rainforest of Northern Queensland, which 150 years ago had about 10 tribes with at least as many shamans. The sad history of the North Australian aboriginals has been documented in a rapport on the matter from 1864 by James Morrill, who worked as a mediator in the bloody conflict between the British settlers at that time and the ten original aboriginal tribes of the rain forest. Originally a few thousand aboriginals lived in these tribes but the aboriginals were soon decimated in the sanguine conflict with the white settlers. We find it, therefore, likely to be true that Harold Tayley is the last aboriginal medicine man in the unbroken line of the North East Australian rainforest shamans.” ref

“The key to shamanistic healing is the trance, explains Harold. To be trained as a healer-shaman, the child learns to chant, and as the art of chanting develops, consciousness gets more silent and deeper, and one day the child or young man are able to enter the state of trance (also called “meditation”) and this ability signifies that he is ready for the initiation as shaman. The initiation is a long series of rituals, where dancing, smoking, chanting, and meditating all prepares the new shaman for his art of healing guided by energetic seeing. In the state of trance, the shaman can see the energy of the body and mind, and also the problems causing the disease on the energetic level. Harold tells us that his grandfather used a piece of rag or old cloth to cover the body of his patient, where after he looked through the cloth, energetically, for the problem, and in this trance-seeing he got a clear picture of the patient´s state, including a complete knowledge of the past of the person and his disease. The shamanistic trance is described as omniscient, similar to the descriptions we find of the shamanistic consciousness from the other continents. Harold uses a handkerchief for this purpose.” ref

“As soon as the medicine man is in trance he can not only see and understand the problems on an energetic level, he can also manipulate the energies. Using his intention, he removes the blocked and dark energies, by sucking them up in his own body, and thereafter sending them out into the universe where they came from. To avoid being disturbed by the bad energies, shamans of Kuku Nungl line use sweat to protect themselves, Harold explains. The sweat is taken from the arm pits during the procedure of healing. Another important ingredient of the healing ritual is water. Cold water is used to remove bad energies, and warm water is an important part of the self-treatment practice for the patient to continue on his own.” ref

“Harold explains that there originally also were female healers in his tradition, and these were trained by the female medicine woman. The principles of healing were the same, but the methods were a bit different. Today the female line has been broken and lost. If Harold himself dies now the male line will also be lost; so Harold is looking for children with the power to heal, which he can train to be shamans, and he has now found a few children with the gift, so there is hope that the line will continue. We talk about the principal causes of disease and Harold explains that the aboriginal healer acknowledges different levels of causes, physical causes like bad food, snakes, or poisonous plants, and mental and spiritual causes like spiritual problems and negative mental and spiritual energies the person have picked up through his life’s events or have in his blood by heritage.” ref

“Wiradjuri totemism: Among the Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal people who traditionally lived in New South Wales (Australia), totem clans are divided among two subgroups and corresponding matrilineal moieties. The group totem, named “flesh,” is transmitted from the mother. In contrast to this, individual totems belong only to the medicine men and are passed on patrilineally. Such an individual totem is named bala, “spirit companion,” or jarawaijewa, “the meat (totem) that is within him.” There is a strict prohibition against eating the totem. Breach of the taboo carries with it sickness or death. It is said: “To eat your jarawaijewa is the same as if you were to eat your very own flesh or that of your father.” ref

“The medicine man identifies himself with his personal totem. Every offense or injury against the totem has its automatic effect upon the man who commits it. It is a duty of the totem to guard the ritualist and the medicine man while he is asleep. In the case of danger or the arrival of strangers, the animal goes back into the body of the medicine man and informs him. After the death of the medicine man, the animal stands watch as a bright flickering light near the grave. The individual totem is also a helper of the medicine man. The medicine man emits the totem in his sleep or in a trance so that it can collect information for him.” ref

“In this tradition, sorcery may also be practiced by the medicine man. By singing, for instance, the medicine man can send out his totem to kill an enemy; the totem enters the chest of the enemy and devours his viscera. The transmission of the individual totem to novices is done through the father or the grandfather, who, of course, himself is also a medicine man. While the candidate lies on his back, the totem is “sung into” him. The blood relative who is transmitting the totem takes a small animal and places it on the chest of the youngster. During the singing, the animal supposedly sinks slowly into his body and finally disappears into it. The candidate is then instructed on how he has to treat the animal that is his comrade, and he is further instructed in song and the ritual concentration that is necessary to dispatch the totem from his body.” ref

“Totems connect people on a spiritual level, providing a deeper connectivity and understanding to their Clan, their traditional land, and the Dreaming. The significance and symbolism of Totems is something that is complex and multi-dimensional and varies depending on region and Clan. A totem is a natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a Clan or family as their spiritual emblem. Totems define peoples’ roles and responsibilities and their relationships with each other and creation.” (Uncle Graham Paulson, 2023) Clan groups have caretaking responsibilities for their totems.” ref

“Depending on where a person is from, they could have three or more Totems which represent their Nation, Clan, and family group, as well as a personal Totem. Nation, clan, and family Totems are predetermined, however personal Totems are individually appointed. Totems are decided by an Elder or family member and are usually given at a young age or when a child goes through their Coming of Age Ceremony.” ref

“The importance of Totems – natural objects which individual group members are responsible for – and find out how Totems define a person’s role within a group. Each First Nations person has at least four totems, including inherited ones for each national, clan, and family group, plus an assigned or personal totem. Totems are split between moieties. Aboriginal moieties are the first level of kinship in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society. They split everything in two mirroring halves, creating a balance. In the case of Aboriginal totems, the split ensures the long-term conservation of that totem as one emphasizes sustainability while the other permits proper use. For example, the kangaroo may be protected by members of one moiety, while individuals from the other may eat it.” ref, ref

“Aboriginal totems aren’t just symbols or family emblems–they represent and entail a sense of responsibility and ownership over nature in the form of conservatism and stewardship. Generally, an individual’s totem signifies a natural object, plant, or animal that they must be responsible for. It’s important to note that Aboriginal totems are not ‘owned’ but accounted for. They don’t attach a certain authority to a person; instead, they signify an obligation. This means that First Nations members must ensure that their totem is properly cared for; they must protect their totem and pass it on from one generation to the next. This entails looking after natural resources in their area to make sure that they’re used properly and are available to their totem animal. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must also never kill their totem animal. Aboriginal totems also represent a responsibility that First Nations members have towards their communities. They define an individual’s role within the family, along with their relationships with others.” ref

“Aboriginal totems, specifically those that relate to one’s nation, clan, and family group are given at birth. This means that children already have an identity as soon as they enter the world, and they are given their stewardship responsibilities very early on–though these are further taught as they grow up. Personal or assigned totems may be given later on. These totems recognise an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and link them to the land, air, and other geographical characteristics. The Aboriginal kinship system is one of the most complicated in the world, but it’s essential to understand it to gain a better appreciation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and ensure you are creating a welcoming environment for First Nations people.” ref 

“Aboriginal Australian kinship comprises the systems of Aboriginal customary law governing social interaction relating to kinship in traditional Aboriginal cultures. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Australia, and particularly important with regard to marriages between Aboriginal people. Subsection systems are a unique social structure that divide all of Australian Aboriginal society into a number of groups, each of which combines particular sets of kin. In Central Australian Aboriginal English vernacular, subsections are widely known as “skins“. Each subsection is given a name that can be used to refer to individual members of that group. Skin is passed down by a person’s parents to their children.” ref

“The name of the groups can vary. There are systems with two such groupings (these are known as ‘moieties‘ in kinship studies), systems with four (sections), six, and eight (subsection systems). Some language groups extend this by having distinct male and female forms, giving a total of sixteen skin names, for example, the Pintupi (listed below) and Warlpiri. While membership in skin groups is ideally based on blood relations, Australian Aboriginal subsection systems are classificatory, meaning that even people who are not actual blood relations are assigned to a subsection.” ref

“They are also universal, meaning that every member of the society is assigned a position in the system. Subsection systems are found in Aboriginal societies across much of Central, Western, and Northern Australia. On the basis of detailed analysis and comparison of the various subsection systems and their terminologies, and in particular the apparent prefix /j-/ for male and /n-/ for female, it has been identified as a social innovation originally from the Daly River region of the Northern Territory, which then spread rapidly southwards to other groups.” ref

“The Yolŋu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land divide society (and much of the natural world) into two moieties: Dhuwa and Yirritja. Each of these is represented by people of a number of different groups (each with their own lands, languages, and philosophies) through their hereditary estates – so many things are either Yirritja or Dhuwa. Fish, stone, river, sea etc., belongs to one or the other moiety. Things that are not either Dhuwa or Yirritja are called wakinŋu. Yolŋu also have a kinship system with eight subsections (four Dhuwa and four Yirritja which is what creates moiety).” ref

“The Gamilaraay language group from New South Wales have a four-section system. The Martuthunira language group from the Pilbara region of Western Australia have a four-section system. The Alyawarre language group from Central Australia also have a four-section system. The Lardil of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria have eight subsection groups. The Pintupi of the Western Desert also have an eight-subsection system. Each person may have a patrimoiety and a matrimoiety, a father’s and a mother’s subsection group.” ref

“In the tribal law of the Noongar, an indigenous Australian people, a kinship classification system determined descent and inheritance, and enforced restrictions on intermarriage between certain groups. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Noongar population has been variously estimated at between 6,000 and some tens of thousands.” ref, ref

“The Noongar (/ˈnʊŋɑːr/, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar /ˈnjʊŋɑːr/, Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga /ˈjʊŋɑː/) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. There are 14 different groups in the Noongar cultural bloc: Amangu, Ballardong, Yued, Kaneang, Koreng, Mineng, Njakinjaki, Njunga, Pibelmen, Pindjarup, Wadandi, Whadjuk, Wiilman and Wudjari. The Noongar people refer to their land as Noongar boodja. The members of the collective Noongar cultural bloc descend from people who spoke several languages and dialects that were often mutually intelligible. What is now classified as the Noongar language is a member of the large Pama–Nyungan language family. The endonym of the Noongar comes from a word originally meaning “man” or “person.” ref

“In Perth, the Noongar believe that the Darling Scarp is said to represent the body of a Wagyl, a snakelike Dreamtime creature that is a common deity in Noongar culture, that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways, and lakes. It is thought that the Wagyl created the Swan River. The Wagyl has been associated with Wonambi naracoutensis, part of the extinct megafauna of Australia that disappeared between 15,000 and 50,000 years ago. Also in Perth, Mount Eliza was an important site for the Noongar. It was a hunting site where kangaroos were herded and driven over the edge to provide meat for gathering clans. In this context, the “clan” is a local descent group – larger than a family but based on family links through common ancestry.” ref 

“Local descent groups are generally patrilineal in type, in which members are linked by both descent and through mythological ties to a named ancestor. Local descent groups are always exogamous. They are associated with specific territories held collectively in trust in perpetuity. Totemic descent groups are similar, but the mythical significance of the species after whom the descent group is named is much stronger, and figures much more significantly in the myths of its members. Members may not be genealogically related, and these groups are almost always exogamous.” ref

In patrilineal totemic descent clans: territory is always important. In matrilineal totemic descent groups: territory is less important, as women frequently move from their matrilineal areas. Moieties are two mutually exclusive categories, by which everyone in the world is classified; they are always exogamous. Moieties may be determined by either patrilineal or matrilineal kinship and descent (determined by the moiety of the father or the mother). Alternate generation levels classify a person in the same generation level with grandparents and grandchildren. Parents and children would also share the same generation level. In alternate generation levels, marriage is endogamous.” ref

“Sectional systems (often called “skin”) are usually one of four named groups to which a person belongs by birth. (although “skin’ may be conferred to outsiders as adults). These groups are always exogamous. Daisy Bates stated that under the system, each Noongar was placed in the same class as their mother, and no Noongar was permitted to marry someone of the same class as themselves. The classes were:

• Ballaroke
• Tdondarup
• Ngotak
• Nagarnook
• Nogonyuk
• Mongalung
• Narrangur” ref

“Early observers of Noongar culture were sometimes confused by aspects of this kinship and class systems. George Grey incorrectly referred to the class names as family names, for example. Some confusion was also caused because a Noongar might refer to any relative of the same generation and class as themselves as their brother or sister; similarly, any older woman of the same class could be referred to as their mother.” ref

“Kinship is a system of social relationships expressed in a biological idiom through terms such as mother, son, and so on. All Aboriginal kinship systems were classificatory, that is, a limited number of terms was extended to cover all known persons. Thus, terms for lineal relatives, such as father, also referred to collateral relatives, such as father’s brothers. Likewise, mother’s sisters were classed as mother. Aboriginal people inhabited a universe of kin: everyone with whom one interacted in the normal course of life was not only classified and called by a kin term, but the behaviours between any two people were expected to conform to what was deemed appropriate between kin so related. A person thus showed respect and deference to almost all kin of the first ascending generation (i.e., “fathers,” “mothers,” “uncles,” and “aunts”) and claimed the same from all members of the generation below (i.e., “sons,” “daughters,” “nieces,” and “nephews”). These terms did not indicate the emotional content of such relationships, however, and between close relatives the intensity of feeling was bound to be greater (see also kinship terminology).” ref

“Reciprocity was a fundamental rule in Aboriginal kinship systems and also in marriage. Marriage was not simply a relationship between two persons. It linked two families or groups of kin, which, even before the union was confirmed and most certainly afterward, had mutual obligations and responsibilities. Generally, throughout Aboriginal Australia those who received a wife had to make repayment either at the time of marriage or at some future time. In the simplest form of reciprocity, men exchanged sisters, and women brothers. Such exchanges took place between different moieties, clans, or families. Most kinship-and-marriage systems provided for the possible replacement of spouses and for parent surrogates. Infant betrothal was common. If arranged before the birth of one or both of the prospective spouses, it was a tentative arrangement subject to later ratification, mainly through continued gift giving to the girl’s parents. In some Aboriginal societies parents of marriageable girls played one man against another, although this was always a potentially dangerous game. Also, there might be a considerable age discrepancy between the members of an affianced pair. Generally, a long-standing betrothal, cemented by gift giving and the rendering of services, had a good chance of surviving and fostering a genuine attachment between a couple.” ref

“Although most men had only one wife at a time, polygyny was considered both legitimate and good. The average number of wives in polygynous unions was 2 or 3. The maximum in the Great Sandy Desert was 5 or 6; among the Tiwi, 29; among the Yolngu, 20 to 25, with many men having 10 to 12. In such circumstances, women had a scarcity value. Having more than one wife was usually a matter of personal inclination, but economic considerations were important; so were prestige and political advantage. To terminate a marriage, a woman might try elopement. A man could bestow an unsatisfactory wife on someone else or divorce her. A formal declaration or some symbolic gesture on his part might be all that was necessary. In broad terms, a husband had more rights over his wife than she had over him. But, taking into account the overall relations between men and women and their separate and complementary arenas of activity in marriage and in other aspects of social living, women in Aboriginal societies were not markedly oppressed.” ref

“A child’s spirit was held to come from the Dreaming to animate a fetus. In some cases this was believed to occur through an action of a mythic being who might or might not be reincarnated in the child. Even when Aboriginal people acknowledged a physical bond between parents and child, the most important issue for them was the spiritual heritage. In early childhood, children’s focus was on their actual parents, especially on their mothers, but others were close at hand to care for them. Weaning occurred at about two or three years of age but occasionally not until five or six for a youngest child.” ref

“Through observation of camp life and informal instruction, children built up knowledge of their social world, learning through participation while becoming familiar with the natural environment. Children were also constantly having kin identified to them by their elders and receiving detailed instructions about correct kinship behaviours. Small children often went food collecting with their mothers and other women. As girls grew older, they continued to do so, but boys were thrown more on their own resources. Parents were, on the whole, very indulgent. Infanticide, even in arid areas, was much rarer than has been suggested by some researchers.” ref

“Circumcision was one of the most important rites over the greater part of Australia. Subincision (incisura of the urethra) was especially significant in its association with secret-sacred ritual. Other rites included piercing of the nasal septum, tooth pulling (in New South Wales this was central in initiation), and the blood rite, which involved bloodletting from an arm vein or a penis incisura—the blood being used for anointing or sipping (red ochre was used as a substitute for blood in some cases). Hair removal, cicatrization (scarring), and playing with fire were also fairly widespread practices. All such rites were usually substantiated by mythology.” ref

“For girls, puberty was marked by either total or partial seclusion and by food taboos (also applied to male novices). Afterward they were decorated and ritually purified. Ritual defloration and hymen cutting were practiced in a few areas, but, in general, puberty among girls was not ritually celebrated.” ref

“Boys, after circumcision, became increasingly involved in adult activities. Although they were not free to marry immediately, even if they had reached puberty, they might do so after undergoing certain rites, such as subincision. By delaying the age of marriage for young men, sometimes until they were in their late 20s, and keeping the age of first marriage for girls as low as 12 or 13, the practice of polygyny was made more workable. Initiation was a prelude to the religious activity in which all men participated. It meant, also, learning a wide range of things directly concerned with the practical aspects of social living. Adulthood brought increased status but added responsibilities. A vast store of information had to be handed down from one generation to the next. Initiation served as a medium for this, providing a basis of knowledge upon which an adult could build. This process continued through life and was especially marked in men’s religious activity.” ref

“For Aboriginal people, birth and death were an open-ended continuum: a spiritual religious power emerged from the Dreaming, was harnessed and utilized through initiation (as symbolic death-rebirth) and subsequent religious ritual, and finally, on death, went back into the Dreaming. Life and death were not seen as being diametrically opposed. The Dreaming provided a thread of life, even in physical death.” ref

“Aboriginal people had no chiefs or other centralized institutions of social or political control. In various measures, Aboriginal societies exhibited both hierarchical and egalitarian tendencies, but they were classless; an egalitarian ethos predominated, the subordinate status of women notwithstanding. However, there is evidence in some areas, such as northeast Arnhem Land, Bathurst and Melville islands, western Cape York Peninsula, and among the Aranda of central Australia, that strong leaders akin to the Melanesian “Big Man” existed and their preeminence in ritual matters carried over into the secular domain.” ref

“Everywhere, age and sex were the major criteria in differentiating status and roles, and it was in the religious arena that the greatest differentiation occurred. Women were excluded from the core of men’s secret-sacred ritual activities, and areas of privilege were further defined by graded acceptance of youths and adult men as they passed through rites of learning. Essentially, however, Aboriginal societies were “open”: there were no social barriers to prevent a man from becoming a leader in religious matters by his own efforts. Both men and women acquired prestige through knowledge of ritual performance and expertise in directing or performing ritual. In Great Sandy Desert rituals, for example, leadership roles were situationally determined—that is, the personnel changed as the ritual being performed changed such that most senior men adopted such roles at some stage in the protracted ritual proceedings. Although desert women were far less differentiated, they did have a ritual status hierarchy. In religious affairs everywhere, women took orders from, rather than gave orders to, initiated men.” ref

“Through systems of totemic belief, individuals and groups are linked in many different ways to both the things of nature and the all-powerful beings of the spiritual realm. Totemic beliefs are more highly elaborated among Aboriginal people than among any other people. Totemism has been defined as a representation of the universe seen as a moral and social order, a worldview that regards humanity and nature as one corporate whole, or a set of symbols forming a conventional expression of the value system of a society. Such symbols provided intermediate links, both personal and social, between humans and the mythic beings. Many of the mythic beings in Australia are totemic in the sense of exemplifying in their own persons, or outward forms, the common life force pervading particular species. Others, originating in human or near-human form, at the end of their wanderings entered some physiographic feature, were metamorphosed as hills or rocks, or turned into various creatures or plants.Totemism’s importance lies in providing individuals and groups with direct and life-sustaining links back to the very beginnings of society itself, the Dreaming, and to the enormous powers emanating from the spiritual realm.” ref

“Conception totemism connects individuals to particular places and events and provides them with a unique account of their coming into being. It thus underpins individual identity while at the same time linking a person to many others who share similar associations. The plants, animals, or minerals that are selected as totems are not in themselves of religious significance, though in the case of foods a person may choose not to eat his or her totem, considering it to be of the same flesh. What is important is the connections symbolized by totems—the ties that bind people simultaneously to one another, to sites in the physical world, and to the omnipotent spiritual powers on which all worldly life depends.” ref

“Totemism’s importance lies in providing individuals and groups with direct and life-sustaining links back to the very beginnings of society itself, the Dreaming, and to the enormous powers emanating from the spiritual realm. Conception totemism connects individuals to particular places and events and provides them with a unique account of their coming into being. It thus underpins individual identity while at the same time linking a person to many others who share similar associations. The plants, animals, or minerals that are selected as totems are not in themselves of religious significance, though in the case of foods a person may choose not to eat his or her totem, considering it to be of the same flesh. What is important is the connections symbolized by totems—the ties that bind people simultaneously to one another, to sites in the physical world, and to the omnipotent spiritual powers on which all worldly life depends.” ref

“Aboriginal society had a relatively egalitarian social structure where age, gender, totemic, and land affiliations were important demarcations. Women usually provided the staple food supply, and they owned and had special responsibilities towards sites in the landscape, associated song cycles, and Dreaming stories. They had exclusive control of the secret ceremonies of reproduction, and their maternal function as child rearers was highly valued. Men hunted and also played an important role in nurturing and teaching children, and there were special responsibilities for a wide network of kin in relation to each child.

“Men and women separately facilitated the reproduction of resources through ritual nurturing. They also spent much time working or negotiating business in the company of their own gender. Decision-making and law enforcement were divided between men and women, and ultimate power was often accorded on the basis of custodial obligations towards relevant land or kinship obligations. The tablet of the law, which was ensconced in the landscape itself, was explained through Dreaming stories as people traveled. While women were in charge of their own business, sacred and secular men’s power often appeared to be more highly valued in regard to law and punishment matters concerning the larger group. In some areas, women’s law was more powerful than others, and older women held high status. Gatherings of many clans took place from time to time to conduct social, marriage, and religious business. Ritual confrontations were also staged to avenge wrongdoing, and other transgressions could be punished physically or through potentially fatal sorcery. Dancing and singing, storytelling, drawing, painting, and sculpture took place all year round, and through such entertaining means, everyone learned the law of their group.” ref

“Traditionally, Aboriginal societies did not have kings or chiefs in the sense used by English-speaking people. However, elderly and senior initiated men were held in high esteem, and physically, spiritually, or intellectually superior men were also able to command significant respect. Men of high esteem were looked to by the community for advice and leadership in public matters.” ref

“When the colonists searched for leaders among the Aboriginal people, in order to find influential allies, they saw in those respected men the qualities they recognized as the badges of leadership in their own society. Some colonists recognised that in spite of the respect and influence those men commanded they were not regarded as solo leaders while other colonists made the simple equation and labelled the men ‘chiefs’ or ‘kings’. Even the skeptics used the useful label ‘chief’ to describe the men they formed alliances with in order to promote them within both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.” ref

“William Romaine Govett gave a typical early 19th-century assessment of Aboriginal social hierarchy:

Each tribe has a chief; but whether he possesses his authority from hereditary right, or is chosen, as being the most active and strong, the most valorous or warlike, or from any particular achievement, is not known. It may be observed, however, that they are in general the finest men; and though they are not distinguished from the rest in outward appearance or clothing, they alone have the privilege of having two wives.

… Every tribe possesses its own peculiar territory, and they appear to be very jealous of any invasion of their boundaries, which is often the cause of warfare between one tribe and another … the chief exercises his authority in various ways: he has the power to disperse the tribe, to order their movements, and appoint the time when, and place where, they are all to assemble again. Sometimes the men hold a council of war, — for I have seen the oldest of them, to the number of thirty, sitting round in a circle (apart from the women and youths), talking apparently very seriously, as if they had heard a report of the approach of a hostile tribe, or some other cause of fear; and, after an hour’s deliberation, the whole tribe has separated in parties of six or four, but the chief remaining with the women.

These parties appear to act as piquets on the look out, observing, and at the same time can easily communicate with one another. In this manner they remain away for several days, nor do I think that they assemble again until the regular time appointed by the chief.” ref 

“In ‘the district named Tarlo’, near the Wollondilly River, Govett and ‘another gentleman’ had heard that a ‘tribe’ of Aboriginal people was in the neighbourhood and they decided to visit them at night. They ’went from one fire to another in order to observe the particular actions and employments of the several groups or families. The chief was sitting cross-legged between his two wives, and smoking a short black pipe. He was naked, with the exception of the belt around his waist; upon which was inscribed his name, &c., and he appeared, as the light of the fire was reflected upon him, a strong and muscular man’.” ref 

“Louisa Meredith, who spent time in the Bathurst district in the early 1840s, observed that Aboriginal people respected and gave special consideration to elderly or physically powerful men:

The natives pay great respect to old age; that, and valour, comprising the only distinctions of rank allowed among them. The best fighting man is the chief or head of his tribe, and in case of his death, the next best takes his place, and inherits his wives. The other warriors and the old men form a sort of council, which is convened as occasion demands, when peace, war, and all other points of importance are discussed and decided upon.” ref 

“In the early 1840s Leon Ducharme, a Canadian who spent four years in New South Wales as a political prisoner, observed that gorget-wearing kings were a common sight. Interestingly, he commented that the gorget was a continuation of a traditional sign of leadership.” ref

“However, he said nothing more on this and no further information has been found. He may have been referring to body scars made during the stages of traditional initiation into manhood and its senior levels:

Each tribe has its king whose distinctive mark is a little copper plate in the shape of a half moon, which hangs round his neck, and on which is written the name of his tribe. This mark of distinction is given them by the colonists. Formerly they had a mark made by themselves, one somewhat of the same shape as that of to-day. These kings are often to be seen at the head of a party of their subjects going hunting.” ref

“Even in densely settled areas, some Aboriginal people continued to hold sway over their own country or a diminished part of their country. Some became farmers and participated in the cash economy of the colony. Many of those small farming communities were led by a senior Aboriginal man who was given the title king or chief by the local non-Aboriginal population and presented with a gorget. Mickey Johnson, who was photographed as a very smartly dressed man wearing a large gorget which simply declares him as ‘king’, held sway in one of the most fertile farming areas in New South Wales, the Illawarra district. He was ‘crowned’ at a well-attended public ceremony in Wollongong on 30 January 1896.” ref

“Chiefs are considered as sociopolitical leaders of a number of people – in the thousands, as Earle suggests, which is not always the case. To distinguish the chief from other sociopolitical leaders some additional characteristics have to be added to this rather broad definition. In the first place a chief is an ascribed leader; he occupies a hereditary position. Such positions are, in Kurtz terminology, political offices. Chiefship is the prerogative of a certain family. When the old chief dies his son or sometimes a brother or a nephew will succeed him. In this way he is different from a big man, or a president.” ref

“These are leaders with an achieved position, they are elected, and they have done something to get into that place. Neither can chiefs do without achievement; also they have to demonstrate the ability to rule their people. It is not quite possible to distinguish between chiefs and kings. The major difference between a strong chief and a weak head of state (king) is the kind and degree of power the office provides him. One might say that a king is the ruler of a kingdom – but this obliges us to make clear the difference between chiefdom and kingdom, and, as the differences between a paramount chiefdom and a tiny kingdom are very small, this is not a helpful criterion. Perhaps we should look for differences in power. It is generally assumed that chiefs do not have the legitimate right to enforce decisions, but they often do so, legitimate or not.” ref

“Kings, on the other hand, do have such a right even though in practice they do not always succeed in doing so. To look for the distinguishing feature seems rather unfruitful. A second major characteristic of chiefs is that in some way or another they are considered as sacred persons. It is believed that they have descended, often in a most unclear way, from gods, spirits or mythical forefathers and because of that are regarded as a source of special powers. The most important of the latter is an ability to influence the fertility of women, cattle and land in a positive way. This ideologically based position gives a strong legitimation to a chief’s leadership.” ref

“These statements are based upon a wide reading of the anthropological literature, which makes clear that chiefs – in the anthropological sense mentioned above – are found all over the world and in all times (Skalník 2004). It is, therefore, a bit surprising that the concomitant concept of ‘chiefdom’ goes back only to 1955, when Oberg formulated it for the first time in political terms. Once having been introduced, however, the term ‘chiefdom’ soon abounded in the literature, but with a great deal of variation in content.” ref

“Though the ideas about chiefs (and chiefdoms) may differ widely, the view that the chief’s position is inherited seems generally accepted. There is not so much differentiation possible here, though matrilineal societies have different ideas about inheritance from patrilineal societies. The difference between matrilineal and patrilineal chiefdoms is vast; some of the strongest chiefdoms occur in matrilineal societies that have patrilocal residence; the combination of these features allows men from different descent associations living together in patrilocal villages to compete for political power as they would be constrained from doing in patrilineal/patrilocal settings where strong kin relations prevail among the men. This type of chiefdoms occurs mainly in Melanesia. There is a lot of variation in the ideological aspects of chiefship, however, as appears from a comparison of Sub-Saharan Africa and Polynesia.” ref

New Zealand

“The first people to reach New Zealand were Polynesians in ocean going waka (canoes). Their arrival likely occurred in several waves, approximately between 1280 and 1350 CE. Those Polynesian settlers, isolated in New Zealand, became the Māori of later years. According to an early European synthesized interpretation of various Māori traditional accounts, around 750 CE, the heroic explorer, Kupe, had discovered New Zealand, and later, around 1350, one great fleet of settlers set out from Hawaiki in eastern Polynesia. However, from the late 20th century, this story has been increasingly relegated to the realm of legend and myth. An alternative view has emerged from fresh archaeological and scientific evidence, which correlates with doubts raised by historians everywhere as to the reliability of interpretations drawn from the oral evidence of indigenous peoples, including from Māori.” ref

“Regarding the arrival of these Polynesian settlers, there are no human remains, artefacts or structures which are confidently dated to earlier than the Kaharoa Tephra, a layer of volcanic debris deposited by the Mount Tarawera eruption around 1314 CE. Samples of rat bone, rat-gnawed shells, and seed cases have given dates later than the Tarawera eruption except for three of a decade or so earlier. Radiocarbon dating and pollen evidence of widespread forest fires shortly before the eruption might also indicate a pre-eruption human presence. Additionally, mitochondrial DNA variability within the Māori populations suggest that Eastern Polynesians first settled the New Zealand archipelago between 1250 and 1300, Therefore, current opinion is that, whether or not some settlers arrived before 1314, the main settlement period was in the subsequent decades, possibly involving a coordinated mass migration.” ref

“It is also the broad consensus of historians that the Polynesian settlement of New Zealand was planned and deliberate. “Over the centuries that followed, the settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. This scenario is also consistent with a much debated questionable third line of oral evidence, traditional genealogies (whakapapa) which point to around 1350 as a probable arrival date for many of the founding canoes (waka) from which many Māori trace their descent. Some Māori later migrated to the Chatham Islands where they developed their distinct Moriori culture. The Māori people descend from Polynesians whose ancestors emigrated from Taiwan to Melanesia between 3000 and 1000 BCE and then traveled east, reaching the Society Islands c. 1000 CE. After a pause of 200 to 300 years, a new wave of exploration led to the discovery and settlement of New Zealand.” ref

Māori people

“Māori (Māori: [ˈmaːɔɾi]) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (Aotearoa). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, these settlers developed their own distinctive culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New Zealand’s other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori. In the Māori language, the word māori means “normal”, “natural”, or “ordinary”. In legends and oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings—tāngata māori—from deities and spirits (wairua). Likewise, wai māori denotes “fresh water”, as opposed to salt water. There are cognate words in most Polynesian languages, all deriving from Proto-Polynesian *ma(a)qoli, which has the reconstructed meaning “true, real, genuine.” ref

“Early visitors from Europe to New Zealand generally referred to the indigenous inhabitants as “New Zealanders” or as “natives.”  The Māori used the term Māori to describe themselves in a pan-tribal sense. Māori people often use the term tangata whenua (literal meaning, “people of the land”) to identify in a way that expresses their relationship with a particular area of land; a tribe may be the tangata whenua in one area, but not in another. The term can also refer to the Māori people as a whole in relation to New Zealand (Aotearoa) as a whole.” ref

“No credible evidence exists of pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand; on the other hand, compelling evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology indicates that the first settlers migrated from Polynesia and became the Māori. Evidence indicates that their ancestry (as part of the larger group of Austronesian peoples) stretches back 5,000 years, to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Polynesian people settled a large area encompassing Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaiʻi, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) – and finally New Zealand. The date of first arrival and settlement is a matter of debate. There may have been some exploration and settlement before the eruption of Mount Tarawera (c. 1315), based on finds of bones from Polynesian rats and rat-gnawed shells, and evidence of widespread forest fires in the decade or so prior.” ref 

“One 2022 study using advanced radiocarbon technology suggests that “early Māori settlement happened in the North Island between CE 1250 and CE 1275”. However, a synthesis of archaeological and genetic evidence concludes that, whether or not some settlers arrived before the Tarawera eruption, the main settlement period was in the decades after it, somewhere between 1320 and 1350. This broadly aligns with analyses from Māori oral traditions, which describe the arrival of ancestors in a number of large ocean-going canoes (waka) as a planned mass migration c. 1350.” ref

“They had a profound impact on their environment from their first settlement in New Zealand and voyages further south, with definitive archeological evidence of brief settlement as far south as Enderby Island. Some have speculated that Māori explorers may have been the first humans to discover Antarctica: According to a nineteenth century translation by Stephenson Percy Smith, part of the Rarotongan oral history describes Ui-te-Rangiora, around the year 650, leading a fleet of Waka Tīwai south until they reached, “a place of bitter cold where rock-like structures rose from a solid sea.” ref 

“Based on interpretations by Wehi and her colleagues, subsequent commentators speculated that these brief descriptions might match the Ross Ice Shelf, or possibly the Antarctic mainland, or icebergs surrounded by sea ice found in the Southern Ocean. Other scholars are far more sceptical, raising serious problems with Smith’s translations, and noting the seafaring technologies required for Antarctic voyaging. Regardless of these debates, the Māori were sophisticated seafarers, and New Zealand has a strong association with Antarctica, and a wish by some for Māori values to be integral to human presence there.” ref

“The earliest period of Māori settlement, known as the “Archaic”, “Moahunter” or “Colonisation” period, dates from the time of arrival to c. 1500. The early Māori diet included an abundance of moa and other large birds and fur seals that had never been hunted before. This Archaic period is known for its distinctive “reel necklaces”, and also remarkable for the lack of weapons and fortifications typical of the later “Classic” Māori. The best-known and most extensively studied Archaic site, at Wairau Bar in the South Island, shows evidence of occupation from early-13th century to the early-15th century. It is the only known New Zealand archaeological site containing the bones of people who were born elsewhere.” ref

“Factors that operated in the transition to the Classic period (the culture at the time of European contact) include a significantly cooler period from 1500, and the extinction of the moa and of other food species. The Classic period is characterised by finely-made pounamu (greenstone) weapons and ornaments; elaborately carved war canoes, and wharenui (meeting houses). Māori lived in autonomous settlements in extended hapū groups descended from common iwi ancestors. The settlements had farmed areas and food sources for hunting, fishing, and gathering.” ref

“Fortified pā were built at strategic locations due to occasional warfare over wrongdoings or resources; this practice varied over different locations throughout New Zealand, with more populations in the far North. There is a stereotype that Māori were ‘natural warriors’; however, warfare and associated practices like cannibalism were not a dominating part of Māori culture. Around the year 1500, a group of Māori migrated east to the Chatham Islands and developed into a people known as the Moriori, with pacifism a key part of their culture.” ref

“Archaeological record indicates a gradual evolution of culture. In the course of a few centuries, the growing population led to competition for resources and an increase in warfare, and an increased frequency of fortified pā. Various systems also arose aimed to conserve resources; most of these, such as tapu and rāhui, used religious or supernatural threats to discourage people from taking species at particular seasons or from specified areas.” ref

“Warfare between tribes was common, and Māori would sometimes eat their conquered enemies or enslave them. Performing arts such as the haka developed from their Polynesian roots, as did carving and weaving. Regional dialects arose, with differences in vocabulary and in the pronunciation of some words but the language retained enough similarities to other Eastern Polynesian languages for Tupaia, the Tahitian navigator on James Cook‘s first voyage in the region to act as an interpreter between Māori and the crew of the Endeavour.” ref

Belief and Religion

“Traditional Māori beliefs have their origins in Polynesian culture. Concepts such as tapu (sacred), noa (non-sacred), mana (authority/prestige) and wairua (spirit) governed everyday Māori living, and there are also many Māori deities. Many Māori people observe spiritual traditions such as tapu and noa. Certain objects, areas, or buildings are tapu (spiritually restricted), and must be made noa (unrestricted) by ceremonial action. It is common practice, for instance, to remove one’s shoes before entering a wharenui (meeting-house), a token of respect for the ancestors who are represented and spiritually present within the wharenui. Another spiritual ritual is hurihanga takapau (purification), practised when fishing to ensure there is no tapu on the fish.” ref

“Cultural performance of waiata (song), haka (dance), tauparapara (chants), and mōteatea (poetry) are used by Māori to express and pass on knowledge and understanding about history, communities, and relationships. Kapa haka is a Māori performance art believed to have originated with the legendary figure Tinirau. It was performed for tourists following European contact, starting in the 1880s; this sometimes involved adaptations to make it more familiar to European audiences. It was used in the First World War to raise money for the Maori Soldiers’ Fund encouraged by Āpirana Ngata. A haka is often performed in a pōwhiri (welcoming ceremony). Whare tapere (entertainment houses) were a site of story-telling, dance, and puppetry in pre-European Māori culture.” ref

“Traditional Māori instruments are taonga pūoro. They fulfilled various roles including storytelling, religious traditions and also daily functions such as the beginning of a new day. Taonga pūoro fall into two areas, melodic instruments such as the flute and rhythmic instruments such as poi “balls of dried flax on string that are swung and tapped”. Like other cultures, oral folklore was used by Māori to preserve their stories and beliefs through many centuries.” ref

“Shamanism makes comeback in New Zealand. Yes, there are some sensible advocates of Māori knowledge, which of course becomes part of scientific knowledge in general. Here’s a quote from an article by three Māori who are able to separate the wheat of truth from the chaff of superstition ideology, undocumented tradition, morality, and religion: “In short, uncritical acceptance of Māori knowledge is arguably just as patronising as its earlier blanket rejection.” —Nā Dr Michael Stevens, Emeritus Professor Atholl Anderson, and Professor Te Maire Tau.” ref

“Sadly, too many Māori as well as sympathetic descendants of Europeans can’t seem to grasp this simple distinction, which explains why in NZ, more than in any other country, “indigenous ways of knowing” are valorized.  In that country, there appears to be no stopping Mātauranga Māori—the gemisch of trial-and-error empirical fact, woo, and rules of conduct that constitutes the indigenous “way of knowing”—from snuggling in beside science, the only real way of knowing we have.” ref

“Now we have news of the convening of a conclave of tohunga, the Māori equivalent of the “medicine men” of indigenous North American tribal groups—or “priests” of religious groups: It was the role of tohunga to ensure tikanga (customs) were observed. Tohunga guided the people and protected them from spiritual forces. They were healers of both physical and spiritual ailments, and they guided the appropriate rituals for horticulture, fishing, fowling, and warfare. They lifted the tapu on newly built houses and waka (canoes), and lifted or placed tapu in death ceremonies.” ref

“In this piece, the writer refers mainly to the role of tohunga in curing physical ailments, which, before science-based medicine arrived, was largely based on herbal medicine. Some may have even worked, but we don’t know as they were never tested, and they are powerless against ailments that can be cured by scientific innovations like antibiotics or antivirals. But this traditional “way of healing” may be coming back.” ref 

“The gist: Some of the country’s top experts in mātauranga Māori, known as tohunga, have gathered in Whakatāne for a symposium on the present and future of its role. Held at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, the event is being led by Tā Hirini Moko Mead and Tā Pou Temara, two leading mātauranga experts. Sir Hirini said: “Tohunga were the experts who helped the people maintain a balance between the human world and the spiritual world.” Sir Pou said: “[The tohunga] was not able to cure everything, but because they were the educated person of the tribe he or she knew where to send a person to get satisfaction for the affliction.” The role of the tohunga was almost completely stamped out by laws like the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act, which was intended to stop traditional Māori practices. Sir Pou said it was an attempt to wipe out an entire knowledge system. He said that in some areas it was driven underground, but in others, it ceased to exist entirely.” ref

“The penultimate line is a gross distortion bordering on a lie. First, the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act wasn’t designed to “stop traditional traditional Māori practices”, but rather to replace dangerous and ineffective Māori ways of healing (and unfounded prognostications) with scientific (called “Western” medicine). Here’s the Wikipedia description of the Act (which, by the way, was wholly repealed in 1962, so that now Māori can subject themselves at will to the dangerous ministrations of tohunga): The Act contained only four clauses, the first of which simply gave the short title. The second clause stated that “Every person who gathers Maoris around him by practising on their superstition or credulity, or who misleads or attempts to mislead any Maori by professing or pretending to possess supernatural powers in the treatment or cure of any disease, or in the foretelling of future events, or otherwise” was liable for prosecution.” ref

“The first offense could be subject to a fine of up to 25 pounds or up to six months imprisonment. Subsequent offences could lead to a prison term of up to a year. However, no prosecution under the Act could be commenced without the consent of the Minister of Native Affairs. The third section enabled the Governor of New Zealand to gazette regulations to enable the intention of the Act to be carried out. The fourth section repealed subsection 5 of section 16 of the Maori Councils Act 1900, which allowed Maori Councils to license tohunga. See also, this paper recounting the history and intent of the Act, which was concentrated on healing.” ref

“More important, the Act was promoted not just by one Westerner, but by a whole passel of Māori advocates who wanted the benefits of modern medicine for their people (my emphasis): It was introduced by James Carroll who expressed impatience with what he considered regressive Maori attitudes.  Officials had been concerned for years about the sometimes dangerous practices of tohunga. The Act was introduced in part to target Māori prophet, faith healer and land rights activist Rua Kenana, but it was never used against him. It was praised by many influential Maori at the time, including Māui Pōmare and all four Maori MPs (Āpirana Ngata, Hōne Heke Ngāpua, Tame Parata and Henare Kaihau). According to Willie Jackson, the prevailing concern raised by Ngata was the harm arising from improper medical practices, rather than the destruction of Matauranga Maori.” ref

“Particularly important here was Sir Māui Wiremu Pita Naera Pōmare, trained as a physician in the U.S. and then returning to NZ to improve Māori health and to serve as a member of Parliament and as Minister of Health. For this article to imply that Westerners suppressed native culture when, in fact, this was largely a Māori initiative and was aimed at health and superstitious prognostication, not an entire culture, is the kind of distortion we’re used to in NZ reporting. As the writer said, this Act is no longer in force, so healing can proceed on the basis of MM or other superstitions.” ref

“At any rate, the tohunga are making a comeback. From the article above: [In] 1984, when Sir Pou credits Sir Hirini Moko Mead with beginning the revival of tohunga, when he arranged for tohunga to take part in the Te Māori exhibition. . . . . Forty years on from those discussions, Sir Pou said Māori knowledge systems had come a long way. “The tohunga who are now leading out and teaching their own cohorts of tohunga, these tohunga are beyond colonisation.” “They’ve gone through that and they’re now reclaiming what is rightfully their heritage and their right to practice,” he said.” ref

“Right to practice woo, that is—and the right to deprive credulous people from the benefits of scientific medicine. Now there’s one sentence implying that maybe the tohunga might learn something about modern medicine, but it’s misleading: As well as upholding Māori knowledge systems, they now have access to the knowledge systems of the entire world, Sir Pou said. Does that mean scientifically based medical knowledge? Not a chance. It means religion and philosophy. “They can draw upon Confucius, they can draw upon Buddha, they can draw upon the great philosophers of the world, of Greece. “And then relocate it back into Aotearoa [the Māori word for “New Zealand”] into their Māori world, they marry that up with the mātauranga Māori that must be the bedrock of their tohunga knowledge,” he said. Sir Pou Temara said he was pleased to see the students that he taught now teaching students of their own, a web of reclamation that continues to spread. Yes, a spreading web of ignorance and credulity that will doom some Māori to illness or death. Applauding the spread of the tohunga is like applauding the spread of faith healing. Indeed, that’s much of what the tohunga do!” ref

“In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga (tōhuka in Southern Māori dialect) is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, either religious or otherwise. Tohunga include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. A tohunga may have also been the head of a whānau (family) but quite often was also a rangatira (chief) and an ariki (noble). The equivalent and cognate in Hawaiian culture is kahuna, tahu’a in Tahitian. Each tohunga was a gifted spiritual leader and possessed the natural ability of communicating between the spiritual and temporal realms through karakia (prayers), pātere (chants) or performing waiata (songs) that had been passed down to them by tohunga before them. However, their rites were mainly in the specific fields in which they practiced.” ref

“There are many classes of tohunga (Best 1924:166) including:

• Tohunga ahurewa: highest class of priest
• Tohunga matakite: foretellers of the future
• Tohunga whakairo: expert carvers
• Tohunga raranga: expert weavers
• Tohunga tātai arorangi: experts at reading the stars
• Tohunga kōkōrangi: expert in the study of celestial bodies (astronomer)
• Tohunga tārai waka: expert canoe builders
• Tohunga wetereo: expert in the language (linguist)
• Tohunga tā moko: expert in tā moko (tattooist)
• Tohunga mahi toi: expert artist
• Tohunga tikanga tangata: expert in the study of humans (anthropologist)
• Tohunga o Tumatauenga: expert in weapons or war party chaplain
• Tohunga kiato: lowest class of priest” ref

“Tohunga held knowledge of most spiritual and temporal rites, and knowledge, in general, was passed down through many generations by oral communication at wananga (places of learning/schools). Tools they also used were taonga pūoro for the purpose of calling on divine intervention or assistance from the gods. Although Māori had high respect for the knowledge and skills of tohunga, witchcraft was feared by both superstitious Maori and Europeans alike. Settler prejudices, the risk of charlatans taking advantage of vulnerable people, and because many forms of traditional Māori medicine were no longer effective against introduced European diseases, this combination of factors led to the enactment of the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907. Some tohunga declined to pass on their oral traditions after the Act was enforced in New Zealand, leaving Māori people bereft of much of their traditional base, beliefs, and practices. The Act was repealed in 1962, but by this time, much of the language and traditions had been either corrupted or lost, but a few kaumatua and kuia continued to orally communicate their knowledge through the generations.” ref

“Tohunga under tapu, Tapu was, and still is, one of the most deeply ingrained beliefs and religious customs of Māori. The word tapu may be translated as “sacred” or “forbidden”, but Māori tapu has a host of variations. There was a personal tapu and local tapu; tapu of one kind or another faced the Māori everywhere. It often served a purpose similar to some of the Jewish laws of prohibition and quarantine. Tohunga were imbued with the mysterious essences of the tapu because of their knowledge of ancient and potent karakia, religious ceremonies, and their office as mediums of communication with the atua (gods and spirits). All ariki also had a strong personal tapu which prevented any common person eating out of the same food basket or using anything belonging to the chief.” ref

“The remains of the sacred dead and all connected therewith were highly tapu, and anyone who had been engaged in handling the dead or bones of the dead would be extremely tapu and would not dare to touch food with the hands. Consequently, such persons had to be fed in the manner shown in the painting here. This was painted from life at an old-time pā (village) in the Wanganui district. The outer palisaded fence of the pā, with its roughly carved posts, usually tōtara, is shown in the background. The tohunga is kneeling on mats in front of a raupō whare (house) in a remote corner of the settlement.” ref

“Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand’s Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern tales of supernatural events relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pre-European Māori, often involving gods and demigods. Māori tradition concerns more folkloric legends often involving historical or semi-historical forebears. Both categories merge in whakapapa to explain the overall origin of the Māori and their connections to the world which they lived in. The three forms of expression prominent in Māori and Polynesian oral literature are genealogical recital, poetry, and narrative prose. Experts in these subjects were broadly known as tohunga. The rituals, beliefs, and general worldview of Māori society were ultimately based on an elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland (Hawaiki) and adapted and developed in the new setting. Alongside different Polynesian cultures having different versions of a given tradition, often the same story for a character, event, or object will have many different variations for every iwi, hapū, or individual who retells it, meaning there is never a fixed or ‘correct’ version of any particular story.” ref

“Traditional Māori religion – that is, the pre-European belief system of Māori people – was little modified in its essentials from that of their Eastern Polynesian homeland, conceiving of everything, including natural elements and all living things, as connected by common descent through whakapapa or genealogy. Accordingly, all things were thought of as possessing a life force, or mauri. Very few Māori still adhere to traditional Māori beliefs – 3,699 respondents to the 2018 census identified themselves as adhering to “Māori religions, beliefs, and philosophies.” There has been increasing recognition of Māori spirituality in political discourse and even in certain government legislation. In July 2001 MP Rodney Hide alerted parliament to a state funded hikitapu (tapu-lifting) ceremony at the opening of the foreign embassy in Bangkok. It was revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had a standard policy of employing Māori ritual experts for the opening of official offices around the world. The Resource Management Act 1991 recognises the role of Māori spiritual beliefs in planning and environmental management. In 2002 local Māori expressed concerns that the development of the Auckland-Waikato expressway would disturb the taniwha, or guardian spirit, of the Waikato River, leading to delays and alterations to the project.” ref

“The Maori, the aboriginal people of New Zealand, practice a form of religion that is generally classified as totemism. Maori religion conceives of everything, including natural elements, as connected by common descent through whakapapa (genealogy). Due to the importance of genealogy, ancestors, of both the mythical and actual variety, are of the utmost importance, serving as individual totems. People are thought to behave as they do because of the presence within them of ancestors. For instance, Rangi and Papa, the progenitor god and goddess of sky and the earth respectively, are seen not only as establishers of the sky and earth, but also as prototypes for the basic natures of men and women. In addition, Tane, the son of Rangi and Papa and creator of the world in the form we know it, provides an archetypal character for Maori males. Maoris also identify numerous animals, insects and natural forces as totems, including most importantly kangaroos, honey-ants, the sun and the rain. Maoris construct totem pole-like objects in honor of these totemic groups.” ref

“Totem and taboo: Mythology and the Maori, An exhibition of Maori art and culture at the British Museum, London, showing until Nov 1, 1998. The block of wood has no understanding; insight belongs to the skilful carver-Maori saying rt and artists reflect society’s fundamental beliefs and convert them into an iconic form. For the Maori, their artworks are more than merely cultural treasures (taonga); they are totems defining ancestral heritage, regarded not only as inaminate objects, but also as living entities with their own spirituality, always to be respected, sometimes even held in awe. Taonga have their own genealogy, derived from the artists who created them and from successive owners; they have status (mana) accrued throughout their history (korero) and are protected by tapu, or taboos-codes of sanctity that consecrate them for specific use.” ref

“When New Zealand was colonised by the first of the Europeans in the 18th century, the Maori, incumbent inhabitants of “The Land of the Long White Cloud”, possessed active traditions of carving in wood, stone, and bone, and of weaving indigenous flax into magnificent matting and garments. These traditions were to be supplanted and effaced by the rapacity of the colonizers and the iconoclasm of Christianity, and the legacy of mythological influence on pictorial themes was, to a large extent, ablated. For instance, although the fact that the ancestral deities in Maori carving are commonly shown as having bird claws rather than hands is probably linked with the Maori belief that the human soul…” ref

“Pouwhenua or pou whenua (land post), are carved wooden posts used by Māori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand to mark territorial boundaries or places of significance. They are generally artistically and elaborately carved and can be found throughout New Zealand. The Pouwhenua is also a long-handled fighting staff with a club-like broad head for striking. Much like totem poles, pou whenua tell a story. They are significant to the Māori people, representing their contributions to the cultural heritage of New Zealand. They acknowledge the association between the people (tāngata) and the land (whenua). Specifically, they reflect the relationship between the ancestors, environment, and the reputation or standing of the tangata whenua.” ref

“Belonging to the same class of weaponry as the tewhatewha and taiaha, pouwhenua are usually made of wood and have a large, broad blade known as rau at one end and a pointed, sharp tip at the other end. Usually a human head motif was carved on the shaft to form a boundary between the shaft and the long spear point. Pouwhenua were used for attacking an opponent with short sharp strikes or stabbing thrusts with quick footwork on the part of the wielder. A single blow with the broad blade could easily result in death. Pou whakarae is the main post in the palisade of a Māori pā. They are traditionally made of wood and are carved.” ref, ref

“Māori politics (Māori: tōrangapū Māori) is the politics of the Māori people, who were the original inhabitants of New Zealand and who are now the country’s largest minority. Before the arrival of Pākehā (Europeans) in New Zealand, Māori society was based largely around tribal units, and chiefs (rangatira) provided political leadership. With the British settlers of the 19th century came a new British-style government. From the outset, Māori sought representation within this government, seeing it as a vital way to promote their people’s rights and improve living standards.” ref

“Before the arrival of Pākehā (European settlers) in New Zealand, Māori society was based largely around communal units. A common misconception is that pre-colonial Māori governance was structured into the “rigid and static structural models” (p. 19) proposed by early ethnologists, such as Elsdon Best (1934): The tribal organisation of the Maori included three different groups – the tribe (iwi), the clan (hapu), and the family group (whanau)…. The clan or sub-tribe was composed of a number of family groups, and the sum of the clans (hapu) formed the tribe.” ref

“Twentieth-century research “modified this model of tribal organisation, emphasising the role of the hapū … as the largest effective corporate group which defended a territory or worked together in peaceful enterprises” Therefore, it is now understood that hapū were responsible for administering resources, land, and important community buildings, and were also responsible for warfare (particularly maintaining the waka).” ref

“Political leadership or governance in Māori society has traditionally come from two different groups of people – the Ariki and the Rangatira. The Ariki are “persons of the highest rank and seniority.” Ariki did not operate in simple hierarchical organisations; despite what later “government officers were inclined to believe”, Ariki have never been “the apex of a structured hierarchy of institutionalised tribal authority”. Many positions overlap with Ariki holding multiple roles, including “head of an iwi, the rangatira of a hapū,and the kaumātua of a whanau.” ref

“Examples of a chiefdom? Some examples of chiefdoms include the Maori of New Zealand, the Kwakwaka’wakw of British Columbia, the Zulu of South Africa, and many more. Some of these chiefdoms are not still in existence. A chiefdom is a political unit, while tribes are more of social groups of people. Chiefdoms are headed by chiefs, while tribes are more of a kinship headed by family patriarchs. Chiefdoms have various characteristics. They are made up of other smaller communities, have centralized decision making, and follow a social hierarchy. A chiefdom is a political unit that is led by a chief. These chiefdoms are made up of various communities that came together to form one unit.” ref

“A chiefdom is defined as a political unit that is headed by a chief who brings together different communities. A chiefdom is a formal power structure rather than loosely related political divisions. A chiefdom, in anthropology, is a sociopolitical organization where a single person (or group of individuals) is in charge of political and economic power. Chiefdoms represent a form of social hierarchy and unification of some forms of political power in order to control production and distribution channels. In some cases, the chief and their family hold a prestigious position in the communities they lead.” ref

“In contrast, tribes are primarily social institutions made up of larger populations than chiefdoms are. These tribes are organized around people living in the same area and sharing a common language and cultural beliefs. Another distinction of tribes is that they are primarily based on family ties. Their leadership systems are non-permanent, each with a temporary leader based on the existing patriarch of the tribe. Since most of the tribe members tend to be individual-centric, the leader may rule the tribe based on their own values and beliefs, as opposed to a standard way set for all tribal leaders. On the other hand, chiefdoms are political units headed by a chief whose position may or may not be hereditary.” ref

“In a chiefdom, the chiefs were believed to have mana, which is a supernatural power believed to have given these people the right to rule. The mana also gave the chiefs the power to redistribute goods. All goods were allocated to the chief, who would then decide how to distribute them among the people. The mana, therefore, gave them the power of general rule over the land. The chief’s mana was passed down to their chosen heir, usually the first son of the first wife. The successor was named when the chief was on their deathbed.” ref

“Māori society had three main groupings, loosely described as classes: rangatira (chiefs), tūtūā or ware (commoners) and taurekareka (slaves). Tohunga (priestly experts) were also sometimes included as a separate grouping. Māori anthropologist Peter Buck refered to these groupings as social ‘grades’ which allowed people to determine status and rank – for example, rangatira of one hapū could be considered senior to rangatira of another hapū if they descended through a senior line. Rangatira status was determined by birth. The first-born of the most senior family in an iwi was ariki. The most senior family descended through the first-born descendants of a founding ancestor. Seniority through birth was expressed by the tuakana–teina (older sibling–younger sibling) relationship. A person who was senior through birth to his brothers or his cousins was tuakana. A teina sibling or cousin was expected to defer to tuākana.” ref

“Women held ariki status when a number of senior descent lines from founding ancestors, and ultimately from the gods, met. Often a woman’s authority would be exercised by her husband or by male relatives. However in some cases women themselves took leadership roles. Elder Āpirana Mahuika gives the examples of Hinematioro and Mihikotukutuku of Ngāti Porou as women who were recognised tribal leaders.” ref

“The largest group in Māori society was tūtūā (commoners). Terms referring to commoners were considered pejorative, but the dividing line between this group and rangatira was not sharp – all members of a hapū or iwi could trace their descent from a common ancestor who was a recognised rangatira. The genealogical connections through male and female lines to founding ancestors meant that even those quite junior in rank were able to show they descended from important rangatira, and ultimately from the founding ancestors of hapū and iwi. Ethnographer Elsdon Best once wryly observed that he had yet to meet any Māori who admitted to being tūtūā.” ref

“Māori society was described as democratic. Commoners did not act subserviently to rangatira. Scholar Angela Ballara identifies a group in traditional society she calls tāngata (serfs). When a hapū owed allegiance to another more powerful hapū, they were expected to pay tribute to its chiefs in exchange for protection. The people of the dependent hapū were considered the tāngata of these chiefs. Slaves were people of an enemy tribe taken captive during battle. It was acceptable for free people of a hapū or iwi to marry slaves, and their children would be considered free. Because of this no hereditary class of slaves developed. Slaves were not prevented from escaping, as generally they were not wanted back by their own people because their mana was thought to be lost, and their gods were seen to have abandoned them.” ref