An Expanding Aboriginal Domain: Mobility and the Initiation Journey

Abstract

Some pre‐circumcision candidates in the Western Desert culture area are taken on a journey to gather people for the final ceremony. Since Aboriginal people started to own cars in the 1960s, these journeys have expanded to such an extent that the outward journey discussed here covered 2250 km. The question of why it is the initiation ceremony, rather than some other ceremonial form, that is becoming the basis for the integration of this expanding Aboriginal domain is addressed and the fragmentary evidence on the historical growth of the journeys presented. Three kinds of ceremonial integration are distinguished and a suggestion made as to why it is the initiation form that is the focus of this expansion.

Law's Anthropology : From ethnography to expert testimony in native title

“…Following the claim, several significant works relevant to Western Desert ethnography appeared. These include Cane (2002); Holcombe (2004); Peterson (2000); Poirier (2005); and Vachon (2006). anthropological studies.…”

“…Although it has no Indigenous corporate name, the group does possess many commonalities typically associated with tribes, using Elkin's definition, and there are some indications of it functioning as a 'society', in Berndt's terms, of face-to-face interaction in certain shared rituals (see, for example, Peterson 2000). The demography of the Western Desert diaspora makes it totally impractical to be named as the claimant group or as a title-holding group in a determination.…”

“…According to Vachon (1982:484), this focus resulted in a falling away of interest in other sites that were not so linked. Improved communication and availability of transport greatly expanded the 'catchment' area for initiation ceremonies and the area covered by the journeys of the initiates, making circumcision ritual the major cultural event of the Western Desert cultural bloc (Peterson 2000;Wallace 1977a). Thus when the lawyers went to Indulkana in 1994 to obtain instructions to use De Rose Hill as the test case for claiming residual native title rights on pastoral leases, interest was sustained largely because one of the Dreaming tracks that went through De Rose Hill-malu (kangaroo), kanyala (euro) and tjurki (fairy owl)-was one of the Dreamings performed at initiation ceremonies.…”

The ‘Expanding Domain’ of Warlpiri Initiation Rituals

“…In his paper ' An expanding Aboriginal domain: mobility and the initiation journey', Nic Peterson (2000) describes and analyses the conspicuous increase in numbers of people and distances travelled for the central Australian Aboriginal initiatory journey known as Jilkaja.…”

Warlpiri Ritual Contexts as Imaginative Spaces for Exploring Traditional Gender Roles

“…Prior dichotomies had, however, become so entrenched that they did not become popular in scholarly research on Central Australian communities until the early 1980s (some examples include Bell 1983 andHamilton 1981 Increasing sedentarisation, alongside wage equality that saw Warlpiri people receive cash for the first time, rather than Superintendent-issued rations, has given increasing independence to Warlpiri people allowing participation in the cash economy and pursuit of material goods. This has included cars, which have had an enormous impact on distances travelled for ritual events (Peterson 2000), and the incorporation of money and shop-bought goods into the ritual payment system. The decline in knowledge of rituals and their associated songs and ceremonies is perhaps the most widely reported change in this time period.…”