Yol\u Rom - Introduction (djunggan)
Mawul Rom conflict resolution and healing
Mawul Rom Masters Project
The Mawul Rom Ceremony belongs to the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land
and has been used traditionally for centuries as a conflict resolution and healing ...
www.mawul.com/index.php?option=com_content...
Enrollment in the University course is by open invitation with own responsibility
protecting their cultural and traditional intellectual property.
The Yolngu Elders are concerned to ensure that their generosity in revealing certain ceremonial practices is not abused. Djalu quote
means that progression through Mawul Rom Masters Project of each individual participant involves respect for Yolngu and Balanda pedagogy; intercultural learning.
Masters of Indigenous Knowledge, Mawul Rom:
that brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people from diverse backgrounds to undertake training in contemporary mediation, negotiation, decision making and leadership.
Rom provides the moral basis for human existence; it also lays down the rights that people have in property, land, sacred objects, and designs. Art is part of this ancestral inheritance, intimately connected to the land.
Gumatj rom - Yolngu art of Charlie Matjuwi and Peter Burarrwanga ...
article by Professor Howard Morphy
www.aboriginalartonline.com/.../articles.php -
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When she managed to convince the local council in northeast Arnhem Land to take her on , she knew she had found her field site to investigate these questions but, as she remarks, she was "to begin research on something that did not yet exist" (2006: 9).
Rather than using BRACS to produce local cultural content (and in Michaels's terms strengthen the possibilities for cultural survival) Yolngu actually seemed to see themselves as " actively protecting culture by not recording and not broadcasting their songs and stories" (2006: 18). It looked as though her research was going to result in a critique of the disjunctions between policy discourses and Aboriginal cultural practice. And then she met Bangana Wunungmurra.
a man distinguished by the ease with which he understood both the balanda (whitefella) administrative apparatus and his knowledge of Yolngu rom (Law). We can use this media to strengthen Yolngu culture" (2006: 19).
Departing from earlier conceptions of culture as information, and film, video and broadcasting as texts or circuits of information flow (the 'semiotic' analyses found, for example, in the work of Eric Michaels), Deger shows how the mimetic quality and uses of media in Yolngu media 'presence' objects, places and people. The central place of mimesis in the Yolngu imagination, Deger argues, therefore takes film and video "beyond the production of likeness to something more akin to an ontological sameness" (2006: 100). In this way, the mimetic power of 'presencing' the sacra and Ancestral in Gularri is understood as the very act of making Yolngu culture and its ontological world - the Yolngu way of being-in-the world. For Bangana, making culture then is about showing the sacra and the Ancestral in ways that protect culture from the un-initiated viewer, but which also educate balanda and yet to be initiated younger Yolngu. As Deger tells us:
Yolngu are offering up ancestrally charged images in the understanding that an exposure to Ancestral presence, in combination with constitutive acts of showing, presencing, giving, receiving, and seeing produces a relationship (2006: 113).
Australian Humanities Review: Ways of Thinking and Ways of Being ...
Bangana Wunungmurra
Infused with Ancestral potency, replete with layers of story and significances, Gularri, and the sacred sites associated with it, is an important source of Yolngu identity. For Yolngu of the Yirritja moiety, these waters are a foundational source: not only do they and the rangga [sacra] come from Gularri: they are Gularri. Gularri does not simply represent them, it is them (2006: 138).... administrative apparatus and his knowledge of Yolngu rom (Law). ...
www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/.../Watson.html -
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/stories/2009/2739590.htm
Indigenous Australian Art Commercial Code of Conduct
Patrick Pollock was at the art fair and compiled this report. (audio)
15 November 2009
For a long time there's been concern about how Australian Indigenous artists, especially in remote parts of the country, are open to exploitation by unscrupulous art dealers. Similarly people who buy Indigenous art can't always be sure they're getting what they think they're paying for. Well, last month at the Cultural Ministers Council, the government endorsed an Indigenous Australian Art Code of Conduct. It's a voluntary code that hopes to regulate the industry, and is expected to come into operation by the end of the year.
But will it work? That was one of the big talking points at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, held for the very first time this August. Aside from that though, there was a lot of excitement that this new art fair was being held in Far North Queensland and that it was featuring exclusively the state's Indigenous artists.
http://www.indigenousartcode.org/the_code
History of the CodeThe development of a commercial code of conduct was central to the recommendations of the 2007 Senate Inquiry report: Indigenous art - securing the future .
The Australian Government supported an Industry Alliance Group to produce a draft Code, which was released for public comment on 18 December 2008.
After a period of public consultation on the draft Code, the Industry Alliance Group endorsed a final Code in August 2009.
Charter of Principles for Publicly Funded Collecting Institutions (Charter)
Following feedback from the Indigenous visual arts industry, a Charter of Principles for Publicly Funded Collecting Institutions (Charter) was also developed to complement the commercial code. The Charter was developed in consultation with state and territory collecting institutions and the national collecting institutions, and was approved by CMC at its October 2009 meeting.
The Charter aims to affirm the minimum ethical standards and best practice principles that Australia's public collecting institutions follow when acquiring, displaying and deaccessioning Indigenous works of art. The affirmation of these high ethical standards by the public collecting institutions that adopt the Charter will help to spread awareness and best practice across the collections and Indigenous visual arts sectors.
Public collecting institutions that adopt the Charter will also be sending a clear message to the Indigenous visual arts industry that the background and provenance of Indigenous works of art will be examined carefully prior to acquisition. |
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ROM WATANGU.
For outsiders it can be difficult to understand Yolngu traditional law. This Introduction therefore explores only the surface of Yolngu tradition, law and healing. Which is serious business and involves Reconciliation between the Dutch and the local Aboriginal people of NE Arnhemland.
trying to tackle today.
Indigenous people have our own law and society.
For my people it is ROM WATANGU.
Rom Watangu is the law of the land and the seas, and of life itself. ...
Rom Watangu is the most powerful and real thing in Yolngu life. We do not pledge allegiance to the Crown.
failed to understand this. They failed to establish a proper order or balance and this has been tearing away at the heart of the nation ever since.
Now 400 years later we return to where we started.
As I said earlier,(Au, Tiwi, Wik) doing this properly and honestly is the most serious business that we have faced as a nation.
And it is not just a matter of a formality. Wik has talked about death,problemsolving, show that it’s search for this new settlement is more than just symbolic.
Wik is trying, on behalf of the Netherlands and on behalf of the Aboriginals, to get it right.
Serious business | ANTaR - Australians for Native Title and ...
27 Oct 2007 ... Rom Watangu is the law of the land and the seas, and of life itself. ...
Rom Watangu is the most powerful and real thing in Yolngu life. ...
www.antar.org.au/node/72 -
Video Rom.personal redemption.
book that offers an analysis of the ways in which one man, Bangana Wunungmurra, took up the challenge of making video from the community of Gapuwiyak in Arnhem Land in order to reinvigorate Yolngu rom (Law) and to pursue a personal redemption. It is a study of the impact of Western technology in (and not necessarily on) a remote community, a memoir of how fieldwork changes the anthropologist, and a meditation on the ways in which Yolngu and balanda can interpenetrate each other's worlds.
[T]he genius of the Yolngu imagination lies in its ability to recognize the Ancestral in new contexts and to envisage a place within a modernity that does not imply a break with the past. The Yolngu imaginary allows for mimetic forms of adaptation--a play of sameness and difference--without necessarily invoking a sense of contradiction or loss. To see and make connections with the practices and priorities of the generations that have gone before, while taking up the possibilities of the modern and the technological--this is Yolngu contemporaneity: the shimmering screen of the television set is a site for revelation and ritual participation (p. 210).
self-consciously was attempting to maintain itself as a "traditional" community. Rock 'n' roll and disco were discouraged (even Yothu Yindi); painting of ancestral designs on bark for sale in the balanda marketplace (as done in Yirrkala) was deemed a violation of the Law. 6 May 2007 ...
homepage.mac.com/will_owen/.../index.html -
Lapulung THREE CORE YOLNGU PRINCIPLES
This is just a part of an explanation that I'm developing to help Balandas understand why customary law is such a profound and important element of Yolngu life. I will be adding more soon. I have been been assisted in the noting of this by Stuart Porteous.I would like to know what you think of this work. Thank you.
Within these three Yolngu Core Principles there is always a living truth. That truth lies within the country. (Yirralka wanga ngaraka Our country: our origin) If you peel off the top layer you can still only see the surface layers. It means you still cannot see our cosmology; how we are mounted or made up, both physically and spiritually. We are mounted from the cultural roots of our ancestral legacy within our profound Yolngu lineage.
Within that knowledge are the deepest elements of human, mythical and cosmic belonging.
Stage 1:
GARMA: Public Cultural Celebration of ceremonial importance through Yolngu rom (law) and bungul. These are presented through very important, diverse cultural practices and rituals that demonstrate how we all are connected, and the sense of how we are connected through that rom and rituals.
Stage 2:
DHUNI: Semi-private ritual of parliamentary status. This is an intermediate transition of cultural endorsement towards the decision-making of Ngarra through honouring its sacredness. Interconnectedness.
Stage 3:
DHUTHUNGUNGU NGARRA:
A parliamentary Yolngu House of Representatives or Chamber through Yolngu Clan Nations who assemble in Parties. Nourishment.Interconnectedness.
Three Core Yolngu Principles | Facebook
30 nov 2008GARMA: Public Cultural Celebration of ceremonial importance through Yolngu rom (law) and bungul....
We are mounted from the cultural roots of our ancestral legacy within our profound Yolngu lineage.
www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=30277602991&topic... |
Makarrata About Yolngu Traditional Law
The information contained in this document is offered as a glimpse into the complex cultural material provided in educational introductions to traditional law. It is brief and incomplete in both depth and scope.
These words of instruction are for discipline and teaching. They proceed from the märr (the deep-seated political and spiritual authority) of the Djirrikay and Dalkarra (the Dhuwa political leaders and the Yirritja political leaders), and from the ?ärra’ (the Parliamentary and Judicial sacred chamber of law). These words are from the ?urr?gitj (tried and tested law since time immemorial) and from the djalkiri (foundation of the world) which create mägaya rom (peace, harmony and due process of law).
1. Do not murder or cause anyone to die. If you do you will be liable and receive judicial punishment for restitution at law under the Authority of the ?ärra' court, which is also sanctioned by the whole Yolngu society and by the aggrieved family
2 a) If you are the offending person, you must present yourself for Makarrata (judicial penalty of spearing through the thigh), and be put right with the law and thereby satisfy the requirements of the ?ärrra Court and the foundational laws of (Yol?u) society. )
b) If there is no Makarrata (penalty by the spear) you will be required to make full restitution over and made with your own hands.
The information contained in this document is offered as a glimpse into the
complex cultural material provided in educational introductions to traditional law.
www.ards.com.au/yolngu_law.htm -
ultimate crime.
Rom means "law" or "culture." Yol\u knowledge needs to be understood through five dimensions of rom.
It was the ancestors of the many Yol\u groups who created the land as we know it as they sang, danced, talked and moved along their dreaming tracks. The ancestors actually changed their language as they arrived at each new territory, and created new groups of land-affiliated Yol\u, related to others along the same "dreaming" track. These ancestors were all either Dhuwa or Yirritja.
The ancestors also passed down sacred designs, some of which are secret, or have secret meanings. These designs have been painted on people's bodies, carved and painted on sacred objects, moulded into the earth, and more recently painted with ochres and acrylics on to barks and canvases. The stories, songs and the art all specify both the differences and the connections among groups.
Yol\u from one clan can not simply decide to take songs, designs, land or any other resources from other Yol\u clans - it would be the ultimate crime.
Ancestral 'law'
Te extension of ancestral persons in space and time forms the 'foundation' (luku, 'feet, footprint', as Yolngu put it) of the regional, communal moral order.
...........The moral-political community.....
However, Yolngu do not draw absolute boundaries between domains such as sorcery and the domain of ancestral beings. Sorcery is implicated in the protection of secrecy of ancestral rom ('law', complexes of rituals, songs, designs, and sacred objects), while ancestral powers may be drawn on to attack one's enemies.
I turn now to ways in which ancestral doctrines, sorcery, and gift exchange embed people in the moral-political community.
Ancestral 'law'
The extension of ancestral persons in space and time forms the 'foundation' (luku, 'feet, footprint', as Yolngu put it) of the regional, communal moral order. How does the spatial distribution of ancestral bodies, powers, and traces relate to this order? Rom (in its sense of ancestral 'law') does not consist simply of a body of rules but of a combination a variety of things. One is explicit rules and precepts governing, for example, the proper way to treat relatives of various kinds or rights in a water hole. Another is the ideal forms of practices (such as rituals, paintings, and the subsection system) and their enactment. A third is the body of rights and relationships including patri-group holdings of land, waters, and sacra as 'inalienable property' (on rom see Morphy 1995; Creighton 2003; see A. Weiner 1992 on inalienable property).
The landscape can also, however, be filled with dangers if one strays into country to which one is not closely related and risks violating secret or restricted ancestral sites or encountering ghosts and mischievous ancestral beings (Biernoff 1978).
iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub • View topic - Ancestors ...
2 juli 2009All three domains are aspects of Yolngu sociality with distinct but related bases, and each is a kind of rom ('the proper way' or 'right ...
www.forum.ididj.com.au/ancestors-magic-and-exchange-in-yolngu-doctrines-pt-2-t802.html -
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Blue Mud Bay Yirritja moiety
The Yolngu response
For the Yolngu clans of the Blue Mud Bay area it is the place from which the rom of the Yirritja moiety originates.
epress.anu.edu.au/caepr.../no.../ch02s03.html -
I will discuss two kinds of action that the Yolngu took within the constraints placed upon them, and their reasons for those actions. The first is the insertion of performances of rom. The second is the Yolngu commentary on difference, and insistence on difference, and on the need for rom to be seen in its own terms—the insistence on incommensurability. Through both these kinds of actions, I will argue, Yolngu were making statements about sovereignty, not simply about ‘rights’.
The insertion of performance: sacred power made manifest
The Yolngu announced to the court that they wished to perform a short ceremony before the court started in order to ‘welcome’ the judge and the court. But for a moment, it must have seemed to the non-Yolngu present, as it certainly did to the Yolngu, that rom had momentarily displaced Australian law in its own space.
The second insertion of a performance of rom took place on the first site visit to the homeland settlement of Yilpara on Blue Mud Bay itself. The Yolngu had chosen this time very carefully, situating it near the beginning of the proceedings, and had been preparing for it for months.
This was not just a performance of rom in its own ritual space, but an enactment that incorporated the members of the Federal Court as actors, under the terms of rom. |
