The rangga are the most sacred of the ceremonial symbols. The most important ones represent the major ancestral beings and are a feature of special ceremonies relating to these beings. Other rangga are used in the jiritja and dua moieties' Nara rituals as symbols of totems, natural species, human organs and ancestral people. One series is displayed at age-grading ceremonies, and another kind belongs to the Wauwalak Sisters' rituals. Rangga may be a hardwood pole, variously carved, but in western Arnhem Land these maraian or sacred objects are usually realistic but stylized carvings of natural species. Other rangga are fashioned out of cane or paperbark, folded and bound, to represent various animals and other totems. They all bear painted designs related to the Ancestral Beings, clan or totems, and are ornamented with possum-fur or feathered string as a neat binding and as pendants. Each rangga is made by the totemic headman or by a recognized artist of the clan or linguistic group, either on the sacred ceremonial ground or in a special hut. The above authors state that the art of making rangga seems to be the oldest of all the arts in Arnhem Land, and has throughout the generations become extremely stylized. So sacred are many of these objects that a woman, uninitiated boy or youth, or a man not entitled to see a particular rangga, happening to see one accidentally or to see one being made, would be killed instantly. Some of the hardwood rangga are preserved for generations.
There are many other sacred objects of great artistic interest in Arnhem Land. The ubar or oba is a hollow log gong, up to 5 feet long, beaten in the Ngurlmak rituals; it is strikingly decorated with an elaborate design illustrating the story of its ancestral being, such as Julpoypoy and his family and their totems. The Jelmalandji are made in pairs to represent a huge ancestral python and a palm tree in the Kunapipi ritual, and decorated forked sticks accompany them. The dancing posts of the Djunggewon ceremony, the bull-roarers, and the chanting tubes or didjeridu painted with clan designs or with those associated with the ceremonies in which they are used illustrate well the ceremonial art of this region. The imudunga boards of Groote Eylandt are striking examples of complex decorative work.
A feature of art in the Milingimbi area is the honey-bee or "sugar-bag" totemic design, an attractive herringbone pattern consisting of long rows of white and yellow lines, defined by red dots, or of lozenges infilled with cross-hatching—it represents the honey-comb and pellets and sometimes the head of the bee is introduced, and is painted on human skulls, bull-roarers, weapons, bark sheets, and the body of the totemite.
Among the ornaments might be mentioned the beautiful multi-colored strings of parakeet and other bird feathers made into armlets, chest-bands, and girdles, by the dua moiety for the jiritja men to wear in ceremonies and to bind the rangga.
You must log in to post a comment.