day one hundred and thirty - welcoming the body home

12th June 2011 - 9:15pm

On Tuesday this week, our departed school Councillor, who is now known as Wuduwal, arrived back in the community after leaving for an autopsy. There was a huge amount of preparation for his arrival back in Ramingining. The balcony of his house was covered with plastic flowers, and huge pieces of material adorned with religious messages from the church. Tens of tents surrounded the house, with family members from nearby communities arriving for the bunggul (ceremony). Every day I went past there were people all around the house, all sitting cross-legged, presumably all just waiting for Wuduwal to return.

He was to arrive back in the community at 12pm, so at 11:30am students had an early lunch and then the older ones went around painting the faces of the younger students. I felt like I was really a part of the community when Linda (an Indigenous tutor) offered to paint my face too. We each had a white line across our foreheads, and then she used her hands to paint downwards on my face and through my hair. I'm still not exactly sure what it represents, but it's obviously something respectful.

I also helped Jenny and Megan put plastic flowers and some flowers I had made with the female students out of crepe paper onto the 'hearse' which was just the newest troopie that the school owned.

We all lined the streets in single files - all of the school students and staff, as well as staff from the Council, ALPA store, bank and Centrelink. There was a bit of a false start because the plane was running late, so we went back inside for a while because it was so hot. Then we heard the plane fly over, and everyone ran for their lives back out to the road. They probably didn't need to rush so much, because although the 'airport' is only a five minute drive away, they had to begin the welcoming ceremony there. We heard the procession of cars coming, because when any body arrives here, the cars all toot their horns as a signal. It was actually really emotional with the car coming past, especially since a lot of the women had already started wailing. A group of dancing women and men from his family walked before the car, all painted up like us. As the car drove past, we followed it in single files. At a few points, the car stopped, and the dancers performed their chanting and dancing in front of the car, another part of the welcoming ceremony.

We started to walk ahead of the car, while they continued the welcome, and lined the street leading up to his house. As the hearse pulled up to the house, I was exposed to the most incredibly eye opening scene. It was so unlike anything I'd ever seen. Women (family members) started walking from the house throwing themselves on the ground. And I mean throwing themselves. They were landing so hard, you could hear the thud. And they were doing it continuously until they reached the hearse, and then they draped themselves on it, wailing. Two of the women were hitting their heads, really hard, with billy pots as well. At the time, I didn't have a clue why they were doing this, and it was really quite disturbing, given the way we grieve in a quiet, personal fashion. Afterwards, Louise told me that the more they show they're hurting on the outside, the more it shows their hurt on the inside. I guess although a strange way (to us) of showing it, I guess it makes sense. Because you can't really show how you're feeling, this is a really visual way of doing it. It also then makes sense why they wail so openly and loudly. The men were continuing their dancing and chanting as the car backed into the driveway. As the coffin came out of the car, the men continued chanting, and the women throwing themselves on the ground, as the body entered the house, where his wife Miya had been waiting. She hadn't left the house from the time he passed away until he arrived home. We didn't stay much longer after this, as the ceremony continued inside the house. Although we did see some of the men lit a fire outside to smoke out the hearse, as they did at the school (in my last post).

A memorial service, which was slightly more formal and more Balanda-like, was held on Thursday at Miya's house. Some of the teachers had begun to teach the secondary school students how to sing the most beautiful song to be sung at the service. It is an Indigenous song sung by the Saltwater Band from Elcho Island, and is about Yolngu ga (and) Balanda working together.


Let's Work Together


Let's work together, Yolngu ga balanda
Show the world, Australia
Let's stand together
One community


Yolngu share our culture, with all Australia
Trying to understand each others word
Let each fly high
The Australian flag


Let's work together, Yolngu ga Balanda
Let's work together, make a better place

(the next verse is in Yolngu Matha - I haven't added it because I don't know the translation)


The students practiced every morning in home group, and we cancelled a few classes so they could perfect it. Sinead played the keyboard and Juran and Cat (all teachers) played guitars. On the morning of the service, students spent the morning doing a final practice of their song, and their plan for walking on and off the ramp to the balcony, where they were going to stand and sing. At 10am we made our way as a procession down to Miya's house, followed by Council, ALPA and clinic staff. We were all seated under some huge trees, and thankfully some of the staff had also gone down earlier to put up some shade.

The service was also beautiful, but much more like the funerals we know. A lot of long speeches, not keeping to time at all. There were so many wonderful words to be said about the man, that people could simply not be kept to two minutes. The students were fantastic, sitting for three hours with only a short break for a fruit box and an apple. Members of his family danced again, this time the ladies used the leaves that we used at the school smoking ceremony. They had choreographed a dance to a song that they play around here all of the time. The men also used the clap sticks and didgeridoo for their dancing. There were a lot of tears and beautiful words said by so many people. He had obviously touched many. I would say there were a few hundred people there - a huge number given there are only around 800 in the community normally. The service finished with the students singing their song. I feel as though the lyrics really summed up what was said in everyone's speech throughout the day, and was a perfect way to finish.