Warlpiri cultural treasures to return home after half a century away: NIT

Giovanni Torre

Kurdiji (shields) Walpiri Community, Yuedumu. Image: Sven Tränkner, (Senckenberg).

Cultural Warning: The following contains names and photographs of Warlpiri people who are deceased.

Artefacts will be returned to Warlpiri Traditional Owners on Friday, more than five decades after the culturally significant items left their home.

Fifty-two years ago, two Warlpiri men assisted a researcher from the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft visiting their community of Yuendumu on the edge of Australia’s Tanami Desert. Their names were Jimmy Jungarrayi Spencer and Banjo Jungarrayi Tex.

The researcher was Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, an Austrian human ethologist visiting Australia with his 18-year-old son, Bernolf, and an assistant, Dieter Heunemann.

Mr Jungarrayi Spencer and Mr Jungarrayi Tex were senior Warlpiri lore men who generously provided Professor Eibl-Eibesfeldt with rare access to the Warlpiri People, their customs and culture during his trip to Yuendumu in 1972.

At the handover ceremony in Frankfurt on 24 October, Dr Bernolf Eibl-Eibesfeldt will return his father’s private collection of culturally significant Warlpiri artefacts to the Warlpiri Community – while son of the late Banjo Jungarrayi Tex, Nelson Tex, watches via livestream from Australia.

Warlpiri Project Elders travelled more than 20 hours by plane from the remote community of Yuendumu to attend the official handover ceremony.

The handover ceremony will be held at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Germany, where Professor Eibl-Eibesfeldt’s Human Ethology Film Archive is housed.

The cultural materials to be returned by Dr Bernolf Eibl-Eibesfeldt include sacred men’s objects and everyday objects such as Karli (boomerangs), Wurlampi (knives), Pikirri (spear thrower) and Kurdiji (shields), and other traditional items.

Senior Warlpiri lore man and Warlpiri Project Elder, Ned Jampitjinpa Hargraves, thanked AIATSIS, Senckenberg and Dr Eibl-Eibesfeldt “for safeguarding our history, for your respect, and for your commitment to returning what is ours”.

He said the day of the return would be remembered, “not just as a handover of objects, but as a meaningful step in building understanding and respect between cultures”.

Warlpiri Project member and young Warlpiri leader from Yuendumu Derek Japangardi Williams said he was “very thrilled” by the prospect of the artefacts being returned to Traditional Owners.

“We would like to thank all of the people that were involved in this project. It is very significant for our cultural practice today and we can reuse these objects in our ceremonies in years to come.”

Nelson Tex, son of the late Warlpiri Elder and senior lore man, Banjo Jungarrayi Tex, said: “From what I have been told, that researcher [Eibl-Eibesfeldt] came from Germany to Yuendumu many many years ago and my father was very kind and worked to help him.”

“I think about these objects and am in shock. The fact that my father’s objects are there in Germany and coming home. I want to follow in his footsteps and make sure my children do too. When these objects are brought back home, I want to be part of that and be able to share that with my children. I’m not going to stop teaching them,” he said.

“I’m a bit nervous but I really want to see them. When these special objects come back, I think we will put them back in the [South Australian] Museum with the Warlpiri Project so we can all look at them and take special care of them.”

Jimmy Jungaryyi Spencer. Image: The Warlpiri Project

Elders and representatives of the Warlpiri Project will also be shown never-before-seen footage captured by Professor Eibl-Eibesfeldt during his time in Yuendumu. Once the original footage has been professionally digitised it will allow the community to connect with past generations, enable the exchange of cultural knowledge 50 years in the making and be a valuable resource for future generations of Warlpiri.

Importantly, the digitisation will also lead to the establishment of a close connection between all partners for the assessment of research proposals on the materials in the Human Ethology Film Archive. This will promote utilisation and access of this unique and important data.

Although Warlpiri ranger Nelson Tex is not able to attend the handover ceremony in person, he is thrilled to be able to watch it, live from the Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri Media (PAW) studio in Yuendumu and said he is looking forward to seeing the artefacts back on Country.

Dr Bernolf Eibl-Eibesfeldt, son of the late Professor Irenäues Eibl-Eibesfeldt, said it will be “a great pleasure and relief” to return pieces of his father’s collection to their original creators.

“Back home with the Warlpiri Community they mean so much more. This return will hopefully initiate ongoing collaboration between the Warlpiri Project and The Human Ethology Film Archive, now under the auspices of Senckenberg. The reawakening of interest in the films accumulated by my father over forty years means a lot to me,” he said.

“My father was interested in the universality of human behaviour, the innate behaviours common to all people. His research focused upon bonding behaviours that are deep rooted in all our social interactions.

“For many years he documented everyday behaviour in Europe, Bali, Japan and regularly visited and documented Indigenous communities with few contacts with German culture. He never carried arms and came with a disarming smile, greetings, gifts and a friendly attitude that was understood by all people. His unique documentation of unstaged human behaviours during everyday life shows that all humans share the same behaviour and emotions. That brings us closer.”

Prof. Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt in the NT in 1972. Image: Bernolf Eibl-Eibesfeldt (HEFA).

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians, said the handover in Frankfurt would represent “an acknowledgement of the importance of cultural heritage material to truth-telling and healing”.

She said the Australian government is committed to working with First Nations communities to facilitate the return of their heritage from overseas collections.

Director of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Prof. Dr. Andreas Mulch, said for ten years, Senckenberg has been home to the Human Ethology Film Archive – a unique documentation of the life course of individuals, from childhood through adulthood to the next generation.

“The recordings by Prof. Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt encompass the history of these societies, changes in their living conditions, and cultural transformation processes. We are very grateful that the Warlpiri community approached us, and that in close collaboration with them and AIATSIS, we have found a way to make the film documents accessible for science and knowledge transfer in the future,” he said.

“The past week has already brought us new insights, for example, about social and cultural activities and the locations mentioned in the films. We look forward to this joint journey and to contributing to the preservation and transmission of the Warlpiri community’s heritage.”

Once returned to Australia the artefacts will be held at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide under the care of the Warlpiri Project before their transfer to a planned cultural centre in Yuendumu.

While at the South Australian Museum, Warlpiri Elders will engage with the materials to undertake further research. The return of the cultural heritage materials is the result of two year’s research by the Warlpiri Repatriation Officer, Jamie Hampton, based in the South Australian Museum.

Pikirri (spear throwers) Walpiri Community, Yuedumu, Northern Territory. Image: Sven Tränkner (Senckenberg).

The return was initiated by the Warlpiri Project with support from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Dr Bernolf Eibl-Eibesfeldt, and the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt. Financial support was provided by the Yuendumu Granites Mine Affected Area Aboriginal Corporation (GMAAAC).