TENNANT CREEK TO POWELL CREEK

The last few days of our stay at Tennant Creek were not altogether comfortable. The sacred ceremonies continued without intermission and kept us very busy, but, except the one that was enacted on the last night, there was very little variation amongst them. For this one a few of the men were occupied all day making a huge torpedo-shaped bundle called “Miniurka,” about twelve feet long by three feet in diameter. It contained about forty wands, each made of a central stick on to which twigs of gum tree were tied. The outside covering was composed of sheets of paperbark wound round and round with human hair string, of which there must have been some hundreds of yards employed. It took the whole of the day to make, only a very few men being allowed to take part in the preparation, and at sunset, when it was finished, it was hidden away under the bank of a creek. What it all meant we could not find out exactly, except that it was in some way connected with an old tradition referring to the fact that, in ancient days, the Uluuru men of the tribe had given light and warmth to the Kingilli men, who had previously been living in cold and darkness. The wands were associated with fire, and were strikingly suggestive of those used as torches during the fire ceremony.