Continuity and Change in Warlpiri Practices of Marking the Landscape

Abstract

Warlpiri people of Central Australia have served on a number of occasions as exemplars of the Derridean premise that no society is without writing (Derrida 1976: 109) (e.g. Rothenberg and Rothenberg 1983: 139; Biddle 2002). The debate about the reasoning behind this proposition is outside the scope of my interests here. Nonetheless, it is certainly helpful to have a term, such as “writing”, that groups together the various kinds of practices that Warlpiri engage in to give visual form to their understanding of the world. Earlier work has focused on such aspects of Warlpiri visual communicative practices as sand drawings, body and ground designs, and sacred objects (e.g. Munn 1974); contemporary acrylic paintings (e.g. Dussart 1999); and gesture language (e.g. Kendon 1988). Building on the voluminous literature on marking of the Australian landscape by ancestral Dreaming beings (e.g. Meggitt 1986; Myers 1986; Munn 1974; Langton 2000), more recent work among Warlpiri and their neighbours has explored the issue of inscription of the landscape in relation to the domain of women’s ritual and artistic practice (Biddle 2002; Watson 2003). The purpose of the present contribution is to extend the discussion of the marking of landscape. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, this chapter explores how, when and why Warlpiri Aboriginal people in Central Australia mark the landscapes within which they live. Attending to continuities in people’s socio-cultural practices through time, I also consider the relationship between ancestral and contemporary practices of marking landscape, through which people imbue place with meaning and manage space.