written by Jason M. Gibson (Deakin University), Martin Hagan (Laramba Community)
Martin Michael Tommy and Peter Cole discussing Kaapas Wana and Puliaba or Goanna Corroboree at Mirkantji painted by Kaapa TjampitjinpaMpetyan 1971 at the National Museum of Australia
Abstract
For over a decade, ceremonial objects and recordings made by anthropologists have been returning to Anmatyerr communities from museums and archives. This article recounts the processes, questions and exchanges of the reintegration of this material back into everyday life. It has prompted diverse responses amongst these communities, including heightened interest in art and artefact making and the documentation of unique Anmatyerr ceremonies. At the Anmatyerr community of Laramba (Australia) the return of this material has led to the building of a new collection of unique ceremonial shields, totemic designs, song recordings and films of ceremonies. Young men are coming together with middle and older generations to share collective knowledge and skills in artefact making, the painting of Anengkerr (ancestral) designs, as well as to learn the related ceremonial songs and performances. Though inspired by returned and repatriated material, the project leaders have de-emphasised repatriation as their primary goal and have instead focused on sustained instruction and performance of ceremony. They are also forging new relationships with museums and have begun to build their own collection for future generations of Anmatyerr people.
This article will be published in the Special Issue “Repatriation and Contemporary Art”, edited by Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Jessyca Hutchens and Verena Melgarejo Weinandt
Martin Hagan is an Anmatyerr man from the Laramba Community with years of experience as a facilitator, translator and interpreter across diverse industries and fields. He is currently a Research Assistant with Deakin University where he coordinates the Ingkantety project with the community and develops transcripts and translations of Anmatyerr language and song. He is working on a book with Jason Gibson and the Laramba community with the working title of “Songmen of the 21st Century: Making A Cultural Future for Anmatyerr People”. Martin belongs to the Anengkerr Rrwamper (Possum Dreaming) through his mother’s father’s country and to the Anengkerr Atetherr (Budgerigar Dreaming) via his father’s adoption.
Jason M. Gibson is an anthropologist who has worked with the Anmatyerr community since 2005. His first book ‘Ceremony Men: Making Ethnography and the Return of the Strehlow Collection’ (SUNY Press, 2020) demonstrated the agency of Anmatyerr men in making the of an anthropological collection and their continued deep knowledge of Anmatyerr song, story, and ceremonial Law. Jason has recorded Anmatyerr ceremonies and oral histories and has spent years linking up Anmatyerr people with their cultural heritage in museums, archives, libraries, and galleries. He is deeply honoured to have shared in this work with Anmatyerr people and is now an ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University.