kulaluk1971's video: Flag Raising Ceremony at Kulaluk 1999

A stingray is prepared for a feast as people gather in a hidden bush camp in the suburbs of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia. A year earlier an elder died fighting for the rights of Aboriginal people camped on vacant land throughout the city [see Youtube “Bob Bunduwabi a Martyr for his People, Parts 1 & 2]. A torn and faded flag at the camp is a reminder of the deceased elder. The ceremony is based on mast-raising rituals of old Macassan [Indonesian] traders that visited the northern shores of the continent in past centuries to fish and trade with the indigenous people, particularly the Yolngu people of Northeast Arnhem Land. The ceremony begins with traditional songs to clap sticks and yidaki [didgeridoo] performed by men from Maningrida and Ramingining. People paint themselves with white ochre clay representing mourning. The brother of the deceased man then takes down the old tattered flag and gives it to a woman relative to be burnt. People wail because the old flag represents the deceased man. The new bamboo flag pole is then ritually prepared and the new flag attached to the pole as Macassan chants are sung by the lead singer, Charlie Lathulu Yunypingu. Charlie is the keeper of a chant made supposedly in Macassan language, learned from his grandfather and passed down the generations, incorporated into a uniquely Yolngu ceremony. Women mime in a dance and gaze into the distance representing actors in the drama. Rain interrupts the ceremony and participants move into a rough shelter at the camp. Once the flag is attached, Charlie loudly chants his grandfather’s song in a foreign language. Unfortunately the sound is not good. The pole is then raised to further chants, representing the raising of the Macassan prau fishing boats’ masts in preparation for the return journey to the islands. Similarly the raising of the pole represents the departure of the deceased man’s spirit to another realm. Family console each other and weep at the flag pole. Maningrida men dance to their Diama [cockle] Song in tribute to the man now known as “Gojok” [his classificatory name]. The ceremony is over and the new flag flies triumphantly. This film is a copy of a VHS tape filmed by Stella Smith at Fish Camp on the 301 hectare Kulaluk lease in Darwin NT in 1999 and uploaded to Youtube by Dr Bill Day in July 2016.