Lecture link: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2047566/events/1840804/videos/64192852
[Watched in the College of Law, Room G021, ANU, 6pm Wednesday, October 15th 2014]
In this lecture Ṉäkarrma explains various aspects of the concept of riŋgitj
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Ṉäkarrma:Our young people have just been driven away. Our young people have been enjoying life, that's Ok, but most of them are being taken away where sometime its going to lose them. We are going to lose most of our language culture ceremony songlines. Its good to participate in another way of life... but I think we need to maintain strength in Yolŋu culture. ... there needs to be more of healing process. There needs to be more of ... making it happen ...
The process that divides clans from other clans, how do we join them together? When we break law ... and leave a separation between clans.
How do we really make it strong... actually connecting and make it become reality, and make it become real life.
Riŋgitj links with a lot of rom ...
Certain clans like the Djankawa sisters came through ... they gave certain stories ... to another clan ... but it was the same ancestors.
When we talk about someone passing away and when we talk about clapstick ... a lot of Balanda think that that's just a clapstick ... but what did it really mean? Why did they do that? ... I've come across [a lot of balanda who say] "Why can't you just say someones name - this person has passed away and that's it?"
Through that riŋgitj we have a feeling that connects people back together ... that heals ... restorative peace ...
When it comes to doing it through a real song and dance ... it takes a certain skill ... when those songs are sung and danced the combination of clapstick, yidaki, song, dances - they make a one strength and power that something takes place ...
It not only lets people know that someone passed away but at the same time it heals those broken hearts ... of family members.
When we sing the riŋgitj through healing ... when someone is very very sick ... we need to use the clapsticks ... through that healing takes place ... in their bones they feel the songlines, they feel the power of clapsticks and it can bring people back to life and it can heal people.
Its not something that we want to do all the time but its something that we need to do if we have to ...
We have our spiritual fathers who want to sit with us and they are there through that riŋgitj line...
What does riŋgitj really mean? ... that is the full-strength knowledge that lies with the land ...
These trees ... they make flowers, they make shade, the birds sitting ... every now and then they make bushfire ... as we start to grow older we start to dig in and understand ... some young people want to participate in ... funeral ceremonies ... but to their understanding ... they're just participating because its good and they want to be part of it and they want to make friends ... but through the eyes of senior elders who sit down and look at how healing takes place through songs and ceremonies.
When the subject riŋgitj came up today ... I learnt something every time I talk about riŋgitj ... everytime I answer the question what riŋgitj is ... I learn something new everytime.
Through riŋgitj we can not just pretend but be part of that water. ... and I can say "nhuna ŋarra gapu [I'm that water]" ... in my spirit and soul I can be out there singing and dancing ...
Riŋgitj is an instrument. Riŋgitj can be a soul that speaks to people.
Riŋgitj can also be out there. The water itself can sing and dance ... they take part in riŋgitj themselves.
Riŋgitj can be used when people pass away ... riŋgitj can join certain people
When Balanda say "who owns this land here?" and we say "it might be these ... people but don't forget that ... these other clans have all right to say something " ...
When Balanda say ... "they're just songs and dances ... we can take those rocks and replace it with a steel harbour" ... but what they're taking away is tearing us apart.
When people make trouble they come along and tear up and destroy the land they take life out of people they take the life out of water ... it brings disaster, sickness. People feel sick and very weak ... because something is coming to their lands ...
In the water itself at Gapuwiyak there is a totem ... a hollow log in there ... and they have a riŋgitj through the emu songs and dances ... there was another ancestor that came through that was the whistling tree duck ...
Towards the end there is the makarrata system ... where someone has been speared ... the killer, the murderer needs to be taken through the justice system - in yolngu law called the makarrata system ...
It not only punishes, it takes out something that was created, of bad and it heals a big hole that was created by that incident or by that death that happened in the community ... these people are not only on their way to kill [indicating men holding spears in a picture] ... but on their way to heal that broken hole ... mend the soul back together ... they're on their way to maybe kill or maybe stab someone in return because of what they did to a family member ... but that whole process also takes place for healing for unity again and there's no more brokenness ... its not just punishing but its restoring and its joining that riŋgitj line back together.
And I would always like to go back to talking about a riŋgitj ceremony restoring something that's been taken away from people ... through 2007 intervention there was bayngu riŋgitj ... it was by force there was no restorative justice done ... everything what balanda government had done ... it took powers off senior men ... intervention just took everything away from us ... it never made healing through riŋgitj ... even when the government are saying sorry we did this, there is no healing on the land ...
Its just tearing us apart ... there is no riŋgitj done through Stronger Futures ... there is no unity through 99 year lease ... its just full of lies and the government just wanting rupia ...Lecture series home