From: wlmss@peg.pegasus.oz.au
Newsgroups: aus.general
Subject: A Nigger Feast
Date: 12 Dec 92 21:37:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:peg:993300082:000:7189
Nf-From: peg.UUCP!wlmss    Dec 12 16:37:00 1992


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A Nigger Feast
 
     Here follows portion of the diary of Christie Palmerston, one of the
first white explorers of the dense rugged rainforest wilderness of North
Queensland Australia. Note that the use of the the word "nigger" was
descriptive, not perjorative. Palmerston was known at the time for his
sympathy towards indigenous people. "Geraldton" is today's Innisfail.
     Having myself seen many of the places and sorts of things he describes
I am in no doubt as to the accuracy of Palmerston's account.
     The surviving aboriginal people of this region have still not been
given any of their land back and their Bora (sacred) grounds are now
neglected and overgrown. White racism remains endemic.
     Christie was not well at the time of writing and perhaps a little
impatient with what is after all merely a public embalming procedure
using techniques widely performed in neolithic times by our common
ancestors but generally abandoned by so-called "civilized" people.
     It is hoped that with a resurgence of aboriginal pride many of these
long-forbidden but deep and meaningful ceremonies will be revived and once
again performed.
_______________
 
September 24th 1886. It is still raining. I am much better, but weak. During
the afternoon I cleaned out a blue slate crevice, at the upper end of the
beach, dishing off 5 oz of shotty gold and washing 1 oz to the dish several
times. I am tortured all over with pains, and have no more energy than a
snail....  ...I managed to cross Wairambar Creek and surmount the plateau
behind it to witness the "Coway" ceremony over Nooychoo's dead body....
There were several hundreds of aborigines called together for the special
purpose of mummifying the corpse. These blacks were loitering about the
body in crowds. On being notified of my approach, they formed themselves
into two long lines, as a sort of body guard for me to pass between to the
dead body, which was fixed on a stage about two feet high, with a back to
it..... A slow fire was alight on the ground immediately under the stage;
the arms were bent and upraised, with the hands open, as if in exclamation;
the head rested with a cadaverous lean, on its left shoulder; the mouth
was open and showed a swollen protruding tongue; The head was freed from
the white hair by which I had known it; the features were bloated beyond
recognition; the arms and legs were much withered, and the trunk was
unnaturally bulky, being between a semi-cooked and putrid-blown state.
"Wallajar", mentioned elsewhere, an elder brother of the deceased, stood
close by the latter's left side, and seemed to be the only sorrowful
being in the crowd. On the same stage, on the other side of the dead body,
sat a well-cured mummy of a still older brother, named "Monumbaloo",
seeming singularly large even in its anciently shrivlled state. I would have
liked to have taken it for the Brisbane Museum, but was afraid to ask the
blacks for it, though not for any personal fear of them. If the above scene
was disgusting, there is immeasurably worse to follow- a scene that fired my
soul with indignation and revolt, almost putting me to the point of rifling
as many as I could of the foul brutes; but discretion regarding future
personal considerations held me curbed, thus it was that I allowed them,
unrebuked, to wallow in their dead's filth. My boy, "Poinkee," told me
that if I had seen sufficient, I had better go, for never had white-man
witnessed the offensive operations they were in a hurry to perform. However
I asked to be allowed the "privelege." They demurred, and much talk ensued,
ending with a promise from me to give a pocket-handketchief to each, on my
returning from Geraldton. That proved rather an expensive promise. I believe
there were a dozen of the dead man's sons present - all young men. One of
them named "Ninkah" was the principal actor in what I saw. He took the dead
body of his father astride his shoulders, carrying it uprightly, so that
its exuding matter trickled down his naked back. In that fashion he carried it
between the files of niggers, all the while murmuring something. Then, with
the help of others, he laid the body on its right side amid some green fronds
spread for the purpose. "Ninkah" then borrowed my pocket knife, and commenced
nicking the body just below the ribs, on the left loin, moaning at the end of
each nick, while the crowd corroborreed, stamping their feet and clapping
their hands. With the piercing of the trunk the corroborree ended; and as many
as could well lay over the body, and wedge their faces over the incision, did
so, to catch the obnoxious gases that issued threrefrom. When these had
escaped, the incision was made large enough to admit "Ninkah's" hands. From
that time, the knife was not used, but the son slowly tore out his father's
intestines, stripped them of any grease which he distributed to other
relatives to grease their heads and bodies. Indeed, many of them could not
wait to be presented with grease, but rushed up and plunged their hands into
the dead body, raking out whatever they could get to smear themselves with.
Pulling out the entrails seemed to be tough work, for they were a considerable
time about it, several times squeezing their heads into the body, as if to
sever something with their teeth. At last the whole of the offal came out.
One powerfully built fellow, with the whole of his head's crown bald, though
the remainder was plentifully dark haired, that hung down about his shoulder
in long matted twigs, that might be mistaken for ringlets in the distance,
carried the offal away in his arms - hugging the filthy burden as though it
was as precious as a new-born babe. He disappeared into the jungle, with
several others following him; after a considerable time, he appeared from
quite a different direction, with it still in his arms, and laid it down
near his fire, covering it with some green bushes. The heart, liver and
lungs were torn out, a small piece at a time handed about and prepared for
a cannibalistic meal straight away. The body was again lifted upon the
stage, and laid on its side over the fire. A blanket was thrown over it,
and it was left to be cooked to the proper stage of mummy preservation.
But, before this was done, the gins took their turn at wallowing in the
internals of the corpse, in like manner to the men. One aged gin lay full
length upon it, and many times kissed the crawling maggoty face. The grave
old "Wallajar" took no hand in the ceremony, but stood and sat some
fifteen yards off by me, with one arm around me. Large tears trickled down
his wrinkled cheeks the whole time. A shirt being the only garment on me,
I took it off and gave it to him; and distributed a box of matches amongst
the rest. I left the camp amid a babble of aboriginal gaity and stinking
embraces. The sickening smell hung about me for days; even the little food
I ate, and very pannikins from which I drank, seemed to be polluted with it.
               Christie Palmerston  (excerpted by  Lawrie Williams)
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