Title: Material culture of the North Wellesley Islands /
Authors: Memmott, Paul.
Publisher: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Lardil (Australian people) Material culture.; Lardil (Australian people) Social life and customs.; Material culture.; Habitation - Camps.; Housing - Shelters - Bark.; Language - Vocabulary - Animal names.; Fishing.; Food - Preparation - Cooking.; Environment - Land management - Fire.; Weapons.; Costume and clothing.; Dance.; Ceremonies - Initiation.; Body - Decoration.; Death - Mortuary customs.; Material culture - String and rope making.; Technology - Wood.; Hunting - Dugong.; Lardil people (G38) (Qld SE54-01); Lardil language (G38) (Qld SE54-01); Wellesley Islands (Qld Gulf Islands SE54-01)
Abstract: Provides an ethnographic description of the material culture traditionally employed by the Aboriginal people of the North Wellesley Islands in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.
Contents: Introduction -- The climate and land systems of the North Wellesley Islands -- Social and territorial organisation -- Ethnographic data sources -- Subsistence activities: marine habitats, tidal flats and mudflats, sand-based land systems, interior land systems, freshwater sources -- Settlement and shelter: cold weather camps, wet weather camps, mosquito camps, shade structures, shelter forms used during transitional seasonal conditions, the role of shelters as artefacts -- Manufacture and use of fire -- Food preparation: cooking methods, type of cooking methods, types of cooking ovens -- Travel, transport and communication: carrying vessels, watercraft, message sticks and emblems -- Fighting and duelling: fighting weapons -- Public dancing: dance apparel, the public dance event, special dance props and installations -- Square-up rituals: gift square-up, mortuary square-up, initiation square-up -- Initiation ceremonies -- Increase rituals and story places -- Love magic -- Sorcery and power objects -- Curing sickness -- Death and mortuary practices -- Clothing, ornamentation and body decoration -- Toys, games and training -- Curation of artefacts and resources -- Attitude to personal possession of artefacts -- Manufacturing technologies: strings and net technology; bark technology; stone technology; timber technology -- Trade with mainland groups -- Cultural change during mission times (1914-1978), change in the technology of dugong hunting -- Conclusion -- Appendices: 1. Aboriginal artefacts commonly used by Lardil people, 1900; 2. Plant species collected on Mornington and Sydney Islands, 1976; 3. Some Mornington Island reptiles; 4. Local names of some fish and birds at Mornington Island (in Aboriginal English and Lardil); 5. Local names of some birds at Mornington Island; 6. Some land fauna of Mornington Island; 7. Some Mornington Island fauna from freshwater and marine habitats; 8. Some shell species from Mornington Island.