Innovation and Ancestral Revelation: The Case of Dreams

Author(s): Katie Glaskin

Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jun., 2005), pp.
297-314
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
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INNOVATION

AND
THE

ANCESTRAL

CASE

OF

Katie
University

REVELATION:

DREAMS

Glaskin

of Western Australia

This article explores aspects of the relationship between tradition and innovation in an
Australian Aboriginal society by looking at dreams as a 'traditional' facet of cultural
change. In many Aboriginal societies spirits of the deceased, spirit beings, and ancestral
figures are said to communicate with and 'reveal' certain things to the dreamer. Some
things that are revealed, such as those pertaining to ritual and ceremonial life, are said to
have existed 'from the beginning' and are not considered to be 'new'. Here I discuss a
case of ancestral revelation relating to a commonplace sphere of Aboriginal life - the
card game. Through this I explore something of the complexity of the ways in which
'traditional' beliefs and forms of innovation are dialectically interdependent with con?
temporary cultural experiences as well as with distinctive historical experiences which
have preceded them.

During the Yorta Yorta native title

Chief Justice asked the question:
In line with the High Court's
customs' in the Australian native

appeal in the High Court of Australia the

'What makes a tradition truly traditional?'1
laws and
in this case 'traditional
decision
title context
now refers to those laws and
of
customs
exercised
at the time of the acquisition
by Aboriginal
people
the
British
In
'conventional
Crown.
common
with
sovereignty
scholarly
by
of culture and tradition', this use of'tradition'
embraces the 'propoconcepts
sition that a core or essence of customs and values is handed down from one
to another' as a 'passively and unreflectively
inherited
generation
legacy' that
can be 'objectively
1992:
251, 254).
(Linnekin
apprehended'
This understanding
contrasts with the 'invention
of tradition' literature that

the view that culture is constructed

emphasizes
sym?
through a 'dialectically
bolic process' (Linnekin
and
1992: 252). Within this literature, the innovative
creative aspects of culture have been described along a spectrum: at one end,
as having 'continuity
with prior meanings
at the other,
and representations',
as being 'spurious' or 'false' as against the notion of an 'authentic' culture, and
in between,
in the present,
as 'a selective representation
of the past, fashioned
to
instrumenand
and
responsive
contemporary
priorities
agendas,
politically
tal' (Lmnekm
1992: 252, 255).
While Australian
courts have accepted,
to some extent, that Aboriginal
'tradi?
laws and customs may change over time (and can still be considered
reified
to
be
in
tends
'tradition'
the
title
context
native
tional'), Aboriginal
towards a pre-colonial
must be
traditions
moment
so that contemporary
? Royal Anthropological Institute 2005.
J. Roy. anthrop.Inst. (N.S.) 11, 297-314

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298

KATIE GLASKIN

from this period. Thus, the question

continuous
demonstrably
posed by the
in which articulated
Chief Justice occurred
counteramidst legal argument
to
'modern
'tradition'
included
re-creations',
inventions',
points
'pseudo-new
and 'revivals'.2 Australian
courts have not, at this
inventions,
fabrications,
much innovation
of
how
can
the
on
stage, authoritatively
adjudicated
question
occur in Aboriginal
traditions before these are no longer deemed 'traditional'
in their terms. But the approach taken to tradition in the Australian courts,
so far, has precluded
of what I refer to here as 'traditions of
a consideration
innovation'.
This article explores aspects of the relationship
between tradition and inno?
vation in an Aboriginal
at
dreams
as a 'traditional' facet of
society, by looking
cultural change. My use of the words 'tradition' and 'innovation'
is deliberate,
customs'
and the
the
laws
and
of
'traditional
given
importance
Aborigines'
of
their
native
of
or
failure
title
cultural
for
the
success
implications
change
claims. The relationship
other
and
between
dreams,'the
aspects of
Dreaming',
the
indicates
that
Aboriginal
below)
(further explored
importance
ontology
of these concepts
dreams can therefore
colonization;
long precedes European
be considered
'traditional' in these terms.
In Indigenous
Australian societies,
as in many other societies
throughout
the world, dreams have a 'mediating,
and often creative and inrevealing,
novative role' (Poirer 2003: 110). Like other human experience,
dreams are
and
are
both
constitusuch
individually
perceptions
subjectively
experienced;
tive and constituted
it
is
the
individual
who
While
1996:
19).
experi?
(Casey
ences dreams, the individual's understanding
of dreams is culturally mediated,
the case in Aboriginal
and, as is frequently
Australia, dream experience
may
be integrated
into the society to which that individual
belongs.
Dreams are conceptualized
and soci?
among different peoples
differently
eties, and the 'culturally defined attitude toward dreams' found among them
'is often a direct clue to the basic premises of their world view' (Hallowell
1976 [1966]: 452). One of the ways in which
in
dreams are approached
Western societies is as a 'psychic product' (Jung 2003 [1974]: 27), arising from
unconscious
out of
that is often understood
as 'those meanings
experience
awareness' that lead us 'beyond
&
the limits of direct experience'
(Rucker
Lombardi
1998: 2). In relation to this, it is noteworthy
that the concept
of
the unconscious
is of relatively recent origin: in 1931, Jung lamented
that it
was 'regrettable' that 'the actuality of the unconscious
should still be a matter
of controversy'
in contemporary
Moreover,
(2003
[1974]:
87-8).
psychoof the
and theories
analytic theory, there are several differentiated
concepts
unconscious
have an
& Lombardi
That
dreams
1998: 2-21).
(Rucker
autonomous
we understand
this as arising from
element
to them (whether
the 'unconscious'
or in other terms) is a primary aspect of the dream ex?
or imagery thought takes
perience. In dreams,'a unique process of imagination
awareness', so that the reality of the products of the
place outside conscious
dream 'is not a realm of consciously
but one that is indecontrived imagining,
ofthe
conscious
self (Stephen
1989: 54, 62). As Freud described it,
pendent
'the composite
in the dream is determined
formation
by a factor ... which is
of its form' (1997 [1900]: 207). This autonomous
independent
aspect of dreams
means that their innovative
imagery and creative effect cannot be attributed
to deliberate or conscious
with the 'degree of conconstruction,
contrasting

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299

KATIE GLASKIN
scious reflection
about culture' (Linnekin
1992:
the 'invention
of tradition' literature.
This
centres
on Bardi Aboriginal
paper

252)

argued

for in much

of

of the
northwest
people
of
as
dreams
Western
Australia.
Bardi
coming from
Kimberley
region
perceive
a source external to the dreamer: through the medium
of dreams, spirits of
the deceased, spirit beings, and ancestral figures are said to communicate
with
the dreamer and 'reveal' to him or her certain things. Some things that are
life - new songs,
to ritual and ceremonial
revealed, such as those pertaining
- are said to have
and
so
on
designs, dances,
always existed, 'from the begin?
and
are
not
considered
to
be
'new'.
This
ning',
approach to the revelation of
the 'new' in dreams is also attested to in other Australian ethnographies
(e.g.
Dussart 2000: 147; Myers 1986: 51). Although
dream experiences
may be
viewed
as having a source that is external
of, self, the
to, or 'independent'
actions

of persons are often seen to have a causal relation to such communications with spirit beings, and an individuals
can have
dream experiences
wider social significance. As Hallowell has described, dreams provide the means
for 'the inner world of private experience
and the outer world of publicly
shared experience
... [to become]
meshed through symbolic
rep?
intricately
resentation'
evident in relation
This
becomes
(1976 [1966]: 451).
particularly
to the innovative
of dreams in Aboriginal
ritual and ceremonial
consequences
life.
The English expression
the creative period in
typically used to describe
'the Dreaming',
is derived from Spencer and Gillen's
Aboriginal
cosmology,
translation of the Arrernte word Alcheringa (Keen 2003: 128). Keen says that
the word literally means 'belonging
to dream', and that Spencer and Gillen's
'the creative ancestral
translation, 'Dream Times', was aimed at differentiating
from
dreams'
As
'the
period
(2003: 128).
suggests, dreams
everyday
Dreaming'
are of considerable
The
in
societies.
relationship
importance
Aboriginal
between
dreams and the creative epoch in which ancestral beings gave form
to country, and the role of dreams in cultural innovation
and maintenance,
have been explored by a number of writers (e.g. Dussart 2000: 139-76; Keen
2003; Keogh 1989; Poirer 1992). Dussart describes the processes by which, at
an Aboriginal
in the Northern
Yuendumu,
Territory, 'the inte?
community
occurred among the Warlpiri in what
gration of a dream into the Dreaming'
she calls 'that crucial but little-understood
shift from lowercase
night-time
status to an atemporal
ritual relevance'
realm
of
(2000: 148).
mythological
Tonkinson
discusses the 'vital role' of Aboriginal
belief in dream-spirit
jourat
an
in
the
Pilbara region of Western
neys
Jigalong,
Aboriginal
community
for the crea?
the inspiration
Australia, which among other things 'provided
tion

of

new

and meaningful
rituals' (1970: 287, 290). Tonkinson
(1970),
of the
link
articulations
and
Marett
current
(1987),
(2000) explicitly
with
studied
of
within
societies
the
phenomenon
they
dreaming
Aboriginal
of
and
the
social
from
effects
structural
situations
European
changing
arising
from country. Along with the literature focussettlement, namely displacement
of the Australian
much
on dreams and innovation,
ing more specifically
is peppered
with references
to dreams, attesting to the signifi?
ethnography
cance of dreams in Aboriginal
life (e.g. Elkin 1980 [1945]; Munn 1973: 37,
with many of the
146; Myers 1986: 51, 53, 67; Tonkinson
1978). In common
found in the literature, dreams among Bardi are related to other
descriptions
Wild

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300

KATIE GLASKIN

key cultural concepts

(such as pre-existing
spirit children and, linked to this,
totemic affiliations and inheritance,
healing, ritual, and other matters).
I
revelation
discuss
a
of
case
ancestral
Here,
relating to a commonplace
case
of
life:
the
card
study centres on a dream
sphere
Aboriginal
game. My
told to me by Elle, a middle-aged
of Bardi and Jawi descent who
woman
in Bardi territory, and now
mission at Lombadina
grew up at the Pallottine
is to explore some?
lives at Djarindjin,
intention
an adjacent community.
My
beliefs and forms
which
'traditional'
of
the
in
of
the
thing
complexity
ways
cultural
of innovation
with
are dialectically
contemporary
interdependent
as well as with the distinctive
historical
experiences
preceding
experiences
them. Along with Tedlock,
I take the view that 'dream reports and dream
are inseparable from the social and political situations in which
interpretations
are those
occur'
(1992: 28). The historical
they
aspects I wish to highlight
at
Pallottine
mission
of
the
associated
with
the evangelical
emphases
Lombadina.

Lombadina

mission

and

Pallottine

method

In early 1928, the anthropologist

seven
A.P Elkin conducted
approximately
weeks of fieldwork
the
northern
of
Bardi3
and
Dampieramong
Jawi peoples
land and King Sound region of north-west
Western Australia. He worked from
three locations
in Bardi country, at the Pallottine
while in their country:
mission
at Lombadina
at Cape Leveque,
and the lighthouse
and, in Jawi
at the non-denominational
Protestant mission at Sunday Island.
to the south of
with
mission
in
Nyul Nyul country
Along
Beagle Bay
Bardi country, which was founded in 1890, the Lombadina
and Sunday Island
missions3 were established
in response to the early 1880s influx of pearlers
estab?
and problems arising from their activities in the region. The Pallottines
lished Lombadina
of Beagle Bay) in 1910.
mission (originally
as an outstation
In the mid-1970s,
Lombadina
into two communities,
Lombadina
divided
divided
and Djarindjin,
one
to
which
stand immediately
another,
adjacent
a
residents
fence.
Most
of
older
the
(like
Elle)
by
grew up at
Djarindjin
country,

Lombadina
a secular
is now
which
mission,
community.
Aboriginal
Lombadina
and Djarindjin
residents today are involved to varying degrees in
church activities, and all family groups are involved at some level in commu?
out?
council
and incorporated
such as the community
nity organizations,
station groups. In these realms, and in others, community
robust.
are
politics
The majority of people are welfare recipients, although
some are required to
work for unemployment
benefits and others are engaged in tourism or aquaculture enterprises.
(for fish, turtle,
fishing and hunting
expeditions
Regular
bush
and
mud
for
foods (various
with
those
collecting
dugong,
crabs) along
kinds of edible fruit) are important
is
Most of the community
activities.
involved in Bardi ritual on a regular basis and much adult time is spent caring
for children, visiting relatives, exchanging
talk, and playing cards.
I have discussed in detail the differences
Elsewhere
between
Sunday Island
and Lombadina
in terms of their structures
and administrations,
missions
their evangelical
of these for the mission res?
emphases, and the consequences
idents (Glaskin 2002). Here, my comments
to the effects ofthe
are confmed

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301

KATIE GLASKIN

of local
articulations
on contemporary
approach to evangelization
mission.
Lombadina
those
who
at
cosmology
grew up
among
people
austeron Catholic
Lombadina
mission was predicated
doctrine, Pallottine
method'
and
as
mission
what
Walter
referred
to
'correct
(1982 [1928]: 124).
ity,
mission?
Alroe describes the fundamentals
of'the
method' used by Catholic
in trans?
intervention
aries as 'establishment
of control through dependency,
of education'
mission of culture from parents to children, church monopoly
cultural
some
The
and
Pallottines
Aboriginal
(1988: 37).
accepted
integrated
activities into their regime while regulating
others. Some cultural activities ?
- were
residents
such as initiations
many Lombadina
prohibited
(although
were still able to go through initiation rituals with their kin at Sunday Island).
and Aborig?
The Pallottines
Catholicism
sought to draw parallels between
Pallottine

inal belief. They 'translated' key religious concepts so as to evangelize

through
a process of integrating
beliefs rather than forcing their renuncia?
indigenous
tion. While many Christian concepts - such as that of Mary, Mother of God
- could not be 'translated' into forms identifiable
beliefs
with Aboriginal
'translate'
to
the
missionaries
1997
concepts
(Durack
[1969]: 288),
attempted
missionaries
wherever
how the Pallottine
possible. Bishop Raible explained
approached

this task of cultural

translation:

It is extremely difficult to translate our ordinary prayers like the Our Father or the Hail
Mary, as many terms that are quite familiar to us have to be circumscribed and made
intelligible for the native mind by introducing analogies taken from their own tribal life
or customs. In that way, for example, the ceremonies of the Holy Mass can be explained
to them as some sort of sacred corroboree, whereby we pay homage to the Great Spirit
that is from above and remember the heroes of our faith, the saints (1938: 274).
of cos?
effects of this approach are today evident in some articulations
While Bardi cos?
mology
among the people who grew up at Lombadina.6
articulated
and Catholic
are sometimes
quite distinctly, at
mology
teachings
other times syncretism
the two. Galalung, for example, is a
emerges between
he gave Bardi (and Jawi)
major (public) creative being in Bardi cosmology;
certain laws to follow, including
marriage rules and certain food prohibitions
220, 227). Various Lombadina
people
(see Bird 1911: 176-7; Petri 1938-40:
have described
Hymns translated into
Galalung to me as being 'God himself.
Bardi and sung in the Lombadina
church transpose the name Galalung for
'God'. After performing
certain creative feats on earth, Galalung 'went up' to
reside in the Milky Way and is visible in the shape of an emu during the
The

months

of June and July7 The place where Galalung resides, garndayun (liter?
ally garnd [up high] -ayun [from], i.e. 'from above'), has been translated to me
beliefs and Bardi
as 'heaven'.8 This emergent
Pallottine
between
syncretism
to my case study, as does some
background
cosmology
provides important
of Bardi conceptualizations
of persons, spirits, and supernatural
understanding
powers,

which

I outline

Persons,

below

spirits

and

supernatural

powers

in Bardi country, Elkin wrote to his wife Sally that he had been
While
'favoured' by the Bardi, who had taken him to initiation
grounds and showed

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302

KATIE GLASKIN

him

the reasons Elkin gives for

sacred objects that they kept there. Among
men
at
least
been
is
some
of
'favoured'
that
the
thought he was a pow?
having
of
erful 'medicine-man'
who went about by night 'as a frog'.9 This perception
Elkin's ability to transform himself arises from within Bardi understandings
of
the special abilities of 'magic' people, understandings
which are also intrinsiand ideas of personhood.
cally linked with Bardi dream conceptualization
under?
Such ideas are complex; here, I only attempt to relay some preliminary
standings of these.
The linguistic distinction
of
dreams and the cosmology
between 'nocturnal
the Dreaming'
in
2000:
is
unmarked
(Dussart
139)
languages,
many Aboriginal
such as in Warlpiri, where the distinction
between
the two terms is provided
distinc?
In other Aboriginal
through context.
languages, there are linguistic
tions between
these terms, as Keen (2003: 129) describes among the Yolngu
of northeast Arnhem
Land. In Bardi, there is no single unanimously
agreed
on Bardi term to describe this creative era: the terms milamilonjun, meaning
'from a long, long time ago',10 inamunonjun, meaning
beings',
'supernatural
(Bagshaw 1999: 21), buwarra, meaning 'dream', and buwarrang, 'with dream', are
terms that are used. As one man described
the use of these different terms
to me, 'either ways you can put it, they'11 understand'. The antiquity of the
creative epoch is additionally
marked in Bardi verb forms, which signal eight
tenses: future, present, and six past tenses expressing
time depths
different
what
identifies
the past tenses, Metcalfe
(Metcalfe 2000: 9). Among
(2000: 9)
he calls the 'Distant Past' and the 'Remote
Past' as being tenses used when
of time' when the ancestral
events that occurred at 'the beginning
describing
various creative deeds. The word Bardi most use to convey
beings performed
this broad concept
in English is 'the Law'. Bardi see the Law as immutable,
in accordance
its other-than-human
with their ideology
origins
concerning
(cf. Myers 1986: 69). The Law was given to them by supernatural beings (inamunon) whose activities gave form to, and inscribed their country with, mythic
and totemic
of these beings remain
The essence
and power
significance.
within the country, although
the beings are said to inhabit identi?
emplaced
fied terrestrial, marine, and celestial locations.
In addition
'other-than-human
entities'
to the creative beings, numerous
1955: 179) inhabit land and sea. Among
the many beings that are
(Hallowell
differentiated
loca?
and environmental
characteristics,
by name, appearance,
to this discussion: raya and
tions, there are two that are particularly important
ingarda. When I first began working with Bardi in 1994 the topic of dreams
arose in the context of discussions
raya and people's relationships
concerning
to country. Rayi or raya are largely invisible11 pre-existing
beings of both sexes,
referred to in English as 'kids', 'small kids', or 'spirit kids'. They
commonly
inhabit places that provide some 'cover', such as creeks, waterholes,
trees, caves,
reefs, 'rocks on the land or in the sea' (Elkin 1933: 438), and deep holes in
the sea bed.12 Raya appear to men in their dreams, revealing that they have
selected them to be their 'human father' (Bagshaw 1999: 37). When a Bardi
woman gives birth, her baby is considered
of that raya
to be the instantiation
in human form. Such a belief in pre-existing
spirit children is fairly wide?
and can appear
spread in Australia.13 Raya have the ability to metamorphose,
in the form of natural species. When a man spears or kills the raya in this
to be consubstantial
with the
form, that species is considered
phenomenal

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KATIE GLASKIN

303

human child, and is referred to as that individual's jarlng or jarlnga (see Bagshaw
1999: 37).14 A person may not eat their jarlng (the species they thus become
totem
identified
with) because
they will fall ill.15 Jarlng can be a personal
or
it
can
be an
related to the particular details of an individuals
conception,
this
In
estate-based
that
is
totemic
inherited
respect, it
entity
by patrifiliates.
is not uncommon
for estate groups to have more than one totemic
entity
with which they are associated; one group has three (Bagshaw 1999: 38). Indi?
viduals then may have more than one jarlng. Bagshaw (1999: 38) says that 'the
term jarlnga also refers to an individuals
soul or spiritual core, which, as I
understand
it, is derived from or closely related to the estate-based jarlnga'.
Bardi persons then are regarded as instantiations
of pre-existing
beings called
an
of
When
individual
to
its
the
returns
dies,
origin, usually
raya.
place
raya
as another
that individual's
be re-instantiated
raya can thereafter
country;
human form.
In addition to having jarlng, humans are also endowed with an invisible sub?
stance within them called nimanggar (Petri's [1938-40:
227] nimerai), literally
meaning'shadow'.16
Nimanggar'is identified with the visible shadow of a person'
or 'that part of the soul which leaves the body in a dream with the help of
djalne [jarlng]' (Petri 1938-40: 227).17 An individual's death represents the per?
manent
accounts

of their nimanggar from their body Early ethnographic

separation
that,
say
upon leaving a person's body, a person's nimanggar travels to
Luman, described
by Petri as 'the Western part of the ocean, the realm of
shadows' (1938-40:
227).18 Nimanggar, jarlnga, and raya are intrinsic to Bardi
of
to the 'processes of procreation,
fertility and
conceptualizations
personhood,
of
life
Petri
describes
itself
1938-40:
(Petri
jarlng as the 'soul227).
augmenting,
substance which enters the human through rai' (1938-40:
227), but he also
describes jarlng as 'the capability to dream'.19 The word jarlngungurr20 is derived
from the word jarlng (or jarlnga). In English, Bardi describe jarlngungurr as a
'doctor' man or a 'clever' man, sometimes
as a 'magic sort of a man.' Jarlngu?
are
who can use their jarlng to
those
both
men
and
women,
ngurr
people,
perform special feats that ordinary Bardi and Jawi cannot. A jarlngungurrJs knowl?
entiedge is derived from various kinds of revelation from other-than-human
ties; much of this revelation occurs through dreams. Jarlngungurr are considered
to have supernaturally
endowed
capacities to perform special feats of healing,
into animal form, travel in dreams,
divination, sorcery, to transform themselves
and to communicate
with ancestral spirits and other spiritual entities that inhabit
the country, most commonly
with raya and ingarda. Ingarda are similar to raya;
described as 'business people', they have their own language and also inhabit
spoken of as anispecific locations in the country Ingarda are not commonly
to be an
mating human beings21 although at least one Bardi man is considered
of a particular ingarda who has a personal name. Like raya, ingarda
instantiation
to
of ceremonies
are considered
to have an important
role in the revelation
to ordinary people, in dreams.
jarlngungurr, and sometimes

Dreams
The Bardi word for dream is buwarr22 or buwarra; this refers to the dream that
buwarra inyingin refers to
a person has when they are asleep. The compound

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304

KATIE GLASKIN

as a
this is recognized
in a coma or who is otherwise
unconscious;
different, albeit closely related, state to dreaming whilst asleep. Many people
have reported to me what I would call 'ordinary' dreams; Peile refers to these
or
as 'dreams stimulated
or long-past
day-to-day
experiences
by present
fantasies occurring
in everybody's
life' (1997: 115).23 Such ordinary dreams
the man was out
a man's dream of a dugong. When
include, for example,
he was hunting
to
the
boat
the
came
a
hunting
right up
following
day, dugong
in, and he thought back to the dream as being an omen of seeing this dugong.
So while such dreams are 'ordinary',
Peile argues that they differ from the
and
dream
of
'in
Western
ordinary
being accorded more significance
subjects
someone

in being more reflected upon during waking hours' (1997: 116).

It is those dreams in which spirit beings or deceased relatives appear that
I am primarily
with here. Raya may pay dream visits to people,
concerned
and sometimes
manifest themselves
as a 'light' or through an unusual noise
when people are awake. Such manifestations
are reported to occur when the
individuals
concerned
have disturbed the raya through failing to observe the
correct protocols
in country, or when others have disturbed the raya from that
persons
country.
and
Dream visits by deceased
relatives are always regarded as purposeful
is
dream
content
benevolent
a
in
which
the
In
cases
usually convey
message.
the dreamer may report that 'so and so' came to visit in their dream. Reportof those
ing the dream to others reiterates that they are under the protection
old people who came to visit them in their dream, and thus provides a way
of re-affirming
one's own link with the deceased. The deceased
may also
if
in
someone
is
for
dreams
to
warn
of
appear
calamity,
example
impending
about to pass away. I have also heard of instances where a person who has
to the dreamer
in a dream, thereby conveying
just died appears to someone
that they have passed away, before the news has become
public knowledge.
forSuch dreams would seem to fit with what Elkin termed 'traditionally
of
whether
malized systems of presentiments'
These
dreams,
(1980 [1945]: 6).
bad omens
or containing
bad news, are distinct again from visitations
by
malevolent
spirit beings (ngaari) that attack a person whilst they are sleeping
or from sorcery attacks performed
by hostile magic men. These dreams are
called ananiny, nightmares, and are said to always be attributable to such exter?
nal spiritual interventions.24
Not all Bardi have the same kinds of dream experiences.
Most Bardi are
what they would describe as umbarda, that is, 'ordinary' people, who stand in
contrast to jarlngungurr, who have special powers. While all dreamers can be
'taken' or transported to other places by spirit beings, by the spirits of deceased
cannot
exert a conscious
persons, and by 'magic' people,
ordinary
people
travel whereas they believe that jarlngungurr can,
agency about dream-spirit
and do.
to be beyond
Jarlngungurr dream travel2"1 to visit places that are considered
the normal scope of human agency. Such 'places' could also be viewed as the
invisible
or unconscious
dimensions
of human existence.26 Jarlngungurr may
undertake such travel (mamurran)27 ? which they and others refer to as 'flying'
? for different
or subterranean
(but which can also involve submarine
travel)
or to gain revelation. Jarlngungurr can
reasons; among them to heal someone
'effect dream travel' (Bagshaw
announce
their
1999: 38) and will sometimes

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KATIE GLASKIN

305

intention
to travel to others (mamurran jana, 'go tonight')28 with the admonition that they should not be woken up, especially when going to cure the
sick. At other times, raya or ingarda visit them in their dreams; Bagshaw says
that 'this dream encounter
is locally termed
ray nim darrinarrjan ngura ("ray
came during the night")' (1999: 46).
For Bardi and Jawi, an important
aspect of jarlngungurr is their ability to
in
revelation
communicate
to receive
with the spirit world,
and hence
visitaor
have
dreams.29 While ordinary people may also communicate
with,
tions from spirits, jarlngungurr, because of their special abilities, are considered
more likely to have spirit visitations
than other people. The
and revelations
Bardi word ningarra is described
as meaning
to reveal; 'like to reveal a corroborree in a dream, or to show it' (pers. comm. 2003). The Bardi dictionary
does not record the word ningarra although
it does record an evident comof
it, ningarrarda inamagaljin, meaning 'believe; he believed him' (Aklif
pound
the words
1999: 110). This indicates a close conceptual
between
connection
for revelation and belief
such ancestral revelations
dreams, one of the
Among
occurring
through
most commonly
referred to - because
it pertains to an open ceremonial
- is that
context
of Uma, a public genre of cer?
the revelation
concerning
emonial songs, dances, and designs. Keogh says that the Uma genre is characterized by being 'of recent origin whose composition
is attributed to various
forms'
of
While it is not excluthose
the
deceased.
(1989: 3), including
spirit
comor ceremonial
who
receive
other
ritual
Uma,
or,
indeed,
sively jarlngungurr
come
do
revelations
dream
in
most
such
revelation,
ponents, through
practice
to jarlngungurr. As far as I can ascertain, all of the Uma currently performed
but have not
among Bardi and Jawi, as well as those that are remembered
been performed
for many years, have come through persons that the broader
as jarlngungurr (cf. Keogh
1990: 30).30 Spirits of the
community
recognize
deceased may reveal Uma to jarlngungurr in their dreams; one of the most com?
series of Uma today are those that were revealed in this
monly performed
manner. In some cases, the revelation
of new Uma by the deceased is said to
occur to two or more people at the same time. Given that the Bardi under?
of an exter?
standing of the dreams involved is that they are the consequence
Poirer
in
terms.
nal revelation,
those
the
same
dream
is
having
explicable
in the Wirrimanu
similarly refers to shared dreams among Kukatja Aborigines
for two individ?
area of the Western Desert, where it was 'not uncommon
uals to say that they shared the same dream' (2003: 113).
revelations.
It is not just the spirits of the deceased
who
provide
their
certain
locations
can
encounter
or
at
during
Jarlngungurr
raya
ingarda
dream travel (while 'flying around') where these spirit beings may reveal the
Uma emplaced
in particular locations
to the jarlngungurr who retrieves them.
Uma are not 'new', rather they are understood
not to have been previ?
ously revealed. As one man said to me in relation to a certain location, 'only
jarlngungurr could grab Uma in dream from this place. Go there in dreams,
that song' (quoted in Bagshaw & Glaskin
it, recollect it, memorise
photocopy
2000: 12). The same man described how jarlngungur would go in their dreams
to 'deep holes in the sea called nimirr where the ingarda, who live in these
& Glaskin
Uma' (quoted in Bagshaw
nimirr, would 'give jarlngungurr people
2000: 12).
Such

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306

KATIE GLASKIN

the newly
the processes
As with other ceremonial
revelations,
by which
involve some
revealed Uma come to be accepted within the wider community
what is at
and agreement
negotiation
among senior ritual figures. However,
but
of the dream or its significance,
stake here is not the narrative content
of
the
dreamt
as
Dussart
'the
of
the
rather,
relationship
says
Warlpiri context,
material to ritual repertoire
and to the rights of the dreamer who has the
dream' (2000: 142).31
of how
The above discussion
Uma demonstrates
something
concerning
such as these emerge
from within
the cultural fabric of Bardi
innovations
these innovations
as tradi?
Like
of
other
'traditions'
the
society.
incorporation
contexts' (Wagner 1981
tion relies on 'relational frameworkfs]
of conventional
[1975]: 40) that are contemporarily,
temporally,
spatially, and socially constikinds of innovations
that
validates
the
tuted. Cultural repertoire
and
shapes
constituted
occur and these are 'emergent
effects of a single temporally
process
of human symbolic
articulation'
(Weiner 2001: xiv). In Australian native title
as
are often formulated
and Aboriginal
of'tradition'
heritage cases, discussions
1991:
historical'
in
social
and
rather
sense
than
cultural,
(Merlan
'purely
any
illus?
341). The dream told to me by Elle,32 set in the context of card-playing,
trates something
of the social, historical, and dynamic aspects of tradition and
thus understood.
Before
and counters
of 'tradition'
the notion
innovation,
of
the
historical
and
Elle's
in
a
brief
consideration
dream
detail,
examining
is in order.
social context of gambling in Aboriginal
communities

Card-playing
in
in which
is ubiquitous
or gambled
is exchanged
Card-playing
money
to
from
the
Bardi
were
communities.
gambling
Kimberley Aboriginal
exposed
with pearlers who
and exchange
interaction
early 1880s onwards, through
in the northern
the first sustained
non-Aboriginal
comprised
presence
Peninsula.
Dampierland
While gambling thus appears as an introduced
practice, Fink (1960) argues
that it represents an innovation
on traditional
practices. She conexchange
in
area of
cludes from her research among Aboriginal
the
Murchison
groups
Western Australia that the 'history of the gambling games within these groups'
reveals 'more than a chance connection
and
between
the former ceremonial
the gambling
(1960:
game', noting that 'at one time they occurred
together'
of wages on the pastoral stations on which
168). Prior to the introduction
they worked, Yamatji Aborigines
exchanged
weapons and goods when playing
Fink argues, gambling was
cards, rather than money (Fink 1960: 168-9).Thus,
in
'added to the traditional
had
been so prominent
that
of
goods
exchange
times. It was simply a new way of carrying on the exchange' (1960:
Aboriginal
fieldwork among Bardi and Jawi people in the late
conducted
169). Robinson
relations'
on gambling's 'positive role in interpersonal
1960s, and commented
to win
its social aspects, people play hoping
(1973: 209). Notwithstanding
in a way that would be impossible
money, to bolster their personal income
for them to do without
having some kind of win.
The notion of'luck'
intrinsic to such wins. Like
(durrba) here is considered
jidar ('bad luck'), 'luck' is linked to the actions of persons and to their 'rela-

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307

KATIE GLASKIN
tive

of cultural and metaphysical

with estate-specific
identification
degree
and
1999: 63).
associated
resources'
supernatural
beings
(Bagshaw
religious
Thus, a person who is unfamiliar with country, or who behaves inapproprior fishing,
bad luck (jidar) when hunting
ately on country, may experience
manifest in 'an inability to catch game' (Bagshaw
1999: 104). Such bad luck
occurs because the country itself is 'an active (and in this usage, sentient) physi?
cal and metaphysical
1999: 59).
entity' (Bagshaw
The relationship
between
a metaphysical
'luck' conceived
of as having
dimension
and manifest as success when hunting
context of the card game is evident in Robinson's

or fishing and 'luck' in the

below:
description

However the Bardi do not agree that winning is fortuitous. A person wins at cards because
he has good luck, and luck is considered tangible. Luck is something which is linked
with the spirit-world and can be given to men by the raija [raya];according to some
players, by the major culture-heroes themselves. Bad fortune may be attributed to the
malevolent nari [ngaarri](Robinson 1973: 211).

Elle's

dream

In 2003

I was speaking with Elle and her mother at her mothers

house in
when
dream.
Elle
told
her
me
of
the
had
events
that
Djarindjin,
preceded
She had been at One Arm Point playing cards and had won a thousand dollars.
After her win, she came back to Djarindjin and continued
to play cards, begin?
to
lose
her
until
she
had
of
her
$150
ning
money
original $1,000 left.
only
She recounted
dream.
how she lay down, went to sleep, and had the following
She heard a voice call her by her Aboriginal
name. It was her father, who
had passed away a year before. He took her to the cemetery,
and they sat
down there under the marulal trees (the eucalyptus
Corymbia bella, 'weeping
ghost gum'). Her father had no shirt on. Elle played with the dirt and the
leaves of the tree that were on the ground, letting them run through
her
as
her
father
he
had
to
her.
that
He
to
her
fmgers
helped
spoke
explained
her to win the money that she had won at One Arm Point, that he had been
there, with her in the card game, giving her luck.
Elle told me that many people, when they played cards, would take into
the card game a photo of a deceased relative, or a lock of that person's hair,
or something
such
else intimately
associated
with that person. By bringing
to
rela?
the
deceased
card
their
invoked
the
of
objects
game, they
presence
tives and this was supposed
to bring the player luck. Based on his fieldwork
with Bardi in 1967-8, Robinson
wrote that 'one may attempt to capture luck,
and this is sometimes
done by concealing
small sacred stones in one's cloth?
or
The
of
ing during play' (1973: 211).
practice
people carrying photographs
locks of hair with them to invoke their deceased ancestors for 'luck' in cards
them is that
between
of this practice. The distinction
is, then, a continuation
is directed
or
hair
are
the
aim
used
rather
and
than
sacred
stones,
photographs
towards capturing
luck from the deceased
rather than from raya and other
supernatural
beings.
The use of the deceased s hair in card games appears to derive from precolonial cultural practices. In the 'old' days (before or not long after the mis?
sionaries came) when people passed away, close bereaved relatives would keep

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308

KATIE GLASKIN

a lock

of hair with them for some time after the death of the relative. As one
elderly woman told me, people 'used to carry around bits of hair and things
like that, rolled up in paperbark, treat it like a baby, carry it around for so
many months' (pers. comm. 1994). One of this woman's aunts had carried her
sister's hair wrapped
in paperbark
around for some time and this woman
herself had done this with her cousin's hair, though she carried it in an envehair is also used in sorcery and for divination
associated with
lope. Human
for murdering
the
considered
of
the
ascertaining
responsible
identity
person
term
for
another by means of sorcery; Metcalfe
Bardi
such hair as
the
gives
ginyinggi moivan, which he translates as 'hair relies' (1972: 174).
In her dream, Elle's father told her that the practice of people taking photos
and hair to card games made dead people 'sorry'. When, for 'luck', people
took with them into card games the photos or hair of those who had passed
at the game itself. This
the presence
of the deceased
away, they invoked
'tormented'
the deceased
and they did not want to be treated this way. In
the dream, Elle's father ? who
at the
continued
sitting on the ground
? told Elle that 'this' was 'our'
Lombadina
that
is,
resting place:
cemetery
that the cemetery
and
was the resting place of he and the other deceased
that it was 'a peaceful
sort of a thing'. These dream referents resonate with
Elle's experiences
of Lombadina
mission. In her dream, she is taken to the
Lombadina
are buried, rather than to her father's
where
the
dead
cemetery,
where
and where, after his
his
or
country,
animating
spirit,
raya, originated,
in the
is represented
to return. The cemetery
death, it would be expected
dream as being the place where not just Elle's father, but the other deceased
who are buried there, are 'resting'. Elle's father's admonition
to her that what
the deceased wanted to do was to rest and to have some peace is also evocative of Catholic
It suggests that the deceased
teachings concerning
purgatory
were in an interstitial place of'torment'
is
Elle's
term), at least with respect
(this
to having their presence invoked in card games.
It is evident that some dreams (including
my own, which I have relayed to
Bardi people)
In the cases I am
be
at
times
may
interpreted
metaphorically
familiar with, certain images are culturally understood
to represent the actual
actions of various spirit beings, even though the spirit beings themselves
are
not overtly present in the dream. This concurs with Keen's observation
that
in Yolngu
are not the ideas of living persons, but the
thought,
'symbols
of
the
ancestors'
"thought"
(2003: 143). That Bardi, at times, interpret dreams
some indi?
(rather than literally) is evident since, for example,
symbolically
viduals will seek the assistance of jarlngungurr in dream interpretation.
Elle's interpretation
commensurate
with the
of her dream is, however,
Bardi
nature
of
the
dreams,
general
persons, and
concerning
understanding
she clearly differentiated
her dream experience
from
spirit beings. While
to
her
in
the
the
that
occurred
dream
were
also
waking experience,
things
considered
as real events in the same way that events experienced
consciously
in the phenomenal
world are. In her view, her deceased father had transported
her to the cemetery
where they spoke, and the experience
had an experiential reality with a bodily dimension.
She told me that when she woke up she
had marulul leaves in her hands from the trees in the cemetery
(these trees are
not found in other parts of the community).
She also held bits of grass and
pindan (earth) which she had been running through her fmgers in the dream.

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309

KATIE GLASKIN

that needed
Rather than the dream being accorded some hidden significance
in
to be investigated,
its meaning
was apparent from what had occurred:
common
with most dreams concerning
deceased ancestors, it was understood
literally
On the basis of Elle's estimation
that she had this dream about a year after
her father passed away, the dream occurred approximately
eight years prior to
the date at which she told me about it. At the time of the dream she had
passed her father's message on to others at Djarindjin and Lombadina, warning
of
them that taking various objects into card games to invoke the presence
the deceased for luck was causing their (deceased)
relatives to be tormented.
When I asked her about it, she said that the practice of people taking such
items into card games for luck had stopped following
the relaying of this
Elle's
it
for
Some
of
is
not
clear
how
family members
message (although
long).
confirmed
her view that people had ceased this practice on the basis of Elle's
dream and its dissemination.
However, a more distantly related person whom
I asked about this expressed the view that it would be difficult to know for
certain, because people always hid these things on their person in card games
anyway
they weren't displayed publicly. On the other hand, this person said,
if a jarlngungurr was there at the card game they would know if anyone had
those objects on them, since they have 'like x-ray vision' (pers. comm. 2003).

Tradition,

and

innovation

the

case

of

dreams

The legal contexts in which indigenous

peoples make claims to land (or sea)
- whether
of native title, compensation
be
for
the
claims,
they
recognition
?
and
theoretical
or aimed at protection
'critical
in
sites
issues)
(as
pose
These
for
2001:
180).
problems
(Cleveland
practical' problems
anthropology
concern how anthropologists
understand and theorize 'culture', since this will
claims to
have practical
ramifications
in legal contexts
where
indigenous
In Australia,
are evaluated
on the basis of 'culture' and 'tradition'.
country
cultural reproduction
has largely been treated in two analytic
Aboriginal
modes. There are those who stress 'cultural continuities'
with past bodies of
is problematic
'tradition', and those who argue that the notion of'continuity'
unless considered
within 'the context of an ongoing
process of reconstruction
the broader
and identity
with
an intensive
of relations
through
history
Australian society' (Trigger 1997: 86). These modes of analysis are not mutually exclusive,
demonstrates.

as this

ethnographic

analysis

of

dream-inspired

innovation

on dreams and subjectivity,

argues that 'culture
Stephen
Commenting
it
but does not totally determine
undoubtedly
experience
shapes individual
... [for] there is room, even necessity, for the individual
to criticize, modify,
adjust and innovate on a given cultural schemata' (1989: 43). With respect to
Keen writes thatYolngu
innovation,
'downplay individual crea?
dream-inspired
tive powers', serving to displace 'agency onto creative ancestors' (2003: 133).
role of
He suggests that one of the reasons why the 'creative and interpretive
own?
the collective
the individual is so strongly denied' (2003: 138) concerns
he dis?
ership of the ideas and objects involved
(among the Yolngu whom
cusses,

of sacra by patri-groups)

(2003:

138).

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310

KATIE GLASKIN

More significant
than the question of whether Elle's dream ultimately
pro?
duced an innovation
in practice is how she and other Bardi understand dreams
and the innovative
within them. This could
of ancestral revelation
potential
be described as 'a tradition of innovation',
in which innovations
derived from
dreams are understood
of an external authority ? the
to have the imprimatur
? and are considered
to be prespirits of the deceased or other spirit beings
dreams
dream
and
As
and
revealed
'new'.
Basso
rather
than
existing
argues,
a
of
world'
reflect
'the
basic
people's
interpretation
propositions
ontological
of dreams is related
(1992: 102). I have shown here that Bardi understanding
to other key cultural conceptualizations
that reflect on how the self is under?
stood, such as the belief that human beings exist as spirits before being born
into the world and continue
to exist as spirits after their death. These 'basic
are neither
static nor hermetically
like
'culture',
ontological
propositions',
which incorporates
sealed from experience,
Elle's
as demonstrated
dream,
by
of the Pallottine
some influences
derived
from her historical
experience
in Aborigi?
mission. The appearance
of Christian motifs, figures, or concepts
accords
with
nal dreams, also reported
and
Keen
others,
(2003: 131)
by
...
in
new
Kracke's view that 'dreams also play an important
mastering
part
and into
affective experiences
them with past experiences
and assimilating
one's self-schemata'
(1992: 51). Elle's dream has shown, as Armin Geertz has
argued,

that

[pjersistence and change are aspects of the same social phenomenon, namely, tradition.
In order for a tradition to remain viable it must be both resilient and malleable. It must
change in order to retain meaning in the face of changing social and political circum?
stances ... in order to identify and ultimately assimilate these agents in terms of indig?
enous theory (1994: 4).
This view accords with Wagner's description
of Daribi religious 'history' in
which he argues that it can be seen as 'the product of a cultural dialectic ...
a sequence
of creative and recreative innovations
[in which] novel or exotic
elements
(1972: 164). Among
acquire meaning
interpretation'
only through
dreams persists,
belief in ancestral revelation
Bardi, the 'traditional'
through
has the capacity to extend into,
and, as an aspect of'traditional'
innovation,
and is dialectically
in relation to, day-to-day
constituted
aspects of contem?
dreams are intangible,
'events',
porary life. Although
experienced
subjectively
the perceptions
a people hold about dreams provide important
insights into
in terms of
the ontological
and epistemological
aspects of human life-ways,
which the relationship
can be more fully
between
tradition and innovation
understood.

NOTES
I am extremely grateful to many Bardi and Jawi persons for their friendship, hospitality, and
generosity in sharing their world with me. I was fortunate to work with Geoffrey Bagshaw on
their native title claim; this article has benefited from many conversations with him, and from
his assiduous ethnography in that context. Five anonymous peer reviewers offered considered
and insightful comments on an earlier draft, which have been taken into consideration in revising this article, and I am grateful to them. The fieldwork on which this article is based would

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KATIE GLASKIN

311

not have been possible without the support (at various times over many years) of the Kimberley Land Council, the Australian National University, and, currently, the Berndt Foundation
at the University of Western Australia.
1
Transcript of the Yorta Yorta High Court hearing, 23 May 2002, p. 5 of 39.
2Transcript of the Yorta Yorta High Court hearing, 24 May 2002, pp. 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, 25,
29, 35 of 45.
*Like other Australian
languages, Bardi exhibits dialectical differences, and today there are
people who refer to themselves as Bardi or as Bard. Here, I refer to Bardi, in accordance with
current linguistic convention (the first Bardi dictionary was published in 1999) and because of
the preponderance of more recent ethnographic literature referring to Bardi.
4
Elkin, letter to Sally, 18 March 1928, in 'Letters home to Sally from A.P. Elkin - on field
trip to Kimberley Division 1927-28', Box 1, Item 1 (1/1/1). Sydney: Elkin Archives, Fisher
Library, University of Sydney.
For further discussion of Sunday Island mission, see Glaskin (2002); Robinson (1973).
6Cf. Stephen (1989: 162), who says the Mekeo 'will tell you that the lalauga is no different
from the Christian idea of the soul ... They say that on death the lalauga leaves the body and
goes to Heaven - or Kariko, the traditional abode of the dead'.
Worms describes Galalung's 'present abode' as 'Banggaranjara,the realm of the dead. His
figure can still be seen in the darker parts of the Milky Way, on both sides of a line drawn
from Alpha Centauri to Alpha Scorpionis (Antares)' (1952: 548).
Worms and Petri say that Galalung 'lives now in the dark spot between the constellations
Centaury and Scorpio. Alpha and Beta Centaury are thought to be two feathers in his headdress - a white parrot feather and a dark owl feather' (1998 [1968]: 153).
9
Elkin, letter to Sally, 13 February 1928. In 'Letters home to Sally from A.P. Elkin' (see note
4 above).
10See Bagshaw (1999: 21); cf. Petri (1938-40: 237), who translates millimilondji as 'the
dreamtime'.
Some Bardi report having seen raya,and say that sometimes they are 'painted up' (as if for
ritual).
"According to Petri (1938-40: 226), rayawere created by an ancestral being associated with
an important male ritual.
13For further
general discussion of Australian conception beliefs, see Merlan (1986).
The term bamman is also used 'to refer to the natural analogue(s) of the totemic entity (or
entities) associated with an estate' (Bagshaw 1999: 38).
5This is similar to Berndt
and Berndt s account of ngatji ('what we might call totem') among
theYaraldi (1993: 25, 197-9).
1Of. Basso
(1992: 94), who says that the Kalapalo Indians of Brazil use a word meaning
'shadow' to describe a kind of'envisioned self.
Contrary to this, a Bardi man has told me that when he dream travels his nimanggaris that
part of him that does not travel with him.
Some older people today will give a similar account of Luman, but this no longer appears
to be a universal understanding. Worms (1952: 548) describes 'the realm ofthe dead' as being
in the constellations where Galalung now resides.
Contrary to my understanding, Petri also says that 'dajlne means dream' (1938-40: 227).
J
Alternatively pronounced as jarlgangurror jarlgangurr(Bagshaw 1999: 37).
Bagshaw says that other spiritual entities capable of animating human beings include
'the spirit of a deceased relative'; lulal, 'a spirit-double or "second image" which emanates
from the body ofthe child's father'; irrmolol,spirit beings 'similar to ingardain terms of appear?
ance and geographical distribution', and gurrnginji,small spirit beings 'who are said to frequent
Long, Mermaid and High Islands'. Irrmololand gurrnginjialso have their own languages (1999:
46).
"Worms (1950: 643) identifies the Bardi word buar as meaning 'the mythological age'.
"
Speaking of the Kukatja, Peile says that 'when a person dreams, his/her spirit leaves the
body - this constitutes an ordinary dream' (1997: 116).
In contrast to Kukatja, whom Poirer describes as having 'no word or category for nightmares' (2003: 115).
"DSee Tedlock
(1992: 14) for further discussion ofthe perception of motion in dreams.
""Tam grateful to an anonymous peer reviewer for this observation.

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KATIE GLASKIN

27
Bagshaw (1999: 38) provides the word buwarrang(literally meaning 'with dream') for dream
travel.
28Worms (1950: 643) identifies the Bardi word ma-waren (ma-baren)as meaning 'to dream'.
A Bardi man has described the word mawurranas meaning 'from Dreamtime, whiteman side',
i.e. being from the time that non-Indigenous Australians gloss as 'the Dreaming'.
"
Jarlngungurralso have an exclusive role in relation to a particular element of Bardi ritual.
30Some Bardi
express the view that ordinary people can receive Uma, while most others
maintain that only jarlngungurrcan. A person who dreams many Uma is called ilmiidi.
11In his
1970/January 1971 recording of Uma, Metcalfe noted that a Bardi man was 'cur?
rently adding new sections to the Uma as they were revealed to him, and he also recorded the
'defence of [this man's] right to compose the Uma as given by another Bardi man' (Metcalfe
1971).
,_'Elle'
gave me permission to discuss this dream, but for her privacy I have chosen not to
refer to her by her real name.

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Innovation

et

revelation

ancestrale

: le

cas

des

reves

Resume
L'auteur analyse certains aspects de la relation entre tradition et innovation dans une societe
aborigene d'Australie, en considerant les reves comme une composante ? traditionnelle ? du
changement culturel. Dans de nombreuses societes aborigenes, les ames des morts, les esprits
et les figures ancestrales communiqueraient avec le reveur et lui ? reveleraient ? certaines
choses. Les Aborigenes expliquent que certaines de ces revelations, par exemple celles concernant la vie rituelle et eeremonielle, existent ? depuis le debut ? et ne sont pas considerees comme ? nouvelles ?. L'auteur etudie ici le cas d'une revelation ancestrale concernant
un aspect de la vie courante des Aborigenes : les jeux de cartes. Il est possible, par ce biais,
d'entamer 1'exploration de la complexite des moyens par lesquels les croyances ? traditionnelles ? et les formes d'innovation entrent en dialectique avec les experiences culturelles contemporaines et certaines experiences historiques qui les ont precedees.

Katie Glaskin is the inaugural Berndt Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of
Western Australia. She has worked as an anthropologist in the Kimberley region of Western
Australia on an ongoing basis since 1994.

Discipline of Anthropology& Sociology,Universityof WesternAustralia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley

WesternAustralia 6009. kglaskin@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

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