Map Ref. 12. A raised gravel platform in the Spring Garden.
The Tiwi people of the Bathurst and Melville Islands, north of Darwin, have a unique burial rite. In the final stage of these rites, it is customary to mark the grave with painted, hardwood poles. The Gallery has been permitted to re create a burial site of 16 poles in the Spring Garden. The poles have been arranged in the customary, rectangular fashion.
The poles, or tutini, are carved from a local species of eucalyptus, Ironbark. The Tiwi people regard each pole as a representation of the deceased person. Any number of poles may mark a grave, but more than 20 poles would signify that the deceased had held very high status in the community.
Before being installed in the Spring Garden, the poles were repainted with the permission of the families of the deceased. However, in accordance with Aboriginal tradition, the poles are now being left to weather, which means that the natural ochres will eventually wash off and the hardwood will rot away.
Burial poles are traditionally decorated with marks which reprsent either the scars acquired during initiation ceremonies, or ceremonial body paint. However, a spider motif is also popular because of the spider's tendancy to wrap up and store the prey, until the spider is hungry.
The endless cycle of birth and death is reinforced in the Dreaming (or legend) about Purukaparli and his wife Bima. Bima bore Purukuparli a son, Jinani. Unfortunately, Bima was seduced by Purukparli's brother, Tapara, and so the baby died of neglect. When Purukaparli returned to find his son dead, he killed Bima. Tapara was able to escape but whilst fleeing, he was changed into the Moon Man, forever condemned to a monthly cycle of life and death, in the night sky. Purukaparli took his own life by drowning, decreeing that henceforth death would be the fate of every Tiwi. Bima's father, Tokwampi, the Honey Bird Man, organised the first Pukumani ceremony in honour of Purukaparli.
For the Tiwi people, the Pukumani ceremony is more than just a burial ceremony. The Pukumani is a state of being which affects the mourners of the deceased, according to laws of kinship. Until the final ceremony, each mourner must observe certain taboos and codes of behaviour during their daily lives. The series of elaborate rituals, which take over a year to perform, only concludes when the Pukamani poles have been erected in the bush and abandoned to the elements.
© 1995 Jane M Hyden
