France Didgeridoo

A forgotten ceromony by a forgotten people.
These were the first serious attempts at recording images of the diminishing original people of the South east of Australia.
This set of Photographs found thier way to America and now reside in a collection dedicated to African Americans in a Library in Maryland.

These photographs taken by Charles Kerry on the bora ground near Quambone in June 1898 depicting the Aboriginal bora ceremony are from the Rooks collection in the Albin O Kuhn library and Gallery at the UMBC University in Baltimore Maryland USA.
Kerry was commissioned by the NSW Government to travel through NSW and take a set of portraits of Aborigines, scenes of camp life and corroboree.
In a report published in 1899 Kerry writes The photographs of an Aboriginal Bora Ceremony which I have forwarded to the Royal Society form part of a series secured by me in the [Australian] Winter of 1898, locality Lower Macquarie River, N.S.W.
The region Kerry visited was Wailwan country which lies between the Macquarie,Barwon,Bogan and
Castlereagh rivers of western New South Wales. In Kerrys pictures the Wailwan are shown on land near Quambone in central western N.S.W. at a camp at Bulgeregan Creek and on a bora ceremonial ground.

Kerry states " I found it difficult to get any sense out of the men who took part in this ceremony. I may have been purposely misled. The Ceremony took place on Quambone Station near the Macquarie Reed beds in
NSW is absolutely the last of the kind ever held in this state CK"

The music is from a 1953 recording of the Waramiri People of Arnham land. Now out of print.
Its called "Wadamiri the ground wasp".
The song, of which three verses are given, tells how this insect makes a hole in the ground in which it sleeps on a pillow.
Then to the music of a sacred ceremony, it comes out of the hole, stands, runs, and flies away.
The first word, woiju-woiju, (waju) wasp, is clear. The singing, words are often transformed for the sake of rhythm and euphony, and so are hard to follow.
This is a very vigorous song. The didjeridu and sticks together with the si si and the stamping of the dancers, carry the scene on with a great swing.
At the beginning of the second verse a shout is heard.
This is made by the dancers forming a close ring; all facing in and towards the ground they shout towards the latter, the spirit of 'mother earth'

The numbering was part of the photographs and were arranged on boards in series of 15

I am not expecting many views of this video as it is a diferent field to most.
Not many people in Australia even know of these people or have seen these photographs.
I chose the wasp song as it was one of my favorites.