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'BBC Four Collections,

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'specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.

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'For this collection, Sir David Attenborough

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'has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.

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'More programmes on this theme

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'and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer.'

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DIDGERIDOO PLAYS

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ABORIGINAL CHANTING

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Midday in the desert of central Australia.

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A dust devil, a whirlwind in miniature,

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races across the roasting land.

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It's so hot that a thermometer in the sun reached 140 degrees

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and then burst.

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Solid granite boulders blister and crack.

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Little moves in the oppressive heat, animal or human.

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The only creatures abroad are insects and reptiles.

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Cold-blooded creatures that revel in the furnace-like temperatures.

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This is the land of the Aborigine, but it was not always his home.

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Scientists say that he arrived here some 10,000 years ago.

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But exactly where he came from is not certain.

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Some believe that he migrated from Java.

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Others claim he originated in Europe and is a relative of prehistoric man.

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Certainly, he is the most ancient branch of the human race

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still surviving.

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But if scientists are unsure,

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the Aborigine himself is certain of his origins.

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The tribesmen that live here know

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that they sprang from this mountain, Ayers Rock.

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This, you might say, is their Garden of Eden.

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The rock is vast. Over two miles long and 1,000 feet high.

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And every crack, every scar on the rock,

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has a meaning to the people of this land,

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for they believe that here during the Dreamtime,

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the Creation period, when the world was flat and lifeless,

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giant half-human spirits rose from the ground

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to populate the earth.

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These pockmarks were once the camp of the ancestral rat people.

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Nearby, a gigantic detached pillar of rock

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represents the totem pole around which they danced.

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These deep pits were made by spears

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thrown in a titanic battle among the snake people.

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And this cave was once the home of the ancestral moles.

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The tribesmen decorated many of the rock walls

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with sacred ritual paintings,

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for the mountain, in fact, is a gigantic shrine,

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brooding over the desert which starts at its feet

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and stretches for hundreds of miles in all directions,

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waterless, barren and empty.

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Many white people have died out there in the desert from heat,

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from thirst, from hunger.

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Only the Aboriginal knew how to survive alone,

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unaided, year after year.

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But now the desert is almost entirely deserted.

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The paintings that made the caves

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around the base of the rock glow with colour have long since faded.

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The Aboriginal has gone elsewhere.

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A windmill, sucking water from 1,000 feet below ground

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to produce an unfailing oasis in the middle of the desert.

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This is the magnet that has drawn the Aboriginal

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away from his tribal grounds to congregate at missions,

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government settlements and cattle stations.

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Here, families that were once nomadic build their flimsy shelters

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from bushes and branches,

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augmenting them with cloth and sheets of corrugated iron,

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if they can find them.

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But the huts, created and approved by custom

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as suitable for a wandering way of life,

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are now sadly inadequate as permanent habitations.

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Many people seem lost in this new existence,

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but at this government station,

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there is work available to the men, if they want it.

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Although the Aboriginal had never seen a horse

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until it was introduced by the white man,

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most are superb natural riders,

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and throughout the Northern Territory,

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their services as cattlemen are highly valued.

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Many of them are trained on government settlements like this one.

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CHIMING

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In return for the work the men do, the government not only pays wages

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but supplies free food and clothing for all,

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as every employer of Aboriginal labour is called upon to do by law.

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Rations of tea and sugar and flour are handed out every week.

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There's powdered milk for the children

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and fruit when it's obtainable.

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But though much is done

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to provide for the Aborigines' material leads, this is not enough.

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Many people would say that their roots lie in the land,

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but there can be few people to whom their native land means as much

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as it does to the Aboriginal.

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Even when they're on stations and settlements

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provided with abundant water and free food and clothing,

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the pull of the desert persists and, sometimes, it becomes irresistible.

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Sometimes, without warning,

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whole families will just disappear from the station.

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They've gone walkabout, as they say in pidgin.

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They've gone to live as their fathers and ancestors did,

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wandering naked in the desert.

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To the stranger, the desert looks sterile, empty and hostile.

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To the Aboriginal, everything has its meaning and its use.

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The hot stones that litter the ground, cracking in the sun,

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are not all the same.

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If you know where to look, you can find the special rocks

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that can be turned into a tool or a weapon.

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In this part of Australia, flint knives are hardly shaped at all.

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They're simply flakes struck from a larger boulder,

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but they can be as sharp as a razor.

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Spinifex grass - dusty, prickly and seemingly valueless.

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But the Aboriginal knows

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that its stems are beaded with tiny particles of resin.

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If you beat the grass,

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the resin falls off onto the ground as a fine dust,

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and this is valuable.

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Under the heat of the boulder, the resin melts.

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Within ten minutes, you can produce a plastic, sticky mass,

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easily moulded while it's hot, but concrete hard as soon as it cools.

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With this, you can produce a neat,

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very effective handle for the flint chip.

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And so, from a boulder and a pile of grass,

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the Aborigine produces a very effective dagger.

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Many of the bushes that sparsely clothe the desert

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seem equally to be without value.

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Few of them bear edible berries or fruit,

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but the roots of one particular kind conceal a different sort of delicacy.

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Witchetty grubs, the fat white larvae of a wood-boring beetle.

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They can be eaten roasted or simply as they are, alive.

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To the ignorant, these are just ants, a nuisance.

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But the Aboriginal knows from the tiny yellow spot on the ants' heads

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that these are a special sort of ant

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and one whose nests are well worth digging out.

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Down in the subterranean galleries

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hang shining brown globules the size of marbles.

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They're alive.

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Each is a worker ant

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that has been injected with honey collected by other workers

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until it is so bloated that it is little more than an animated jar

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from which the colony will suck the honey during a bad season.

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To the Aboriginal, each ant is a mouthful of warm, liquid honey,

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the sweetest thing in the desert,

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even sweeter than the combs of the wild bees.

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But the desert can provide more substantial food than ants or grubs.

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Empty though it may seem during the heat of the day,

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there are still kangaroos and lizards, snakes and birds

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that can provide good meat

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to those skilful enough to hunt them successfully.

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On their walkabouts, the men may travel many miles almost naked

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and with nothing but their spears and spear throwers.

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Most strangers would die within a few days of hunger and thirst,

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but these hunters are travelling over their tribal ground

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and they know the particular fold in the rock

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which conceals the only source of water for 20 miles in any direction.

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The water may be green and tepid,

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but it may also be the difference between life and death.

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The men understand the seasons as well as they know the country

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and they vary their route in order to visit a well-remembered tree,

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which they knew would be in blossom at this precise time,

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so that they might eat the soft, fleshy petals, sweet with nectar.

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In order that they can communicate silently over long distances

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during a hunt, they have their own sign language.

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I asked one of them, Jebel Jaray, to explain some of the gestures to me.

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What is the sign for kangaroo?

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- Marlu. - Marlu. And for...

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Kanyarla.

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- That's the woolly kangaroo? - Yeah, kanyarla.

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Kanyarla? And what's rock wallaby?

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Like that? And...like him, yes?

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And what's goanna?

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- Is that goanna? - Goanna, yeah.

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- Like that? - Yeah, goanna.

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And honey - shugabeg - bees?

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Go like this...

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And what's anteater, hedgehog?

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- Porcupine? - Yeah, porcupine.

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You call him porcupine, with all the prickles on it?

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Yeah. Jilka.

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Well, I hope you have a good hunting.

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- Yowai gudwan. - Good.

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The Aboriginal has extraordinary keen sight

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and a fine appreciation of minute details

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which few white men could rival.

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The ground to him is a book inscribed with precise information

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about all the creatures that have passed over it.

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The trails tell him not only what kind of animal made them,

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but often the animal's age and sex.

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One old man once recognised a footprint as that of his sister

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who had passed that way two days before,

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but whom he had not seen for 20 years.

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He followed it for three days before at last he met her,

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never once doubting the message he had seen on the ground.

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Jebel Jaray has seen a kanyarla, a woolly kangaroo.

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It's a big and valuable prize, if only they can get it.

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They approach in Indian file

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so that only one of them is visible to the kangaroo.

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And as only Jebel Jaray, the leader, can therefore see the animal,

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he signals instructions to those behind.

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The kangaroo is sleeping,

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almost hidden in the shade of the big fig tree.

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They move very slowly with extreme caution.

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If the animal so much as opens its eyes,

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the hunters will freeze motionless until it settles down again.

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Jebel Jaray is going to use his woomera, the spear thrower,

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which enables him to hurl his spear with greater leverage and force.

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Beneath the fig tree,

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the kangaroo is finally dispatched by a blow on the head with a boulder.

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Although it's not full-grown,

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it will provide a good meal of tender meat for the hunters

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and there will still be enough to take back some joints

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to the women and children in camp.

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THEY SPEAK IN WARLPIRI

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The Aborigines' method of cooking could scarcely be more simple.

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Only one thing must be done to the carcass -

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its skin must be cut open and its viscera removed,

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taking great care that the gall bladder is not cut or punctured,

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for that would ruin the meat.

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But before you can cook, you must have fire.

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The edge of the woomera is pulled to and fro over an old log.

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The log itself has not caught fire,

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but the friction of the hard woomera

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has produced a hot, black powder

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which has collected in a crack in the log.

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This powder serves as tinder

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and is emptied onto a handful of dried grass.

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Flames - the whole operation has taken less than a couple of minutes.

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In a country where rain may not fall for months on end,

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it's usually easy to find an abundant supply of dry wood

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with which to make a big fire.

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As the fire burns, the ashes are heaped round the kangaroo's carcass

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and in a few hours, it's cooked.

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THEY CONVERSE IN WARLPIRI

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And so the land provides the Aboriginal with everything he needs

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with a minimum of exploitation.

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He grows nothing.

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He domesticates no animal, except the dingo dog,

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which he brought with him when he first came into this country.

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The land provides all

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to those who understand its secrets and its mysteries,

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and so it's scarcely surprising that it's in the land itself

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that the Aboriginal sees his gods

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and his walkabouts become his pilgrimages,

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for on them he revisits the ancient sites

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that mark the places where the ancestral spirits

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first emerged onto the earth in the Dreamtime.

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Ayers Rock is one of them, but it's now deserted.

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But still, in remote parts of the country,

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there are sites where the old rituals continue,

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and I was taken to such a secret place by a man of the Warlpiri tribe.

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His name was Tim.

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He had learned English when he was in the army during the war,

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so we were able to talk easily.

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Together, we went to a rock many miles from the settlement.

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A rock sacred to the great ancestral python, Yarripiri,

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which emerged here during the Creation, the Dreamtime.

252
00:19:52,120 --> 00:19:55,600
Tim, tell me about these paintings. What's this one?

253
00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:57,960
- They're snakes. - Snakes?

254
00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,760
- A snake, Yarripiri. - Yarripiri?

255
00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:01,440
- Dreaming. - From the dreaming time?

256
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,680
From the dreaming, that's what they call Yarripiri, snake.

257
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,440
Yeah. Is he like an ordinary snake?

258
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,360
No, he's really the snake of dreaming.

259
00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:12,400
- A spirit snake? - A spirit snake.

260
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,080
- And where does he live? - Oh, he live in there.

261
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,800
- Where, down here? - Under the hole here.

262
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,160
- There's that hole down there. - Yeah.

263
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,120
His spirit in there, really. Nobody can see it.

264
00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:24,400
You've never seen him?

265
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,600
No. The hole has come out here, to make all the tracks,

266
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,200
- so you see of his track. - So you see his tracks?

267
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:32,680
Yes, the spirit of the Yarripiri snake, in there.

268
00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:38,320
And this place, why have you put this painting of it on this place?

269
00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:41,760
TIM: Well, the Yarripiri made the law to have the painting on this rock.

270
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,440
DAVID: The snake made the law that you had to?

271
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TIM: It's the first snake in the world, the Yarripiri.

272
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It made the whole world.

273
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,320
- He made the whole world? - Yes.

274
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:53,480
DAVID: And what are these things alongside there?

275
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,000
- The men, we, blekbala. - Those are blekbala?

276
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:02,160
TIM: The blekbala, he said...have to do a drawing on his spirit rocks.

277
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,760
DAVID: The snake said that you must put these drawings

278
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:06,960
- on the spirit rock, is that right? - Yes.

279
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:11,480
And what's in here?

280
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,600
That's a tjurunga of Yarripiri dreaming.

281
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:14,680
Can I see him?

282
00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,240
Yes.

283
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:21,440
- And this is what? - Meanings.

284
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,280
What's this meaning - Warlpiri country.

285
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,520
- The snake country. - Yeah.

286
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,160
- And what's this? - The blekbala, we.

287
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,200
- That's the blekbala, you? - Yeah.

288
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,880
- And this? - Spear.

289
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,680
- A spear. By law. - A spear.

290
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,200
- Yes, and this? - That's the little carpet snake.

291
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,480
- The carpet snake? - Yeah. Yarripiri's son.

292
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:46,240
DAVID: Yarripiri's son. Uh-huh. And what's this?

293
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:48,080
TIM: Rib bone. Yarripiri's rib bone.

294
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:50,360
DAVID: Yarripiri's rib bone? Yeah.

295
00:21:50,360 --> 00:21:54,840
So, this tells the people who now come, the younger men,

296
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:57,280
it shows them the way they must paint their bodies?

297
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:58,920
- Yes. - Is that right?

298
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:00,600
Yes. Really, it's right.

299
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:02,920
DAVID: And so in many years to come,

300
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:08,120
the tjurunga will show to the young men the way of custom?

301
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:11,440
- Yes, we have a school. - It's like a school?

302
00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:15,000
School, we tell every story on this meaning here.

303
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,000
- Yes. - Die now... It tells me now.

304
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,120
When we die, they'll come read all about it on this cave wall.

305
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:25,400
That's what they had, all people had this meaning and stories,

306
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:26,800
and will have ceremony same way.

307
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:28,720
And they'll have the ceremony the same way?

308
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:30,760
- Same way, yeah. - And so this is a book?

309
00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,160
- It's a book. - And it's a law?

310
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:34,880
- Yes. - It's Yarripiri's law?

311
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:36,000
Yarripiri's law.

312
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,000
Not all tjurungas are of wood - some are of stone.

313
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,560
The large one here, they say, is the tongue of an ancestral dingo dog.

314
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,680
These stone tablets

315
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,560
have been cherished by these people for generations.

316
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:56,120
They are very sacred and also extremely secret.

317
00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:59,360
If an uninitiated person should happen to see them,

318
00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:03,000
by tradition, he would be hacked to death with the tjurungas.

319
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,360
THEY CHANT

320
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,560
A ironstone pebble is ground to produce red ochre

321
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:20,640
so that the men may paint both the tjurungas and their own bodies.

322
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,200
CHANTING CONTINUES

323
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:30,880
Already the man, his mind filled with thoughts of the snake god,

324
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,880
is moving his body in a snake-like way.

325
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:38,960
CHANTING CONTINUES

326
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:58,880
As the men trace the patterns with their fingers,

327
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:01,480
so the myths and the legends about Yarripiri

328
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:05,800
that explain the origin of mankind live in the men's minds.

329
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:07,600
They're preparing for a ceremony

330
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,560
in which the snake itself will come to life in mime.

331
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,400
Ah...!

332
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,680
BULLROARER SHRIEKS

333
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:25,840
That unearthly sound is produced by this instrument, a bullroarer,

334
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:29,160
a piece of wood inscribed with the sacred designs.

335
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,720
The screams of the men and the shriek of the bullroarer

336
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:40,880
are a warning to any women or youths

337
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:42,920
to keep away from the ritual ground,

338
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,480
for soon Yarripiri, the snake god himself, will appear.

339
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:51,000
The man who will represent the snake is given a headdress of leaves

340
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,200
bound together with string made from twisted human hair.

341
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,760
THEY CHANT

342
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:08,960
The snake dancer has his body smeared with ochre and kangaroo fat.

343
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:18,000
One of the old men cuts a vein in his forearm to draw blood.

344
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,480
THEY CHANT

345
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,080
Slowly, the blood drips into a tin.

346
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,560
Now the body of the snake god is painted with the old man's blood,

347
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:34,120
which serves as a glue

348
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:39,560
on which to stick the brown and white downy seeds of a desert grass.

349
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,880
MAN SHOUTS AND BULLROARER SHRIEKS

350
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,240
CHANTING

351
00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:10,880
CHANTING CONTINUES

352
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:39,160
The preparations take all morning, but at last everything is ready.

353
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,760
The ritual itself can begin.

354
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:43,840
BULLROARER SHRIEKS

355
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,760
THEY CHANT

356
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:55,880
Du du du du du!

357
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,200
CHANTING CONTINUES

358
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,000
With each movement of his body,

359
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,880
the dancer imitates the actions of a stake

360
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,400
shrinking from the touch of a stick.

361
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:21,480
The ceremony itself is only one in a long series

362
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,840
which may last for several months,

363
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,200
during which the young men of the tribe

364
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,200
are instructed in the mysteries of the Creation,

365
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,920
into the stories and the myths of Yarripiri.

366
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,040
CHANTING CONTINUES

367
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,240
Ya la la la la la!

368
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:53,200
CHANTING RECOMMENCES

369
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:10,800
It lasts a few minutes only.

370
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:13,680
A touch, and the spell is broken.

371
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:19,600
Once more, the sacred rock is decorated with the magical designs,

372
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,280
paying homage to the ancestral snake.

373
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:24,480
These ceremonials are an expression

374
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,960
of the Aborigine's attitude to work the world in which he lives,

375
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:33,000
the world which has provided him with weapons and food and drink.

376
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,720
By practising the cults,

377
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:38,520
he enters into communion with the incarnate spirits of the land

378
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:40,640
which give a meaning to his life

379
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,600
and from which he draws strength, solace and confidence.

380
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,000
When his world changes, when he ceases to hunt the kangaroo

381
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,600
but gets his meat in a tin from a store,

382
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,840
when he no longer drinks from a rock pool

383
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,080
but draws water from a borehole tap,

384
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,200
and is handed tea and sugar,

385
00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,800
shirts and trousers free from the government,

386
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,520
then the direct bond with nature is broken,

387
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,840
and his religion, and often his life, loses its meaning.

388
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,160
Over most of Australia, this has already happened.

389
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,600
Soon, it will happen here too,

390
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:17,080
and little will be left except the enigmatic paintings

391
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,040
lonely and fading in the desert.

392
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,240
ABORIGINAL CHANTING

393
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,160
BULLROARER SHRIEKS