0:00:02 > 0:00:04'BBC Four Collections,
0:00:04 > 0:00:07'specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09'For this collection, Sir David Attenborough
0:00:09 > 0:00:12'has chosen documentaries from the start of his career.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14'More programmes on this theme
0:00:14 > 0:00:18'and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer.'
0:01:00 > 0:01:03DIDGERIDOO PLAYS
0:01:03 > 0:01:06ABORIGINAL CHANTING
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Midday in the desert of central Australia.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28A dust devil, a whirlwind in miniature,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30races across the roasting land.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36It's so hot that a thermometer in the sun reached 140 degrees
0:01:36 > 0:01:37and then burst.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Solid granite boulders blister and crack.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Little moves in the oppressive heat, animal or human.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48The only creatures abroad are insects and reptiles.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53Cold-blooded creatures that revel in the furnace-like temperatures.
0:01:53 > 0:01:58This is the land of the Aborigine, but it was not always his home.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Scientists say that he arrived here some 10,000 years ago.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05But exactly where he came from is not certain.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08Some believe that he migrated from Java.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Others claim he originated in Europe and is a relative of prehistoric man.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Certainly, he is the most ancient branch of the human race
0:02:15 > 0:02:17still surviving.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19But if scientists are unsure,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22the Aborigine himself is certain of his origins.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24The tribesmen that live here know
0:02:24 > 0:02:28that they sprang from this mountain, Ayers Rock.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31This, you might say, is their Garden of Eden.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36The rock is vast. Over two miles long and 1,000 feet high.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39And every crack, every scar on the rock,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41has a meaning to the people of this land,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44for they believe that here during the Dreamtime,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48the Creation period, when the world was flat and lifeless,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51giant half-human spirits rose from the ground
0:02:51 > 0:02:52to populate the earth.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58These pockmarks were once the camp of the ancestral rat people.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Nearby, a gigantic detached pillar of rock
0:03:02 > 0:03:06represents the totem pole around which they danced.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15These deep pits were made by spears
0:03:15 > 0:03:20thrown in a titanic battle among the snake people.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23And this cave was once the home of the ancestral moles.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26The tribesmen decorated many of the rock walls
0:03:26 > 0:03:28with sacred ritual paintings,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32for the mountain, in fact, is a gigantic shrine,
0:03:32 > 0:03:36brooding over the desert which starts at its feet
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and stretches for hundreds of miles in all directions,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41waterless, barren and empty.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50Many white people have died out there in the desert from heat,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52from thirst, from hunger.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Only the Aboriginal knew how to survive alone,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58unaided, year after year.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01But now the desert is almost entirely deserted.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03The paintings that made the caves
0:04:03 > 0:04:07around the base of the rock glow with colour have long since faded.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10The Aboriginal has gone elsewhere.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19A windmill, sucking water from 1,000 feet below ground
0:04:19 > 0:04:23to produce an unfailing oasis in the middle of the desert.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26This is the magnet that has drawn the Aboriginal
0:04:26 > 0:04:30away from his tribal grounds to congregate at missions,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33government settlements and cattle stations.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Here, families that were once nomadic build their flimsy shelters
0:04:57 > 0:04:58from bushes and branches,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02augmenting them with cloth and sheets of corrugated iron,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04if they can find them.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08But the huts, created and approved by custom
0:05:08 > 0:05:11as suitable for a wandering way of life,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14are now sadly inadequate as permanent habitations.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Many people seem lost in this new existence,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24but at this government station,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26there is work available to the men, if they want it.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Although the Aboriginal had never seen a horse
0:05:31 > 0:05:34until it was introduced by the white man,
0:05:34 > 0:05:36most are superb natural riders,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39and throughout the Northern Territory,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41their services as cattlemen are highly valued.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Many of them are trained on government settlements like this one.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48CHIMING
0:05:48 > 0:05:53In return for the work the men do, the government not only pays wages
0:05:53 > 0:05:56but supplies free food and clothing for all,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01as every employer of Aboriginal labour is called upon to do by law.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Rations of tea and sugar and flour are handed out every week.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08There's powdered milk for the children
0:06:08 > 0:06:10and fruit when it's obtainable.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26But though much is done
0:06:26 > 0:06:31to provide for the Aborigines' material leads, this is not enough.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Many people would say that their roots lie in the land,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39but there can be few people to whom their native land means as much
0:06:39 > 0:06:42as it does to the Aboriginal.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Even when they're on stations and settlements
0:06:44 > 0:06:47provided with abundant water and free food and clothing,
0:06:47 > 0:06:52the pull of the desert persists and, sometimes, it becomes irresistible.
0:06:52 > 0:06:53Sometimes, without warning,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57whole families will just disappear from the station.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59They've gone walkabout, as they say in pidgin.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03They've gone to live as their fathers and ancestors did,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06wandering naked in the desert.
0:07:06 > 0:07:12To the stranger, the desert looks sterile, empty and hostile.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16To the Aboriginal, everything has its meaning and its use.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19The hot stones that litter the ground, cracking in the sun,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21are not all the same.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24If you know where to look, you can find the special rocks
0:07:24 > 0:07:27that can be turned into a tool or a weapon.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47In this part of Australia, flint knives are hardly shaped at all.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50They're simply flakes struck from a larger boulder,
0:07:50 > 0:07:52but they can be as sharp as a razor.
0:07:56 > 0:08:02Spinifex grass - dusty, prickly and seemingly valueless.
0:08:02 > 0:08:03But the Aboriginal knows
0:08:03 > 0:08:07that its stems are beaded with tiny particles of resin.
0:08:07 > 0:08:08If you beat the grass,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12the resin falls off onto the ground as a fine dust,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14and this is valuable.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Under the heat of the boulder, the resin melts.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17Within ten minutes, you can produce a plastic, sticky mass,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21easily moulded while it's hot, but concrete hard as soon as it cools.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38With this, you can produce a neat,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42very effective handle for the flint chip.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51And so, from a boulder and a pile of grass,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54the Aborigine produces a very effective dagger.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Many of the bushes that sparsely clothe the desert
0:09:59 > 0:10:02seem equally to be without value.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Few of them bear edible berries or fruit,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10but the roots of one particular kind conceal a different sort of delicacy.
0:10:20 > 0:10:26Witchetty grubs, the fat white larvae of a wood-boring beetle.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38They can be eaten roasted or simply as they are, alive.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52To the ignorant, these are just ants, a nuisance.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56But the Aboriginal knows from the tiny yellow spot on the ants' heads
0:10:56 > 0:10:59that these are a special sort of ant
0:10:59 > 0:11:02and one whose nests are well worth digging out.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04Down in the subterranean galleries
0:11:04 > 0:11:08hang shining brown globules the size of marbles.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10They're alive.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Each is a worker ant
0:11:12 > 0:11:14that has been injected with honey collected by other workers
0:11:14 > 0:11:18until it is so bloated that it is little more than an animated jar
0:11:18 > 0:11:22from which the colony will suck the honey during a bad season.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27To the Aboriginal, each ant is a mouthful of warm, liquid honey,
0:11:27 > 0:11:28the sweetest thing in the desert,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32even sweeter than the combs of the wild bees.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37But the desert can provide more substantial food than ants or grubs.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Empty though it may seem during the heat of the day,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42there are still kangaroos and lizards, snakes and birds
0:11:42 > 0:11:45that can provide good meat
0:11:45 > 0:11:49to those skilful enough to hunt them successfully.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53On their walkabouts, the men may travel many miles almost naked
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and with nothing but their spears and spear throwers.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Most strangers would die within a few days of hunger and thirst,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04but these hunters are travelling over their tribal ground
0:12:04 > 0:12:06and they know the particular fold in the rock
0:12:06 > 0:12:10which conceals the only source of water for 20 miles in any direction.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14The water may be green and tepid,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17but it may also be the difference between life and death.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25The men understand the seasons as well as they know the country
0:12:25 > 0:12:28and they vary their route in order to visit a well-remembered tree,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31which they knew would be in blossom at this precise time,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35so that they might eat the soft, fleshy petals, sweet with nectar.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42In order that they can communicate silently over long distances
0:12:42 > 0:12:46during a hunt, they have their own sign language.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51I asked one of them, Jebel Jaray, to explain some of the gestures to me.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53What is the sign for kangaroo?
0:12:53 > 0:12:57- Marlu. - Marlu. And for...
0:12:57 > 0:12:58Kanyarla.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01- That's the woolly kangaroo? - Yeah, kanyarla.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Kanyarla? And what's rock wallaby?
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Like that? And...like him, yes?
0:13:09 > 0:13:11And what's goanna?
0:13:12 > 0:13:14- Is that goanna? - Goanna, yeah.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16- Like that? - Yeah, goanna.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19And honey - shugabeg - bees?
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Go like this...
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And what's anteater, hedgehog?
0:13:26 > 0:13:27- Porcupine? - Yeah, porcupine.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29You call him porcupine, with all the prickles on it?
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Yeah. Jilka.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Well, I hope you have a good hunting.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35- Yowai gudwan. - Good.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39The Aboriginal has extraordinary keen sight
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and a fine appreciation of minute details
0:13:42 > 0:13:44which few white men could rival.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48The ground to him is a book inscribed with precise information
0:13:48 > 0:13:51about all the creatures that have passed over it.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55The trails tell him not only what kind of animal made them,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57but often the animal's age and sex.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02One old man once recognised a footprint as that of his sister
0:14:02 > 0:14:04who had passed that way two days before,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07but whom he had not seen for 20 years.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11He followed it for three days before at last he met her,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14never once doubting the message he had seen on the ground.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Jebel Jaray has seen a kanyarla, a woolly kangaroo.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28It's a big and valuable prize, if only they can get it.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51They approach in Indian file
0:14:51 > 0:14:54so that only one of them is visible to the kangaroo.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58And as only Jebel Jaray, the leader, can therefore see the animal,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01he signals instructions to those behind.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10The kangaroo is sleeping,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13almost hidden in the shade of the big fig tree.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16They move very slowly with extreme caution.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19If the animal so much as opens its eyes,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23the hunters will freeze motionless until it settles down again.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Jebel Jaray is going to use his woomera, the spear thrower,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33which enables him to hurl his spear with greater leverage and force.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Beneath the fig tree,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50the kangaroo is finally dispatched by a blow on the head with a boulder.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Although it's not full-grown,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05it will provide a good meal of tender meat for the hunters
0:16:05 > 0:16:08and there will still be enough to take back some joints
0:16:08 > 0:16:11to the women and children in camp.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18THEY SPEAK IN WARLPIRI
0:16:22 > 0:16:26The Aborigines' method of cooking could scarcely be more simple.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Only one thing must be done to the carcass -
0:16:29 > 0:16:32its skin must be cut open and its viscera removed,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36taking great care that the gall bladder is not cut or punctured,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38for that would ruin the meat.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41But before you can cook, you must have fire.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50The edge of the woomera is pulled to and fro over an old log.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17The log itself has not caught fire,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19but the friction of the hard woomera
0:17:19 > 0:17:21has produced a hot, black powder
0:17:21 > 0:17:24which has collected in a crack in the log.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26This powder serves as tinder
0:17:26 > 0:17:29and is emptied onto a handful of dried grass.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46Flames - the whole operation has taken less than a couple of minutes.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06In a country where rain may not fall for months on end,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10it's usually easy to find an abundant supply of dry wood
0:18:10 > 0:18:12with which to make a big fire.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17As the fire burns, the ashes are heaped round the kangaroo's carcass
0:18:17 > 0:18:19and in a few hours, it's cooked.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28THEY CONVERSE IN WARLPIRI
0:18:42 > 0:18:46And so the land provides the Aboriginal with everything he needs
0:18:46 > 0:18:49with a minimum of exploitation.
0:18:49 > 0:18:50He grows nothing.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53He domesticates no animal, except the dingo dog,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56which he brought with him when he first came into this country.
0:18:56 > 0:18:57The land provides all
0:18:57 > 0:19:01to those who understand its secrets and its mysteries,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04and so it's scarcely surprising that it's in the land itself
0:19:04 > 0:19:07that the Aboriginal sees his gods
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and his walkabouts become his pilgrimages,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12for on them he revisits the ancient sites
0:19:12 > 0:19:16that mark the places where the ancestral spirits
0:19:16 > 0:19:19first emerged onto the earth in the Dreamtime.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Ayers Rock is one of them, but it's now deserted.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25But still, in remote parts of the country,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29there are sites where the old rituals continue,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33and I was taken to such a secret place by a man of the Warlpiri tribe.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34His name was Tim.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37He had learned English when he was in the army during the war,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39so we were able to talk easily.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Together, we went to a rock many miles from the settlement.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46A rock sacred to the great ancestral python, Yarripiri,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50which emerged here during the Creation, the Dreamtime.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Tim, tell me about these paintings. What's this one?
0:19:55 > 0:19:57- They're snakes. - Snakes?
0:19:57 > 0:19:59- A snake, Yarripiri. - Yarripiri?
0:19:59 > 0:20:01- Dreaming. - From the dreaming time?
0:20:01 > 0:20:04From the dreaming, that's what they call Yarripiri, snake.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Yeah. Is he like an ordinary snake?
0:20:07 > 0:20:10No, he's really the snake of dreaming.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12- A spirit snake? - A spirit snake.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15- And where does he live? - Oh, he live in there.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17- Where, down here? - Under the hole here.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20- There's that hole down there. - Yeah.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23His spirit in there, really. Nobody can see it.
0:20:23 > 0:20:24You've never seen him?
0:20:24 > 0:20:27No. The hole has come out here, to make all the tracks,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30- so you see of his track. - So you see his tracks?
0:20:30 > 0:20:32Yes, the spirit of the Yarripiri snake, in there.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38And this place, why have you put this painting of it on this place?
0:20:38 > 0:20:41TIM: Well, the Yarripiri made the law to have the painting on this rock.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44DAVID: The snake made the law that you had to?
0:20:44 > 0:20:47TIM: It's the first snake in the world, the Yarripiri.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49It made the whole world.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51- He made the whole world? - Yes.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53DAVID: And what are these things alongside there?
0:20:53 > 0:20:56- The men, we, blekbala. - Those are blekbala?
0:20:56 > 0:21:02TIM: The blekbala, he said...have to do a drawing on his spirit rocks.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04DAVID: The snake said that you must put these drawings
0:21:04 > 0:21:06- on the spirit rock, is that right? - Yes.
0:21:10 > 0:21:11And what's in here?
0:21:11 > 0:21:13That's a tjurunga of Yarripiri dreaming.
0:21:13 > 0:21:14Can I see him?
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Yes.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- And this is what? - Meanings.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24What's this meaning - Warlpiri country.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26- The snake country. - Yeah.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30- And what's this? - The blekbala, we.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32- That's the blekbala, you? - Yeah.
0:21:32 > 0:21:33- And this? - Spear.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36- A spear. By law. - A spear.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40- Yes, and this? - That's the little carpet snake.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43- The carpet snake? - Yeah. Yarripiri's son.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46DAVID: Yarripiri's son. Uh-huh. And what's this?
0:21:46 > 0:21:48TIM: Rib bone. Yarripiri's rib bone.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50DAVID: Yarripiri's rib bone? Yeah.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54So, this tells the people who now come, the younger men,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57it shows them the way they must paint their bodies?
0:21:57 > 0:21:58- Yes. - Is that right?
0:21:58 > 0:22:00Yes. Really, it's right.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02DAVID: And so in many years to come,
0:22:02 > 0:22:08the tjurunga will show to the young men the way of custom?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11- Yes, we have a school. - It's like a school?
0:22:11 > 0:22:15School, we tell every story on this meaning here.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18- Yes. - Die now... It tells me now.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22When we die, they'll come read all about it on this cave wall.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25That's what they had, all people had this meaning and stories,
0:22:25 > 0:22:26and will have ceremony same way.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28And they'll have the ceremony the same way?
0:22:28 > 0:22:30- Same way, yeah. - And so this is a book?
0:22:30 > 0:22:33- It's a book. - And it's a law?
0:22:33 > 0:22:34- Yes. - It's Yarripiri's law?
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Yarripiri's law.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Not all tjurungas are of wood - some are of stone.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47The large one here, they say, is the tongue of an ancestral dingo dog.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49These stone tablets
0:22:49 > 0:22:52have been cherished by these people for generations.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56They are very sacred and also extremely secret.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59If an uninitiated person should happen to see them,
0:22:59 > 0:23:03by tradition, he would be hacked to death with the tjurungas.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06THEY CHANT
0:23:12 > 0:23:16A ironstone pebble is ground to produce red ochre
0:23:16 > 0:23:20so that the men may paint both the tjurungas and their own bodies.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25CHANTING CONTINUES
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Already the man, his mind filled with thoughts of the snake god,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33is moving his body in a snake-like way.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38CHANTING CONTINUES
0:23:55 > 0:23:58As the men trace the patterns with their fingers,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01so the myths and the legends about Yarripiri
0:24:01 > 0:24:05that explain the origin of mankind live in the men's minds.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07They're preparing for a ceremony
0:24:07 > 0:24:11in which the snake itself will come to life in mime.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Ah...!
0:24:15 > 0:24:18BULLROARER SHRIEKS
0:24:20 > 0:24:25That unearthly sound is produced by this instrument, a bullroarer,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29a piece of wood inscribed with the sacred designs.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38The screams of the men and the shriek of the bullroarer
0:24:38 > 0:24:40are a warning to any women or youths
0:24:40 > 0:24:42to keep away from the ritual ground,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46for soon Yarripiri, the snake god himself, will appear.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51The man who will represent the snake is given a headdress of leaves
0:24:51 > 0:24:55bound together with string made from twisted human hair.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58THEY CHANT
0:25:03 > 0:25:08The snake dancer has his body smeared with ochre and kangaroo fat.
0:25:12 > 0:25:18One of the old men cuts a vein in his forearm to draw blood.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20THEY CHANT
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Slowly, the blood drips into a tin.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Now the body of the snake god is painted with the old man's blood,
0:25:32 > 0:25:34which serves as a glue
0:25:34 > 0:25:39on which to stick the brown and white downy seeds of a desert grass.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41MAN SHOUTS AND BULLROARER SHRIEKS
0:25:47 > 0:25:50CHANTING
0:26:08 > 0:26:10CHANTING CONTINUES
0:26:33 > 0:26:39The preparations take all morning, but at last everything is ready.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The ritual itself can begin.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43BULLROARER SHRIEKS
0:26:49 > 0:26:51THEY CHANT
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Du du du du du!
0:27:00 > 0:27:04CHANTING CONTINUES
0:27:11 > 0:27:13With each movement of his body,
0:27:13 > 0:27:15the dancer imitates the actions of a stake
0:27:15 > 0:27:18shrinking from the touch of a stick.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21The ceremony itself is only one in a long series
0:27:21 > 0:27:23which may last for several months,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26during which the young men of the tribe
0:27:26 > 0:27:29are instructed in the mysteries of the Creation,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31into the stories and the myths of Yarripiri.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34CHANTING CONTINUES
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Ya la la la la la!
0:27:49 > 0:27:53CHANTING RECOMMENCES
0:28:08 > 0:28:10It lasts a few minutes only.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13A touch, and the spell is broken.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Once more, the sacred rock is decorated with the magical designs,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22paying homage to the ancestral snake.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24These ceremonials are an expression
0:28:24 > 0:28:27of the Aborigine's attitude to work the world in which he lives,
0:28:27 > 0:28:33the world which has provided him with weapons and food and drink.
0:28:33 > 0:28:34By practising the cults,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38he enters into communion with the incarnate spirits of the land
0:28:38 > 0:28:40which give a meaning to his life
0:28:40 > 0:28:44and from which he draws strength, solace and confidence.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48When his world changes, when he ceases to hunt the kangaroo
0:28:48 > 0:28:50but gets his meat in a tin from a store,
0:28:50 > 0:28:52when he no longer drinks from a rock pool
0:28:52 > 0:28:55but draws water from a borehole tap,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57and is handed tea and sugar,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59shirts and trousers free from the government,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03then the direct bond with nature is broken,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07and his religion, and often his life, loses its meaning.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Over most of Australia, this has already happened.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13Soon, it will happen here too,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17and little will be left except the enigmatic paintings
0:29:17 > 0:29:19lonely and fading in the desert.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24ABORIGINAL CHANTING
0:29:39 > 0:29:42BULLROARER SHRIEKS