The Churinga or Tjurunga docs Part 1: offered by Madrason

The Churinga Docs:Part 1:

There is no certain way to date the old churingas that are from the pre-contact
period (before 1780). They can be as old as the Aboriginal culture, 40-50,000
years. With the earliest rockpaintings and carvings, the cylcons and churingas
represent the oldest form of communication and art, still present, and theyrepresent the oldest religion still observed. The aborigine owner's belief is
that his kuruna or spirit is intimately associated with his churinga. Even today
the whole of Australia is dotted over with Knanikillas, or local totem centres.
Each of these has a sacred storehouse for the tribe's and individuals'
churingas, guarded by the inkata. Women, and men that had not passed
through the ceremonies of circumcision and subincision, were not allowed to
approach the storehouse, Pertalchera.
The aborigine people of the Central desert read the patterns on the churinga
as representations of nature, a kind of map or site. The icons are not literally
figurative. Rather they can be interpreted as a whole range of natural
phenomena that are stereotyped in their typical form, so they become an
artistic system. Each churinga had its own personal 'name', which had to be
sung whenever it was being inspected or handled. The name was one of the
verses from the sacred song cycle related to the actual totem centre.

Tjurunga or churinga;

Not only were these objects collected as objects of desire but
they are regularly traded. These records
have been maintained since 2003.
A churinga or tjurunga was a term applied to objects of
religious significance by Central Australian Aboriginal
Arrernte (Aranda, Arundta) groups. According to T.G.H
Strehlow, (Aranda Traditions Melbourne University Press,
1947. P.85-6) these often had a wide and indeterminate
native significance. They included:
•
•

1. Sacred ceremonies
2. Stone Objects•

1. Wooden sacred objects
2. Bullroarers
3. Sacred ground paintings
4. Ceremonial poles
5. Ceremonial head gear
6. Sacred chants
7. Sacred earth mounds

Generally speaking , tjurunga denote sacred stone or wooden
objects possessed by private or group owners together with
the legends, chants, and ceremonies associated with them.
They are amongst the very few forms of property which may
be owned legitimately by individual persons in Central
Australia.
The ownership of sacred tjurunga amongst the Arrernte
groups was determined largely by `the conception site' of
every individual member of a patrilineal totemic clan.
In many myths the ancestors themselves are said to have
used them and stored them away as their most treasured
possessions. Such myths emphasise the life-holding magical
properties of these tjurunga. The ancestor regarded his
tjurunga as portions of his own being; and is always anxious
that strangers might come and rob him of the very essence
of his life. Accordingly, the legends abound with stories of
theft and robbery, and the very fierce vengeance exacted.
The acquisition of sufficient knowledge leading to possession
of personal tjurunga was long, difficult and sometimes
extremely painful. Practices differed amongst the various
groups. Strehlow describes how the men from the Northern,
Southern and Western Arrernte groups were put on probation
for several years after their last initiations. The old men
would carefully note a young man's conduct. He had to be
respectful towards his elders; he had to be attentive to their
advice in all things. He would know the value of silence in
ceremonial matters: no account of his past experiences could
be spoken with the hearing of women and children. His own
marriage had to conform to the laws of the group. Then one
day the old men, sitting in a circle, would call him in to sit
down in their midst. They began to chant. One man told
Strehlow:
The old men seized my hand. They all struck up the chant-verse:With fierce eyes, with glowing eyes, they seize the thumb;
With fierce eyes, with glowing eyes, they rip off the nail.
An old man produced a sharp kangaroo bone (ntjala). He stabbed my
thumb with it, pushed the bone deeply underneath the nail. He drew the
point out; the rest kept up the chant. He thrust it under the nail in a
different place. He gradually loosened the thumbnail. It was slippery
with blood. I almost shrieked with pain; the torment was unbearable. I
have not forgotten it: the pain was not slight; it was exceedingly great.
When the nail had been loosened, he took a sharp opossum tooth,
forced it into the living flesh through the base of the thumb-nail, and
tore the nail off from behind. Blood spurted over his hand. The man
chanted:
They rip off the nail, they tear off the nail;
Blood flows like a river, rushes along like a river.
Then they seized my left hand and removed the thumb-nail in like
manner.
Nowadays we make a great concession to the young men in our group.
We no longer tear off their finger-nails. The price is too high; we give
the tjurunga to them at a much lower cost. Besides, the young men of
the present generation are no longer hardy enough to endure such pain.
The tjurunga were visible embodiments of some part of the
fertility of the great ancestor of the totem in question. The
body of the ancestor merely undergoes a transmutation into
something that will weather all the assaults of time, change
and decay. Stone tjurunga were thought to have been made
by the ancestors themselves. The wooden tjurunga made by
the old men are symbolical of the actual tjurunga which
`cannot be found'. These `man-made' tjurunga were
accepted without reservation as sacred objects.
At the time of receiving his tjurunga-body a young man may
be twenty five years of age. He will often be thirty-five or
forty years of age before the most sacred chants and
ceremonies that are linked with it have passed into his
possession. As he grows older and continues to demonstrate
his worthiness, he receives an ever-increasing share in the
tjurunga owned by his own totemic clan. Eventually he may
become a member of the assembly of old ceremonial chiefs
who are honoured trustees for the ancient traditions of the
whole clan.
In 1933, Strehlow noted that after the advent of white men
to Central Australia, the young men employed by the foreignintruders were watched very closely by the old men of their
group. In many cases, unless the young men were
outstandingly generous in their gifts towards their elders, no
ceremonies or chants of power and importance were handed
on to this unworthy younger generation. With the death of
the old men such chants and ceremonies passed into
oblivion.