Punttu: Warumungu skin relationships (Page 2)

punttu family

Manngara jinta arnkulunu wumpurrani ngini. Winkarraja arnku nyunyu punttu karrinyki, ngulyaka, wangarriki, yiwalaka, lukurnuku ngapaka, kuyuku mukuku ngarnttanya appa manungku wurr ngunta.

We Aboriginal people show respect to each other. Wirnkarra (the Dreaming) gave us skin names for people, soakages, hills, trees, stars, water, animals, for everything in the country.

We don’t cut trees in another person’s country without permission, or take water, dig the ground or split rocks. People have different ways of showing respect to different relations. We avoid people after taking part in initiation ceremonies together. We show respect to our in-laws, and don’t talk directly to them. We act modestly towards our elders, fathers, mothers, grandparents.

In the evening we see the dark and the red glow. These were divided by the Dreaming into the two groups of skin names. Kingili and Wurlurru. The red are Wurlurru and the black are Kingalii. Each Warumungu person belongs to one of these two groups, and these in turn are divided into 16 punttu (skins or subsections).

Warumungu people have produced these self-portraits as a contemporary expression of punttu.

M Jones Jampin 2002