Kurdaitcha
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A kurdaitcha, or kurdaitcha man, also spelt gadaidja, cadiche, kadaitcha, karadji,[1] or kaditcha[2] (Arrernte orthography: kwertatye), is a type of shaman and traditional executioner amongst the Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group in Central Australia. The name featherfoot is used to denote the same figure by other Aboriginal peoples.[3][4]
The kurdaitcha may be brought in to punish a guilty party by death. The word may also relate to the ritual in which the death is willed by the kurdaitcha man, known also as bone-pointing. The word may also be used by Europeans to refer to the shoes worn by the kurdaitcha, which are woven of feathers and human hair and treated with blood.
Background
Among traditional Indigenous Australians there is no such thing as a belief in natural death.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] All deaths are considered to be the result of evil spirits or spells, usually influenced by an enemy. Often, a dying person will whisper the name of the person they think caused their death. If the identity of the guilty person is not known, a "magic man" will watch for a sign, such as an animal burrow leading from the grave showing the direction of the home of the guilty party. This may take years but the identity is always eventually discovered. The elders of the mob that the deceased belonged to then hold a meeting to decide a suitable punishment. A kurdaitcha may or may not be arranged to avenge them.
Illapurinja
An illapurinja, literally "the changed one", is a female kurdaitcha who is secretly sent by her husband to avenge some wrong, most often the failure of a woman to cut herself as a mark of sorrow on the death of a family member. Believed to be entirely mythical, the fear of the illapurinja would be enough to induce following the custom.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
20th century
The practice of kurdaitcha had died out completely in southern Australia by the 20th century although it was still carried out infrequently in the north.[5]
In a report in by the Adelaide Advertiser in 1952, some Indigenous men had died in The Granites gold mine in the Tanami Desert, after reporting a sighting of a kurdaitcha man. They were very scared and danced a corroboree to chase evil spirits away. Anthropologist Ted Strehlow and doctors brought in to investigate said that the deaths were most likely caused by malnutrition and pneumonia, and Strehlow said that Aboriginal belief in "black magic" was in general dying out.[6]
Kurdaitcha shoes
Europeans also used the name kurdaitcha (or kadaitcha) to refer to a distinctive type of oval feathered shoes, apparently worn by the kurdaitcha (man). The Indigenous names for these shoes are interlinia in northern Australia and intathurta in the south. The soles are made of emu feathers, and the uppers of human hair or animal fur. Most of the early European descriptions state that human blood was used as the principal binding agent; however Kim Akerman noted that although human blood might indeed have been used to charge the shoes with magical power (turning invisible), it is likely felting was the main method used to bind the parts together.[7] The upper surface is covered with a net woven from human hair. An opening in the centre allows the foot to be inserted.
In some instances the shoes were allowed to be seen by women and children; in others, it was taboo for anyone but an adult man to see them.[7] When not in use they were kept wrapped in kangaroo skin or hidden in a sacred place. Although they were permitted to be used more than once, they usually did not last more than one journey.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. When in use, they were decorated with lines of white and pink down and were said to leave no tracks.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Spencer and Gillen noted that the genuine kurdaitcha shoe has a small opening on one side where a dislocated big toe can be inserted.[α]Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In 1896 Patrick Byrne, a self-taught anthropologist at Charlotte Waters telegraph station, published a paper entitled "Note on the customs connected with the use of so-called kurdaitcha shoes of Central Australia" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. The paper was described as a "...careful piecing together of kurdaitcha revenge technique from accounts obtained from old men in the Charlotte Waters area in 1892".[8]
Aboriginal people also began to make kurdaitcha shoes for sale to Europeans, and Spencer and Gillen noted seeing ones that were in fact far too small to have actually been worn. Until the 1970s these shoes were a popular craft item, made to sell to visitors to many sites in the central and Western Desert areas of Australia.[7]
Bone pointing
The expectation that death would result from having a bone pointed at a victim is not without foundation. Other similar rituals that cause death have been recorded around the world.[9] Victims become listless and apathetic, usually refusing food or water with death often occurring within days of being "cursed". When victims survive, it is assumed that the ritual was faulty in its execution. The phenomenon is recognised as psychosomatic in that death is caused by an emotional response—often fear—to some suggested outside force and is known as "voodoo death". As this term refers to a specific religion, the medical establishment has suggested that "self-willed death", or "bone-pointing syndrome" is more appropriate.[10][11] In Australia, the practice is still common enough that hospitals and nursing staff are trained to manage illness caused by "bad spirits" and bone pointing.[12]
Examples
The following story is related about the role of kurdaitcha by anthropologists John Godwin and Ronald Rose:[13][14]
In 2004, an Indigenous Australian woman who disagreed with the abolition of the Aboriginal-led government body Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission cursed the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, by pointing a bone at him.[15]
In popular culture
An act of kurdaitcha initiates both legal and cultural conflict in Peter Weir's 1977 film The Last Wave.[16]
Kurdaitcha is featured in the 1960 Australian/British television series Whiplash episode "The Bone that Whispered".[citation needed]
Explanatory notes
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- ^ A large number of kurdaitcha shoes are in collections, however, most are too small for feet or do not have the small hole in the side. It is speculated that, due to the difficulty of their construction, many shoes are made as practice rather than to be worn.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Cowan, James (1992). Mysteries of the Dream-time: Spiritual Life of the Australian Aborigines (2nd revised ed.). Prism Press. ISBN 978-1-8532-7077-2.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ross, R. "138a. Kaditcha-gwalior". Lassseteria. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Korff, Jens (23 February 2020). "Tribal punishment, customary law & payback". Creative Spirits. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Featherfoot of Aussie Aboriginal Lore". Jan Hawkins Author. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Spencer, Baldwin; Gillen, F. J. (2010) [1899]. Native Tribes of Central Australia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 476–477. ISBN 978-1-108-02044-2.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Natives die after kurdaitcha man's visit". The Advertiser. Vol. 95, no. 29, 311. Adelaide, South Australia. 20 September 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 20 May 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Akerman, Kim (2005). "Shoes of Invisibility and Invisible Shoes: Australian Hunters and Gatherers and Ideas on the Origins of Footwear". Australian Aboriginal Studies: 55–64.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Patrick Michael Byrne". UK: Horniman Museum and Gardens. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
- ^ Roonka. Compiled by Dr Keryn Walshe for the South Australian Museum. Hyde Park Press 2009 Template:ISBN
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hahn, Patrick D. (4 September 2007). "Scared to Death: Self-Willed Death, or the Bone-Pointing Syndrome". Biology Online. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Cannon, Walter Bradford (2002). ""VOODOO" Death". American Journal of Public Health. 92 (10): 1593–1596. doi:10.2105/ajph.92.10.1593. PMC 1447285. PMID 12356599.
- Originally published as Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Cannon, Walter Bradford (1944). ""Voodoo" Death". American Anthropologist. New Series. 44 (2): 169–181. doi:10.1525/aa.1942.44.2.02a00010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Curtis, Kate; Ramsden, Clair; Friendship, Julie, eds. (2007). Emergency and Trauma Nursing. Elsevier Australia. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7295-3769-8.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Godwin, John. Unsolved: The World of the Unknown. pp. 163–176.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Rose, Ronald. Living Magic. pp. 30–36.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Aborigines put curse on Australian PM etc". European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights: news. Sydney: einar.org. 20 April 2004. Archived from the original on 26 December 2010. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."John Denvir: The Last Wave". cap-press.com. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
Further reading
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