Shown but Not Shared, Presented but Not Proffered : Redefining Ritual Identity among Warlpiri Ritual Performers
Whereas much path-breaking ethnography has been generated on the “intercultural space” shared by indigenous and non-native Australians, particularly in the visual performance domain, less attention has been paid to public ritual representations Aborigines have deployed as political tools. Less still has been written on the internal (re)construction and projection of indigenous social identity in public rituals performed in the contemporary Australian neocolonial space. This paper updates earlier research and argues that, over the last ten years, senior female ritual performers from a Central Australian settlement have entered an entirely new phase of ritual representation–one that substantively differs from earlier forms of ceremonial experience, which were intricately linked to the negotiation and exchange of ritual material.