(continuing from.. 'sepotong makassar....')

Requiem for the Departed

The maritime culture of the Macassans permeates life in the land of the Aborigines. Ancient paintings of padekawang abound in caves in Arnhem Land.

The sail at the masthead dips from side to side.
As the boat comes up from the south…
The sail unfurled at the masthead flaps in the wind.
It stands upright and flaps, as the boat goes on.
The wind tosses the sail, up on the mast,
And the masthead moves, dipping from side to side
The sail on the mast flaps, dancing, and ‘talks’ in the wind..

(Gurmatjh Clan, Yirkala)

Fresh flowers of all colors are planted at the head of the grave, flags flapping at every corner. No tombstone, except for a totem pole 2 meters tall. On its top an iron anchor stands out against the sky. "The flag and the head of the totem pole bear strong influences from the Macassan ships," Steve Westley, manager of the Galiwinku Art Center in Galiwinku, told me.

There’s a sense of liveliness, warmth and dynamism. Here is a legacy of the Macassans’ maritime tradition coloring the life of the Aborigines in Arnhem. The song of the Gumatj, originally sung to say farewell to Macassan sailors returning home to Sulawesi, turns into a requiem. They danced and sang around a bonfire in farewell parties of bygone days. Today the requiem is sung at funeral rites within the Gumatj clan from Yirkella to Elcho in Arnhem Land. "The song is sung repeatedly on the demise of a relative," says anthropologist C. Brendt.

In the beliefs of the Aborigines death is a journey home. Sails are unfurled, the flags flapping, the anchors weighed—this is a death ritual for the Aborigines. Dozens of flags and poles decorate funeral grounds in Galiwinku. "We call the poles wuramu," says Datjing Burarrwanga, a descendant of the Macassan sailors in Arnhem Land.

The wuramu takes many forms, including the totem pole, the top of which is painted and carved in the form of a human head. Set up under asam trees in Arnhem Land, the pole resembles a tombstone in Makassar. In an article titled Macassar and the Aborigines, McKnight writes: "Some poles are fashioned in the form of a tripod mast of a padewakang."

Wuramu also has another meaning in the life of the Aborigines in the spirit of the Creator. In the coming-of-age ritual among members of the Burarrwanga family, for instance, the word of praise barokallah (blessings of Allah) is repeatedly sung, the same word of praise uttered by the Macassan sailors. "If they have barokallah in Makassar, here our creator is wurakamu," says Datjing, explaining the song sung by his father Matjuwi. This proves that the Macassans, who were Muslims, never forced their faith on the Aborigines.

Macassans’ influences are evident not only in the Aborigine songs, but also in their dances, notably the dance of the flags. A dance festival held in Darwin in August featured a group called the Red Flag Dancers which stole the show with the performers, their bodies painted and dressed only in loincloths, dancing wit flags of all colors.

"Originally the flags were flown on the topmast of a ship on departure or to show the direction of the wind. No idea of flags was known to the Aborigines before," says Joanna Barrkman, curator at the Northern Territory Museum of Art and Gallery in Darwin.

Flags also feature in Aboriginal paintings, whether done on canvasses, tree bark or other media. Paintings by Matjuwi Burarrwanga, for instance, give much emphasis on images of padewakang complete with its sails and tripod masts, and pedang, parang, Macassans’ houses and teripang.

The images are depicted figuratively in two dimensions in four basic colors: yellow, brick red, black and white, typical for thousands of years of Aboriginal paintings. The basic colors are drawn from natural materials, including lime, coal, and ochre red and yellow rocks pounded into fine grains and mixed with water into paint. Each clan has its own characteristics, depending on the materials available. On Elcho Island, which is rich in lime, white is dominant in the paintings by the local artists.

Images of life in Makassar are found in many rock paintings. George Chaloupka, a rock painting researcher, discovered such paintings in Groote Eylandt, including dozens depicting padekawang the Macassans traditional sailboat. Sadly, Chaloupka could not determine the date of the paintings for lack of carbon material in them. "But judging by the theme of the paintings, one can conclude that they were done between the 17th and 18th centuries," says Chaloupka.

Images of monkeys climbing trees, for instance, were clearly done by an Aborigine who had been to Makassar. Other than monkeys and padekawang, he also painted light-skinned Macassan women dressed in sarongs. "It’s his way of expressing himself of what he had seen for posterity," Chaloupka says.

There’s growing appreciation of Aboriginal paintings in Australia with the annual presentation of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. The winner carries a cash prize of US$40,000, which is equivalent to Rp360 million. "Works of art have become a main source of income for many Aborigines, without which they can only rely on government aid," says Joanna.
Today many Aboriginal works of art are on display in galleries in Australia, fetching prices many times over the original paid the artists.

Sitting on the ground, the Aboriginal families gather to listen to legends recited by the elders of the community of visitors from across the seas—from an island far away in Sulawesi. The centuries-old legends tell of a seafaring tradition of the Macassan sailors who brave the stormy seas to visit the Land of the Aborigines.

It hangs down, that rigging, like falling rain.
They were looking at the rigging,
hanging down from the cross-bar,
from the top of the mast…
They looked at the rigging,
ropes dangling downward…
Looked at it,
hanging down from the cross-bar,
from the mast, like falling rain…
On top of the cross-bar,
hanging down to the deck,
the sail at the mast…

Endah WS (GAliwinku, Arnhemland Australia)