{"id":10716,"date":"2019-10-24T03:41:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/?page_id=10716"},"modified":"2019-10-24T05:07:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T18:07:57","slug":"lorrkon-hollow-log-coffins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/ancestral-stories-and-cultural-connections-in-maningrida\/lorrkon-hollow-log-coffins\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorrkon &#8211; Hollow-log coffins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The Lorrkon or bone pole coffin ceremony was the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony involves the placing of the deceased\u2019s bones into a hollow log which was decorated with painted clan designs and ceremonially placed into the ground where it remained until it slowly decayed over many years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The log is made from a termite hollowed Stringybark tree (Eucalyptus tetradonta) and is decorated with totemic emblems. The western Arnhem Land version of the Lorrkon ceremony involves the singing of sacred songs to the accompaniment of karlikarli, a pair of sacred boomerangs used as rhythm instruments. During the final evening of the ceremony, dancers decorate themselves with kapok down, or today, cotton wool and conduct much of the final segments of the ceremony in the secrecy of a restricted mens\u2019 camp. The complete ceremony may stretch over a period of two weeks, but on the last night the bones of the deceased, which have been kept in a bark container or today wrapped in cloth and kept in a suitcase are taken out, are painted with red ochre and placed inside the hollow log. This ceremony may take place many years after the person has died. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">At first light on the final morning of the Lorrkon ceremony, the men appear, coming out of their secret bush camp carrying the pole towards the women\u2019s camp. The two groups call to each other using distinct ceremonial calls. The women have prepared a hole for the pole to be placed into and when it is stood upright, women in particular kinship relationships to the deceased dance around the pole in a jumping\/shuffling motion. The Lorrkon is then often covered with a tarpaulin and left to slowly decay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE:&nbsp;Maningrida Arts &amp; Culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lorrkon or bone pole coffin ceremony was the final ceremony in a sequence of mortuary rituals celebrated by the people of Arnhem Land. This ceremony involves the placing of the deceased\u2019s bones into a hollow log which was decorated with painted clan designs and ceremonially placed into the ground where it remained until it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10633,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10716","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10716"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10719,"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10716\/revisions\/10719"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idaia.com.au\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}