M0005686: Intichiuma ceremony of the Unjiamba and Intichiuma ceremony of the Quatcha, Central Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that the photograph contains images of deceased persons

Reproduction of two photographs of Intichiuma, sacred ceremonies, performed by Arrernte men in Central Australia. One concerns the Unjiamba, or Hakea tree, and shows a man pouring blood onto the stone. The other concerns a rain-making ceremony and shows one man covered in down, representing the rainbow. The photographs are reproduced in Spencer, Baldwin and Gillen, F: The native tribes of central Australia, London : Macmillan and Co, 1899. Copies of the book images were acquired by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and accessioned in 1938 (accession number PHO 10944 and PHO 10945).