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Smoking the Baby (2001)

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clip Muluru

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Women at Five Mile show us plants using the Indigenous names like muluru, or warrumungu, called wintatu. They tell us that smoking is for mothers and small children. Jungarrayi jungarrayi is used to make the bedding over the fire for the small children. Lemon grass is collected because it smells nice. The footage of the collection of plants used in the smoking ceremony is intercut with footage of a small child being smoked. We are shown a bush called mungkarta in Warrumungu. The site for smoking is selected because it is where the muluru tree and the nuku grow.

Curator’s notes

by Romaine Moreton

The different plants that are collected offer fascinating insight into the ritual of smoking for small children and their mothers. The ritual of smoking is one common to many Indigenous cultures in Australia, and in this clip, we are shown the detailed preparation for the ritual that helps children and mothers fend off illness.

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All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

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  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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