AustLit

'Since 1986, Allan Marett has journeyed off and on to the towns of Wadeye (Port Keats) and Belyuen in the Daly River region of northwestern Australia to learn to sing, dance to, love, and understand the deep cultural significance of an Aboriginal song genre called wangga. Wangga do many things for the Marri-tjevin, Marri-ammu, and Wadjiginy peoples who sing them. They bring together the world of the living and dead in two contexts: the giving of songs by the ancestors in the dreams of songmen, and mortuary and circumcision ceremonies. For the first two groups, they are exchanged in ceremonies with two other groups, the owners of the song genres lirrga and dhanba, in a reciprocal social arrangement, invented in the 1950s, that keeps peace among these three groups. They connect the singers to the land and to the Dreamings that gave birth to the land. They create a sense of social solidarity among the Marri-tjevin when sung and danced in vigorous unison during ceremonies. Finally, they are a source of aesthetic enjoyment and creativity in the moment of their performance,' (Introduction)