Hollow log coffin
Lorrkkon

Hear the pronunciation, spoken by Ananais Jawulba

We used to cut the hollow logs and take them into the ceremony, down to the camp. After a person dies, I would wait two years. We don’t bury them in the ground; it is too difficult to extract the body. Two years time means, okay get the shovel, time to stand up the lorrkkon. We tell everyone, ‘Let’s go to the Lorrkkon ceremony. Let’s cut a hollow log’. Then someone cuts one and we wait a few days for it to dry out and become light. Once it is light, it can be carried down and then we start preparing the surface with a wood rasp, and the bones of the deceased are prepared. In the Lorrkkon ceremony early in the morning, at dawn, that’s when we put the bones into the hollow log. We place the bones inside until they have filled it up and we knock them down, moving them into the hollow log. But they don’t fall out the other end, as we have blocked the bottom of the log. At the end of the ceremony, early in the morning, as the sun moves across the sky, the hollow log is placed upright. It will stand there and decay. At the end of the standing-up ritual the women will dance around it.

In the camp, people chant as they move up. The section with men carrying burning torches represents the fire hawks who carry burning embers and take them away, dropping them to continue the fire. Fire hawks, or brown falcons, carry the fire in the ceremony, representing the hawk lifting up that person and taking them away. I have seen hawks carrying fire. During a bushfire, they dive down at speed and take a burning ember in their claws – ‘snap’, they grab it. They take the fire away and drop it somewhere else. 

Manek ngarrihbuyi koluyi lorrkkon. Bininj karrowen, mandjewk djarrkno ngamadbun. Minj kabirrikarung kunkurlk, manwarre kunkurlkkerlk. Kunkurlk minj ngarrkarung body minj ngarrbebke. Mandjewk bokenh. That mean djabol ‘bard’ and lorrkkon. ‘Ey karrire lorrkkon wanjh. Karridadjdje’ wanjh karradjme kalarrhme. Bokenh kunkodjdje la kalarrhme kawobme. Kawobme kakolung. Bokenh djarrkno kunkodjdje. Kawobmen wanjh kunkanj bonj, woodrasp ngarribun la mono kakaberrkyo. la nane lorrkkon kunekke kabarrhbun ngarrdahkendong. Ngarrmurrngdahkendong konda, konda kare, kawohnjamed, kabarlme wanh kahdjale ngarridong kundulk kaderrehme name mono kure kayime. Bad kure minj kamngimen larrk, konda kadjale en kurebeh ngarribalhme bonj. Yo ngarridjabname kalarrhdi weleng. Duluk yo kabirriborrkke.

Kured kume kakadjung wanjh kare kabidbun. Kabirribirlekan kabirrikan ngalekke karrkkanj kakan. Karrkkanj kamang Bininj kawayhke wanjh ngaleng kakan kaddum. Kubuyika kabirlewarrhke kadjalrung kubolkbuyika. Ngabengkan nganang. Nawu yibengkan manwurrk karung kayurrburrihme kabirlimang kanjdji, kundenge ‘kard’ kamang. Kabirlikan wanjh kubolkbuyika kabadbirliwarrhke. 

– John Mawurndjul, with translation by Murray Garde