SENSITIVE CONTENT Field Notebook I - Kimberley, Western Australia [Dalabon, Jaru, Karajarri, Nyikina, Ungarinyin, Wunambal]

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This is a field notebook from Elkin's Kimberley research carried out during 1927-28. It is a hardcover notebook with pages numbered 1 - 252 followed by unnumbered pages. The notebook contains entries starting from the front as well as the back from the book. Elkin's handwritten descriptions on the front cover cannot be deciphered. The notebook includes 5 loose pages numbered 110A-110G, which have the same format as Elkin's loose leaf notebooks that are held together by string, size 80mm x 170mm, titled Mourning ...?.

The content relates to the social organisation including kinship, totemism, genealogy, customs, language of the following language groups and peoples: Karajarri, Dalabon, Jaru, Wunambal, Ungarinyin, Nyikina, Gooniyandi.

Places include: Western Australia, Margaret River, La Grange, Derby, Carnot Bay, Broome, Beagle Bay, Barker River, [Flora Valley cited p. 235 in the context of the Margaret R[iver] Lang[uage].

Table of contents: as transcribed from entries on the front inside cover and its opposite page; the entries provide an indication of subjects covered including genealogies, interviews with egos that include date, place and duration. 
Nigini Language: 50-2.

Under the heading KARAJERI: Marr[iage] rules 102-114, 172-6, 180; Totemism 116; Totemism Cerem[ony] 118-120; Trib[al]... 122; Myth - totemic 126-8; Bullroarers 130, 156-160; Init[iation] Bullroarers 132-154, 52; Burial & Inquest 162; Reincar'n Birth ... 164-8; Inherit[ance] of widows 170; Headman 178; Local org[anisation] 176; Wife lending 172; [wife] promising 176; Wife stealing 112; Wife exchanging 112; Margaret R[iver] Lang[uage] 235. 

Terms on the opposite page include names of individuals:

1-12 Informant: Banjo - Carnot Bay tribe, Governor Broome Hotel, Nov 14. 1927, 2 hrs

14-16, 190-6 Dalagon - Halls Ck, Jaru Lang[uage], Broome Hosp, Nov 15. 1927, 1hr

18-22 Banjo, Nov 15. 1927, 1hr

32- Charlie, La Grange; Mr Hawkes Nov 16. 1927, 2 1/2 hrs

42-52 Sheep station/ ...various, Nigina Tribe Nov 1928

56- Duncan (Derby), Gaol, Ungarinyin Lang[uage], Dec 5-6.

72, 182-188 Harry, Jara /Jaru Lang[uage] Margaret R[iver], Broome Goal, Dec 5.

84 Paddy, Wonambal lang[uage], Barker R[iver], Dec 6.

98 Blind Paddy, Beagle Bay, Dec 21

92, 101-172, Joseph La Grange, Beagle Bay, Jan 15.

180, 182, Paddy, La Grange, Mar 14, 1928.

Information at the back of the notebook includes a Jaru index.

Elkin, AP. "Social Organization in the Kimberley Division” Oceania 2, no. 3 (1932): 296–333. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27976150 Accessed 21/11/2023 Elkin, AP. “The Rainbow-Serpent Myth in North-West Australia.” Oceania 1, no. 3 (1930): 349–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40327333 Accessed 21/11/2023.