Walipri people have a strict law of order and a system of keeping a ring of undisclosed information a secret from the various groups that are not permitted to be in “the know.” There are secrets kept from a variety of different groups, some depend on age, gender, and faction. Some of them are revealed to individuals during ceremonies as a right of passage, while other secrets are never told to the person that is left in the dark. The idea of secrecy allows for an immense power dynamic among the Walipri people. The clout of secrecy is a component of the law that defines order and keeps things under control. Without this information being not only secret, but coveted, Walipri oral tradition and the entire classification of society would break down.
The Walipri faced a problem when it came to showing ceremonies or revealing secrets on TV. There was no way around disturbing the origin stories or their view of natural law if secrets were to be disclosed to anyone who had access to television. To solve this problem there were many restrictions placed on films, which had to stay within the realm of what was thought to be “within Walipri law.”
One other module of Walipri “law” is the notion that deceased peoples are not permitted to be shown on film or spoken of after death, since photographs and films are taken of people who eventually die; it was a concern of the Walipri people what to do with the films that depict these people. It was determined that the videos would be handled meticulously and decisions would develop as to how to treat them based on their context. As for photographs of large groups where only some of the members had passed, the faces were simply whited out to still allow people to view what was deemed an important photo.
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I thought their way of keeping things secret from certain people was really interesting. I know it's their form of a power dynamic, but its so weird to think that people could be out of the know because of gender, age, or faction. I almost thought of it as their own system of checks and balances, because as long as one person is not overly knowledgeable they cannot deem themselves, or be seen with more power than others. I wonder how this will all play out as TV becomes an increased part of their lives and certain things cannot be hidden.
The thing that really baffled me the most about this article was how they whited out the faces of people who had died in all of the photographs. What's the point of having a photo if you're going to scratch out the peoples faces, especially after they die? The whole thing was very mystical and I would love to learn more about their views of the afterlife because I'm sure the fact that they're not allowed to even speak someones name after they die has a very interesting reason behind it. I also loved how Jupurrurla explained his use of long pans of landscapes, how it was showing the movement of the Earth and the unseen characters in the story. It's so original, and just goes to show what a mind uninfluenced by Western cinema can think about when given a camera.
i thought it was really interesting how the walipiri people were able to incorporate ways to exist with both their traditions and current media technology. the way in which the Walipiri people figured out how to stay true to their culture is really powerful and midn blowing, i think it shows alot of respect because they did put restrictions on what could be filmed. why should they have to expose themsevles in the name of technology? i really find it quite interesting to see how important the Walpiri "Law" is especially in a photograph. i think even as a time marker, to slowly see more and more faces being whited-out would just be interesting, it shows change in a group by slowly watching the people disappear. i'm just in complete aw over their society's ability to never mention the deceased again, i can't picture not mentioning people who i've known that have effected my life in someway and never being able to mention them. I agree with Stephanie about how not being "in the know" could be a system of checks and balances for their power dynamic. the secrecy is what keeps the order together, but in comparsion to our own culture, i guess it is kind of hard to imagine not being able to be in the know-that seems to be a proment theme in American society especially due to the involvment of media.
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