ABSTRACT
In this photograph by Roslyn Poignant, taken in Arnhem Land, Australia, in 1992, Frank Gurrmanamana sings one of a series of Jambich manikay songs, which are best glossed as sacred history songs. This he does in response to a series of Axel Poignant’s photographs of the rom ceremony, holding one of the images in his hand, and matching the appropriate verse in the series to the image.1 In this way, he engages with and reinforces his relationship with his lineage and ancestors. The verbal imagery of the songs mirrors the visual imagery of the indexical trace of the rom pole motifs, blurring the distinction between the two (Poignant 1996: 23). But the embodied interaction with the photograph is extended beyond the visual as Frank Gurrmanamana uses the photographs themselves as clapping sticks to accompany his singing, holding them in his hands, beating them rhythmically with his ngers, recalling the sound of the clapping stick and its signicance.2
