Riji

{{Short description|Pubic coverings made of pearl shells}} {{about||the village in Iran|Riji, Iran|the reef in South China Sea|Ladd Reef}}

{{Use Australian English|date=July 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} thumb|A Riji from the Kimberley, WA A '''Riji''' are the pearl shells traditionally worn by Aboriginal men in Northwest Australia. They are worn as pubic coverings, like a loin cloth, and attached with hairstring from a belt or band around the waist. Only men initiated to the highest degree could traditionally wear them.<ref>[http://www.shortstgallery.com.au/artwork.php?catno=11405 Short St Gallery<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927174235/http://www.shortstgallery.com.au/artwork.php?catno=11405|date=27 Sep 2007}}</ref> Today special ceremonies mark the occasion when boys are given riji to mark their transition to adulthood, a time of great joy for families.<ref name="wam">{{cite web |date=2016 |title=Guwan |url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/lustre-online-text-panels/guwan |access-date=4 December 2020 |website=Western Australian Museum}}</ref>

Before being decorated, the pearl shell is known as ''guwan''. Lines known as ''ramu'', often in a sacred pattern or depicting a traditional story, are carved onto the guwan, at which point it becomes a riji. One of the unique patterns used in the Kimberley region of Western Australia is a pattern of interlocking designs. The incised designs are highlighted with a mixture of ochre and Spinifex resin, which is rubbed into the grooves. They carry deep cultural significance among Aboriginals.

The word ''riji'' is from the Bardi language and means "shell".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Trade + Influence |url=https://nga.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/ever-present-first-peoples-art-of-australia/trade-and-influence/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=National Gallery of Australia |language=en}}</ref> Another word for it is ''jakuli''.

== Description == Coastal Aboriginal tribes along the Northwest coast would collected, cleaned and shaped ''guwan''s (undecorated pearl shells).<ref name="wam" /> Shells were normally from gold-lipped pearl oysters, and harvested when tides were at very low equinox.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Engraved pearl shell and hair-string belt (riji, or jakoli, longkalongka) {{!}} Western Kimberley |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/313729 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Aboriginal shell trade {{!}} article for mature groups - Odyssey Traveller |url=https://www.odysseytraveller.com/articles/aboriginal-shell-trade/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=www.odysseytraveller.com |language=en}}</ref> They would then incise onto them ''ramu'' (lines that form a design or pattern).<ref name="wam" /> Sometimes, colour is added by rubbing pigment mixtures of ochre and spinifex resin into the shell's grooves.<ref name=":0" /> Other ingredients included animal fat, or powdered charcoal in order to highlight ''ramu'' designs. The shell's band is created from hair, including human hair.<ref name=":1" />

The ''guwan'' are sometimes made into either a ''binji binji'' (smaller carved shell worn as a headpiece) or as shell clusters worn as a hairpiece. However, they are normally worn with a belt or band around the wearer's waist, with the shell covering the male genitalia. All the shells are worn by only men, while ''riji'' making was done by both men and women.<ref name="wam" />

== History == [[File:Bardi-Jawi people on Jackson Island, WA 1917.jpg|thumb|Bardi-Jawi people wearing ''rijis'' on Jackson Island in King Sound, WA in 1917]]

=== Pearls among Aboriginals === {{See also|Pearling in Western Australia}} The coastal area of the Kimberley and the surrounding region is home to pearl-producing organisms.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2023-12-18 |title=The lure and lustre of Western Australian pearls |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/06e2f1fdfe734a31b8f5c6cf298fd8d9 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps |language=en-au}}</ref> Pearls have been valued by Aboriginal tribes of the Kimberley region for a long time, with a pearl found in Widgingarri dating back 22,000 years ago and being located {{Convert|200|km|mi}} from where the shoreline would've been. Alongside this, evidence of shell movement from the region goes back 32,000 years ago.<ref name="wam" /> However, pearl shells were more highly prized than pearls.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2019-03-22 |title=When pearls were rubbish and shells were the prize |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-22/pearls-and-pear-shell-in-indigenous-culture/10772586 |access-date=2024-09-20 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref>

Both ''riji''s and ''guwan''s were objects of great value and were traded with inland Aboriginal people along ancient trade routes over vast areas of the continent.<ref name="wam" /> Pearl shells originating from Kimberley region have been discovered in Central Australia, southern Western Australia, South Australia, and western Queensland.<ref name=":2" />

Often plain pearl shells were decorated further along trade routes, far from their place of origin.thumb|A variety Rijis|221x221px

=== Modern history === The first European to identify ''rijis'' was French explorer Louis de Freycinet in 1818 at Shark Bay, where he later wrote that he saw “an old man painted with stripes of various colors and distinguished from the rest by a shell hanging from his girdle”.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Aboriginal Pearl Shell adornments {{!}} lonka lonka {{!}} riji {{!}} aboriginal pearlshell |url=https://www.aboriginal-bark-paintings.com/aboriginal-pearl-shell/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Aboriginal Bark Paintings |language=en-US}}</ref>

Aboriginal artists Aubrey Tigan and Butcher Joe Nangan created ''riji'' out of mother-of-pearl buttons and cloth.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=K. |url=http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=creartspapers |title="Cloth and shell: revealing the luminous": SASA Gallery, Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, 28 February - 28 March: This Everything Water |last2=Kean |first2=J. |last3=Wood Conroy |first3=D. |last4=Tigan |first4=Aubrey |last5=Nangan |first5=Butcher Joe |date=2008 |publisher=South Australian School of Art Gallery, University of South Australia |location=Adelaide, South Australia |access-date=31 July 2016}}</ref>

Artists still make Riji today in the Broome area. Some use the older, sacred patterns, while others choose to use more modern designs.<ref name="wam" /> Modern production of ''rijis'' for traditional and tourist use now normally incorporates modern tools into the creation stage.<ref name=":3" />

== Significance == Among the Aboriginal tribes of the Northwest, ''rijis'' carry special significance to them. Religiously, they are associated with water, as well as spiritual or healing powers, and life.<ref name="wam" /> When used by the ''maban'' (powerful spiritual men), ''rijis'' were believed to have the ability to bring rainfall, heal the sick, determine the guilty, and attract women.<ref name="wam" /> Bardi people equate the light reflecting off the shells to lightning flashes, which are prominent during the monsoon, and to lights flashing off the cheeks of the Rainbow Serpent, who is closely linked to water and rain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ancestor 'Riji' [pearl shell ornament] c.1900 |url=https://nga.gov.au/on-demand/ancestor-riji-pearl-shell-ornament-c1900/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=National Gallery of Australia |language=en}}</ref>

Rijis were also given to boys in coming of age and initiation ceremonies.<ref name="wam" />

==References== {{reflist}} *http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Tactility/Detail.cfm?IRN=83544 {{Indigenous Australians}}

Category:Australian Aboriginal clothing Category:History of Western Australia