This series contains restricted material.

This item consists of 26 wax cylinders recorded by Norman B Tindale and Thomas D Campbell during the University of Adelaide's Board for Anthropological Research expedition to Mount Liebig in 1932. It is likely that these 26 cylinders survive from an original number of 28. Eleven of the 26 cylinders were recorded jointly, while the remainder were recorded by Tindale (6) and Campbell (9):

• joint recordings: Trial H-H5, Tuesday's duet recording, and Thursday's recordings
  
  
  
• recorded by Tindale: Series A-K
  
  
  
• recorded by Campbell: Monday's and Tuesday's ceremonies
  
  

In general, Tindale's wax cylinder recording method involved making two recordings of each song, 'the first was played back to the aboriginal, who then again sang it. Such repeats have never been replayed, they are virgin, awaiting some sophisticated system of reproduction' (letter from Tindale to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 6 Feb 1975). Some of the recordings made during the Mt Liebig expedition, however, do not follow this pattern. Monday's recordings, for example, consist of 'collective songs'. That is, a track consisting of a number of songs rather than an individual song, which is then repeated as described by Tindale above.

With regard to transcriptions, note that most of the songs are transcribed but not all of them are provided with English glosses.

The following list of wax cylinders and their contents has been compiled from two sources: paper slips stored with cylinders in their canisters and from Tindale's song descriptions in his Mt Liebig field journal (AA 338/1/8, pp. 105-114):

AA 338/11/4/

• Cylinder: Trial 'H' series. Contains 2 untitled songs
  
  
• Cylinder H1. Test reel I. Contains a Koŋgo (place) kanda totem song (plus two unidentified tracks)
  [Track 1. Tape No. 9564; TT1; R1, H1; AS 45]
  
  
• Cylinder H2. Contains 2 songs from Jardijardu (place)
  [Track 2. Tape No. 9564; TT1; R2, H2; AS 46-47]
  
  
• Cylinder H3. Contains 2 songs of the Padiki ceremony
  [Track 3. Tape No. 9564; TT1; R3, H3; AS 48-49]
  
  
• Cylinder H4. Contains 2 songs of the Padiki ceremony
  [Track 4. Tape No. 9564; TT1; R4, H4; AS 50-51]
  
  
• Cylinder H5. Contains 1 song of the Padiki ceremony
  [Track 5. Tape No. 9564; TT1; R5, H5; AS 52-54]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 1. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 6. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R1; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 2. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 7. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R2; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 3. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 8. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R3; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 4. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 9. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R4; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 5. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 10. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R5; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Monday Ceremony 2, Record 6. Collective songs sung during preparations for a ceremony
  [Track 11. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R6; Cyl. Monday Series]
  
  
• Tuesday Ceremony 3, Cylinder 1. Contains untitled songs relating to ceremonial preparations
  [Track 12. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R7; Cyl. Tuesday Series]
  
  
• Tuesday Ceremony 3, Cylinder 2. Contains untitled songs relating to ceremonial preparations.
  [Track 13. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R8; Cyl. Tuesday Series]
  
  
• Tuesday Ceremony 3, Cylinder 3. Contains untitled songs relating to ceremonial preparations
  [Track 14. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R9; Cyl. Tuesday Series]
  
  
• Tuesday duet recording 'Record II'. Contains a snake song of the Ngalia and an untitled song
  [Track 15. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R10; Cyl. Tuesday Duet]
  
  
• Thursday Record 1. Contains the Jaba or Water song of Ngabakulangu and a Wanjari (or andata = feather decoration) song of Mere Mere
  [Track 16. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R11; Cyl. Thursday; AS55]
  
  
• Thursday Record 2. Contains Wanjari (or andata = feather decoration) songs of Mere Mere
  [Track 17. Tape No. 9576; TT16; R12; Cyl. Thursday; AS56]
  
  
• Thursday Record 3. Contains Wanjari (or andata = feather decoration) songs of Mere Mere
  [Track 18. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R1; Cyl. Thursday evening; AS57-58]
  
  
• Thursday Record 4. Contains Wanjari (or andata = feather decoration) songs of Mere Mere
  [Track 19. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R2; Cyl. Thursday evening; AS59]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 1. Contains an untitled Ngalia song and the Nananana (half-woman 'devil man') totem song
  [Track 20. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R3; Cyl. A,B; AS60-61]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 2. Contains the Nananana (half-woman 'devil man') totem song and the Nananana wati totem song
  [Track 21. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R4; Cyl. B,C; AS61-62]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 3. Contains a Wami (snake totem) song of Kartinka and a Kunka or Woman's song
  [Track 22. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R5; Cyl. D,E; AS63-64]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 4. Contains a Kunka or Woman's song and the Nananana wati totem song of Nawoluko
  [Track 23. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R6; Cyl. E,F; AS64-65]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 5. Contains the Nananana totem song of Nawoluko and a Jala (yam totem) ceremony song
  [Track 24. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R7; Cyl. G,H; AS66-67]
  
  
• Saturday Reel 6. Contains Jala (yam totem) ceremony songs
  [Track 25. Tape No. 9577; TT17; R8; Cyl. A,B; AS67-69]
  
  
• Ceremony Series: K, Record I-III
  [No audio nor transcription. AS70-72]
  
  

It appears that two wax cylinders are missing from the original set of recordings. Transcriptions exist for the contents of missing wax cylinders Tuesday duet I and Saturday Reel 7. These are transcriptions of the Kandulara (tree snake) song of the Ngalia and a final song of the Jala (yam) totem series, respectively. For further documentation see Tindale's journal: 'Expedition H. Journal of an Expedition to Mt Liebig, Central Australia to do Anthropological Research by Norman B. Tindale. Adelaide 1932' (AA 338/1/8, pp. 105-114), the S. A. Museum Speech and Sound Collections register entries AS 45-72, and the Mt Liebig song notebook (AA 338/12/1/2).

It is important to note that in the S. A. Museum Speech and Sound Collections register Tindale assigns most of these songs to the Ngalia and Pintubi. Many of the songs are not assigned to a group. Note that in general the actual language or cultural ownership of a particular song is not necessarily indicated in the catalogue descriptions provided in this series. In many cases, such comment awaits further work upon the collection.

The wax cylinders listed above were formerly located in the Edward H Davies collection (AA 71).

Tindale Tribes: Ngalia; Pintubi.