Page 21 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine June 2018

How Aboriginal healers work My experience with ngangkari treatment

Ngangkari are Aboriginal healers of the anangu of the I had my first consultation with two ngangkari,
Western Desert in Central Australia, which includes Pitjanjatjara women Debbie Watson and Margaret
the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, and Yankunytjatjara Richards, in 2016.
peoples. In some places, particularly South Australia,
Ngangkari are increasingly being brought into Western Their diagnostic process was simple and low-key. Very
different to any other medical examination I’d had. It
health settings to work beside doctors.
involved assessing my whole naked body. I was aware
Their skills come from a lifetime of immersion in of the deep scrutiny applied to posture and movement.
cultural ways of being. Ngangkari are recognised as
having particular facilities for healing in their infancy Both women were touching me, a very delicate touch.
or childhood and are then encouraged to develop their As one massaged my abdomen and removed a
“blockage” there, they entered into conversation in
skills. They often talk about being taught by their
grandparents. language. They then spoke to me of my state of mind.
They described a personal dilemma causing me a great
Ngangkari are immersed in Aboriginal ontology and deal of sadness, that they had no way of knowing.
so cannot easily translate what they do to a wide
audience. And the way they work cannot be explained Debbie said, “There is a man far, far away. Too much
worry. No, too much sadness”.
through the scientific framework Western under-
standing demands.
My partner was on the other side of the world and not
well, but I had pushed this to the back of my mind. I
Ngangkari methodology for healing includes tech-
niques such as observing, listening and touch. With was surprised they were able to recognise that I had
massage and rubbing they release “blockages” from pushed my personal needs aside and this was affecting
my health. This brought home to me that I needed to
the body and apply various herbal tinctures and
ointments where required. be more proactive in attending to my wellbeing.
Later I felt the benefit of the removal of the “blockage”
Ngangkari heal through observing, listening in my body. I felt lighter, had more clarity of thought
and touch. ANTAC and a sense of relief.

There is an understanding that the spirit can become Traditional Aboriginal healing practice
dislodged through trauma, causing mental and
physical disorders. Ngangkari bring it back into place. Individual doctors who have worked with Aboriginal
They are particularly adept at treating psychological people have long recognised the value of ngangkari.
disorders. In 2008, the anthropologist Brian McCoy wrote of the
demand for the services of maparn, the traditional
As the Ngangkari Naomi Kantjuriny said: healers of the Kimberley region. He explored the

Depressed people can feel a lot better within them- benefits of traditional and Western models of health
selves after a Ngangkari treatment. That’s one of our care working together to improve desert people’s
specialities. Their spirits are out-of-sorts, and not posi- health.
tioned correctly within their bodies. The ngangkari’s
Italian researcher, and now CEO of the Aṉangu
job is to reposition their spirits and to reinstate it to
where it is happiest. Ngangkaṟi Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (ANTAC)
based in Adelaide, Dr Francesca Panzironi, has spent
the last decade working with the ngangkari to help

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