NATIVE DRAMA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19338, 31 May 1937, Page 5

NATIVE DRAMA

TRIBAL MARRIAGE LAWS MAN'S SHOCKING! INJURIES SYDNEY, May 6. The story of a drama among] the natives of the Laverton district has been received at Kalgoorlie. An aboriginal man was rescued, after he had been tortured and left to die by members of his tribe, and an aboriginal woman was speared in the stomach. Nunginna, the woman, had fallen in love with a, native named Alick. She deserted her husband and ran away with Alick. This was an offence against the tribal laws, and the erring couple were brought back to the tribe, and Alick was threatened with death. Later Nunginna's husband died, but, although according to the law, she was not yet free to marry Alick, she went to live with him.

The couple's offence aroused the angci of three male members of the tribe. They caught Alick, held him to the ground, tied a rope around his neck, and inserted a splinter of mulgsi into the artery on each side of his neck, expecting him to die .within two or three days. Two white men found him, however, and took him to Laverton.

Within several days, Dr. G. Myles had removed the splinters, and, although his neck is swollen, Alick is unlikely to die. Nunginna also paid for deserting her husband. A half-brother of her late husband speared her in the stomach, and she was found by the police in a camp suffering acute pain. Her assailant was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, while she was taken to hospital and treated.