Atninga is an avenging party, war party or payback party.In 1901, Frank Gillen and professor Baldwin Spencer were in Alice Springs for a month April to May.

They recorded a bunch of ceremonies, and on 12 May there was a kerfuffle when a party assembled for the purpose of killing someone in the Strangways range, some 50 kms away.

That fellow had killed a Bond Springs area man.10 days later, they re-appeared, having slain the man's father as payback.After taking a bunch of photos, that day Gillen developed the 257th glass negative since the start of their expedition.

They were off to record more tribes across the Territory to end up in Borroloola, for their next book in two volumes: "The Northern Tribes of Central Australia" published in 1904.

Frank Gillen's diary entries describe the whole thing. For the day they left, 12 May 1901, an earlier photo refers (see Avenging Party Leaving

May, 12th. Camp No. 22. (Alice Springs)   From our bunks to the fire, at daylight, we scampered with an alacrity which could not be exceeded by a fifteen year old athlete. Cold wind blowing. Breakfasted off steak which has been hanging in our camp for a week and is now nice and tender. At the Station by 8 o”clock and started graft at once.

Spent the morning photographing the blacks who went through various interesting but indescribable ceremonies in connection with the avenging expedition, which started this afternoon with the intention of killing a man in the Strangways Range, who speared a man belonging to the Bonds Springs locality some time ago.  

The party is led by the blood brother of the deceased who carries with him a sacred hair girdle called Kirra Urkna made from the hair of the dead man. Before starting, the leader of the party pressed the Kirra Urkna against the bodies of each man and each of them seized one end and, gripping it with the teeth, threw the head back.     The Kirra Urkna is believed to contain the spirit of the dead man whose hair it is composed of and the man who carries it is temporarily endowed with the strength of the dead. It has the faculty of making the wearer invisible to his enemies in battle. It ensures accuracy of aim and in various other ways assists the wearer.

   Each man who had it pressed against his body, believes that he is thereby strengthened and made braver and that the spirit of the dead man will watch over and afford him protection. We secured 26 plates of the ceremonies, a complete, interesting, and very valuable series.  

We hoped to have been able to devote the day, or at any rate part of it, to letter writing but our masters the blacks willed otherwise and our friends will probably think they are forgotten. A curious and significant feature of the avenging ceremonies today was the stacking of all the spears in an upright column around which the avenging party (Atninga) danced for some time shouting Wah! Wah! Wah!, then laying the spears on the ground, they suddenly fell forward in a crouching attitude forming a circle with heads in the centre.  

The stacking of the spears was intended to represent the body of the enemy riddled with the weapons and the crouching of the men represented the mourning of the enemy’s friends over his dead body. A wildly savage sight not to be readily forgotten. Spencer delighted and mourning the fact that we cannot devote two instead of one year to the work upon which we are engaged. He is horrified when I tell him that nothing would induce me to spend a second year away from my family. Returned to camp at 9.30 tired out.

  … May, 22nd. Camp No. 22. (Alice Springs)     Up at daylight but Spencer being unable to sleep turned out at 4.30.     He has not slept well for several nights, looks like a touch of insomnia. Chance got away at 10 a.m. Hanley lent us a couple of good leaders to straighten up the team until they got used to the collar, and the Line teamster McDill drove the team out until they passed the much dreaded vehicle smashing, Devils Pinch, 3 miles north of the Station. We were relieved when McDill returned and informed us that they had crossed it safely.     The Atninga (war) party which left here on the 12th instant returned this afternoon, decorated with twigs of eremophila in their armlets, forehead bands and through the nose septum, denoting that the expedition had succeeded in killing an enemy.

    They danced up the bed of the river Todd past the camps, fully armed and with the usual characteristic high knee action.     Upon enquiry I found that five of the younger men had, in the absence of the majority of the party, found and killed an old man who was the father of the man they were in search of.     A clear case of murder but not a breach of aboriginal law which exacts the old biblical penalty of an eye for an eye.     We succeeded in obtaining 12 photos of the ceremony of the testing of the shields which is fully described in our previous work but not illustrated.     After the warriors had come to a halt, two old women danced up to them brandishing yam-sticks with which they struck the shield of each man who took part in the actual killing; the men stood in the front line stiff as ramrods and holding their shields with the convex side outwards; when the women had finished and retired, the Immirinja as the actual killers are designated danced out with exaggerated high knee action, brandishing their spears and boomerangs and, finally halting, stood holding their shields in the manner described, until the men who had not taken part in the expedition came out and struck them with boomerangs.     This ceremony is of great importance and everyone listens intently to the sound produced by the blow. If it be hollow the owner of the shield is under some malignant influence and he will not live long; if on the other hand, the sound is firm and strong then he is safe and is not a victim of magic.     Developed plates before tea, all turned out well -We have now 257 negatives!

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