Dances from Aboriginal Australia, Australia

Photos from the Real AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal Dance in the Northern Territory

Traditional dancing is an essential part of life in traditional Aboriginal communities and there are regular local occasions where people decorate themselves for dances that almost always have their roots in the "dreamings", the creation myths, sung in the old languages while the actions of the performers illustrate the deeds of the "Dreamtime Heroes", the mythical beings that created the land in the mythical past. This is especially the case in central Australia where men are decorated with "wamurlu", a vegetable down (kind of wild cotton), left in its natural light grey or coloured with red ochre. Often headdresses are built up with twigs, bound together with hair string (made from human hair) and decorated with "wamurlu" and emu feathers. Among the Warlpiri of central Australia a social corroborree is known as "purlapa" and usually takes the form of a stamping dance by men and boys, while the women, carrying painted boards or sticks, perform a loose-knee shuffle dance and then go on their knees, shaking the board in time with the singing.

The origins of the dances may be ancient or, in some cases quite new, telling the story of an event that took place in living memory. An example of that is the "Aeroplane Dance" that tells the story of a World War 2 bomber that came down near the town of Borroloola. Dancers would mimic the flight of the airplane while performing the traditional stamping dance; they were decorated with cotton wool, glued to their bodies; men would sing, accompanied by boomerangs clapped together. Another example would be a dance in which a humorous event was depicted, always puncuated by vigourous "shake-a-leg" dances by the men; unique to Arnhem Land, it would be accompanied by the sound of clapsticks and "didjeridu", the famous dronepipe made from a hollow log.

Often nighttime dances are done just for fun and everyone is invited. Many schools also celebrate Aboriginal culture in their curriculum and children may do the dances right in the school grounds, coached by their elders. This is truly a "two-way" education where it is made sure children don't forget their culture in today's world.

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