Aboriginal "Mandiwala" Initiation Ceremonies in Northern Australia, Australia

Photos from the Real AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal "Mandiwala" Initiation Ceremonies in Northern Australia.

Initiation ceremonies for boys are still a very important part of traditional life in the various communities of the Northern Territory. In the north the most common rituals are the "Mandiwa" or "Mandiwala" ceremony, performed from Barunga (near Katherine) in the west to Borroloola in the east and also in communities further north. Most of the photos on this page were taken in Borroloola, a small town just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the centre of the Yanyuwa Aboriginal people.

Boys are typically around ten years of age when they are taken from their mothers and led into a circle of men who, accompanying themselves with boomerangs clapped together, are singing the "kujika", song cycle, associated with the clan affiliation of the young initiates. A "hair belt", woven strands of human hair, is wound around their waists and they are not allowed to speak. Their mothers and other relatives dance a typical loose-kneed shuffle dance to the many stanzas of the "kujika". The boys then stay together under a bough shelter, looked after by an older man.

The men carve small shards of bark and small spears and, after they have been painted all over with red ochre and decorated with head bands, or sometimes feather headdresses, are taken for a walk around the community looking for men who are in the right kinship relationship with them to dance for them on the final night. When they found someone, they try to hit him with their bark "boomerangs" or spears; this may mean running after their quarry, who tries to get out of the way under great hilarity. Another light-hearted aspect is the "Wungayi" women, older women who paint up with white clay and clown around, taking food away from houses, can seize other people's possessions and just cause havoc wherever they go. But it is all good fun and acts as a counterbalance to the seriousness of an initiation.

The afternoon before the initiates are taken to the "Jamangki" (ceremonial) ground for the evening ceremonies they are taken to the bush and decorated: they are painted again with red ochre and decked out with a headdress of cockatoo feathers if their relatives have provided it, ready to be presented to their mothers again for the last time...

To be continued....

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