Aboriginal Ceremonies and dances from the Top End

Photos from the Real AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal Ceremonies and dances from the Top End of Australia

The "Mardayin" ceremony is performed all over Arnhem Land, where it is also known as "Maraian" and, when performed, attracts men from far afield; they re-enact the myths in a festival that takes place over a number of weeks. In Numbulwar, an Aboriginal community on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the ceremony is also known as "Ngarrag". Here too the community is made up of two moieties, called Dua (or Dhuwa) and Yirritja; during the ceremonial cycle rituals are conducted during late afternoon. Actors of the Dua moiety perform first, followed by the Yirritja men. Men are painted with designs representing their "Dreaming" or clan association. There are many different rituals, some taking place on a secret ceremonial ground, only to be seen by men; others may be seen by all. The ceremony culminates in ritual bathing, in which everybody, men, women and children, go to the beach and immerse themselves, dancing in the sea and washing off the ochre and clay with which they were ritually painted; this way the actors, men and women, re-enacting the deeds of the Dreamtime beings in the mythical past, leave the designs sung and painted on their bodies behind and re-emerge from the water as people again. The ceremony can be considered a festival for the souls of men and for the Dreaming places of the shades of the species of nature..

The "Mandiwa" initiation ceremony may be performed in the northern part of the Northern Territory. Boys, often very young as here in Numbulwar, are decorated and go around with toy spears, trying to hit men who will later then have to dance for them in the all-night ceremony. At dusk the dancers, who have been decorated with cotton wool stuck to their bodies in ceremonial patterns, march in single file to the ceremonial ground; a woman brushes each of the dancer's legs with a piece of material. While men sing and clap boomerangs together, two men with elaborate headdresses then dance towards the initiates who sit with their tribal fathers in front of a windbreak at the top of the ceremony place. That night they will dance until daybreak after which the boys are circumcised.

At the yearly Sports and Cultural Festival in Barunga Aboriginal community near Katherine, there is a lot of culture to be seen, often quite informal, where young men and women, just in their normal clothes, show they haven't forgotten their dances. There is also a guest performance of a traditional dance group from Galiwin'ku, on Elcho Island, off the north coast of Arnhem land. This can also be seen at the Laura Festival in Cape York, Queensland.

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