–+ceremonial+life

Class Handout on Ceremonies and Rituals


Jo-Kom's description of the significance of Initiation

The vibrant ceremonial and religious life of Northern Territory people generated a spectacular array of art forms, including body painting and personal ornamentation, ground sculpture, bark painting, wood carving, and rock painting and engraving. Artistic creativity and innovation were informed by religious belief. Designs and motifs embodied multiple sets of meanings about group ownership of lands and relationships to particular Ancestral Beings. These expressions along with the rich oral traditions, elaborate song and dance styles and personal performance of them, were all regarded as manifestations of the original ancestral creative power. Each generation accepted responsibility for passing on the economic, social and religious knowledge, beliefs and actions that ensured the reproduction of Aboriginal societies and cultures.

Before the dawn of the present age was "the Dreaming", or the Alchera of the Aranda people of the NT, a time when the ancestors of the Aborigenes wandered over a featureless land. These ancestors were unlike people of today ; they possessed special powers and were so intimately associated with certain animals and plants that an ancestor of the kangaroo totem "many sometimes be spoken of either as a man-kangaroo or as a kangaroo-man. As the ancestors journeyed over the land, their actions gave if form, created the natural features such as rivers and ranges. The land they shaped is today occupied by their descendants.

During their travels the dreamtime ancestors carried one or more sacred tjurunga, each "intimately associated with the idea of a spirit part of some individual". Many tjurunga were buried, each burial site marked by a natural object such as a rock or a tree.

Photos of Initiation Ceremony: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/220aboriginal_passage.htm

Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony
Source: Museum Victoria ||
 * [[image:http://melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au/bunjilaka/images/mn009391_w225.jpg width="225" height="157" caption="Smoking Ceremony"]] ||
 * [[image:http://melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au/bunjilaka/images/blank.gif width="1" height="10"]] ||
 * [[image:http://melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au/bunjilaka/images/mn009388_w225.jpg width="225" height="157" caption="Smoking Ceremony"]] ||
 * *Watbalimba preform a Smoking Ceremony Photographer: Benjamin Healley

Smoking Ceremony
For us, the Aboriginal people, the land has a spiritual connection; its our mother. The human spirit is born from our land and returns to it upon death. The land supplied us with everything that we needed for living. Land has become increasingly harder to access for Aboriginal people. In urban areas, its appearance and use have been changed from what it was initially created for. Aboriginal people are concerned for the land and wish to be part of the healing process. This can be done by being actively involved in land management or by conducting ceremonies. The Smoking Ceremony is an example. Green leaves from plants used by the group that conducts it are placed on a small fire. The smoke is used to cover the participants bodies, ridding them of what is not needed. It also cleanses the area. The group feels that it is leaving behind troubles and beginning something new. Reasons for holding the rite are then discussed. The ceremony ends with entertainment, such as dancing and singing.

= = =Initiation Ceremony from the Top End= media type="youtube" key="ogS2x_wsags" width="425" height="350" = = =Aboriginal "Mandiwala" Initiation Ceremony in Borroloola=

media type="youtube" key="okRjRp0gezk" width="425" height="350"Added: **February 23, 2007** From: **[|luitzenk]**Young Yanyuwa "daru" or initiates are... Young Yanyuwa "daru" or initiates are slowly walked by a group of men to a place where they will be "smoked", a few days after their circumcision in Borroloola, near the south coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory. The initiates have to stand in the smoke of a fire, made with green leaves. Their sisters are present, but are not allowed to look at them, so they cover themselves. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okRjRp0gezk#|more)

media type="youtube" key="2MnBSj9eXK0" width="425" height="350"