Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

In parts of Aboriginal Australia the increase rituals were very elaborate. In these rituals the participants are painted and decorated, and the complexity of their actions give the impression the ceremony is of a sacred nature. There is a gradient of complexity of the increase rituals from those such as the the mindari to the more elaborate rites in which the increase of a species is not the most important consideration, or it may not be directly mentioned in the proceedings, the main reason for the ritual being either to commemorate a supernatural being from the Dreaming or simply as an educational event for the young people. These types of rituals and ceremonies, such as the ingkura, as described by Strehlow (1947), as well as others by Elkin (1954), are used in totemic cult rituals and ceremonies. A prominent feature of these is the use of material symbolic representation, such as the use of sacred objects intimately associated with participants and the mythological beings, that are believed to produce certain results if manipulated in the traditional way. Most of these ceremonies are thought of as being bigger or more important than other rituals.

The bullroarer was the most commonly used object by men during rituals throughout Australia, that varies in size and shape, even in the same place

Sources & Further reading

1. R. M & C. H. Berndt, (1964) The World of the First Australians, Ure Smith Pty Ltd.
2. Strehlow, T. G. H., (1947) Aranda Traditions, Melbourne University Press
3. Elkin, A. P., (1954) (1st ed. 1938), The Australian Aboriginal People: How to Understand Them, Angus & Robertson, Sydney
4. Berndt, C.H., (1950a) Women's Changing Ceremonies in Northern Australia, L'Homme, Hermann et Cie, Paris.
5. Spencer, B., 1914, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia, Macmillan, London
6. Elkin, A.P., 1961b, Maraian at Mainoru, 1949, Oceania, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, Vol. XXXII, No. 1.