Aboriginal Australian Dance

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From Natives of Australia by Northcote W. Thomas.

Everyone has heard of the Australian corroboree, as the dance is usually termed; but very few of those who have seen one have taken the trouble to give a detailed description of one. One of these few is Angas, who saw the scrub natives near the Murray perform the Kuri dance. He says that there was a great lack of order and system, the movements being changed at each performance.

There were five distinct classes of performers; twenty-five young men and boys formed the main body; they were naked, save for gum leaves tied round the legs just above the knees, which, as they stamped about, made a loud, switching noise. In their hands they held a digging stick or a club and a few gum leaves; the former were held at arm’s-length and struck alternately with the knees as they danced. They were painted from each shoulder down to the hips with five or six white stripes rising from the breast; on the faces were white perpendicular lines.

Next came two groups of women who kept time with bunches of leaves. Then two men wearing the palyertatta, an ornament made of two pieces of stick fastened crosswise with feathers at the end; one had it fastened sideways on his head, and the other waved his to and fro in front of him. After them came a performer distinguished by a long spear, from the top of which hung a bunch of white feathers; the spear he held behind his back, but occasionally waved it over the dancers. Finally came two old men—the singers—who sang in monotone and beat time with digging sticks and clubs, from which they managed to produce two notes.

While the dancers were dressing for the corroboree no one might approach them, but occasionally a burst of flame lighted up their movements. Then two men wrapped in opossum skins cleared a space for the singers. The spectators soon formed a body two or three rows deep, and the dancers then moved up towards them. The singers had already begun their tune, and the dancers—the band of young men—answered them with a singular deep shout.

Then the man with the spear and feathers, koonteroo, stepped out, his body leaning forward, commenced a regular stamp; the two men with the palyertattas followed him and then the rest joined in; then for some time they stamped before the singers, and one after another sat down, the palyertatta and koonteroo men being the last to remain in. This was repeated four times. Then the koonteroo man, his head and body inclined to the left, stood on one foot and beat time with the other; then he did the same with the other foot. Next, suddenly stopping, he planted his spear in the ground; at a time the two dancers then came up to the spear, the music going on all the time, till they formed a circular body, on each side of which the palyertatta men waved their instruments; finally one of them thrust in his arm and grasped the spear, all sinking at the same time on their knees; then the whole mass began to move away from the singers with a sort of grunting noise and dispersed at a distance of ten or twelve yards from them.

Songs and dances will travel extraordinary distances in Australia, the language of the song being often unintelligible to the performers. A good instance of how a corroboree passes from tribe to tribe is found in the case of the Molongo (PI. XXII.). It has been described among the tribes south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and has now reached the Dieri tribe near Lake Eyre, coming to them from the northeast. It may have been invented by the Worgaia; in the Gulf district it certainly did not originate.

Several performances of this dance were witnessed by Dr. Roth; and although all the performers were ignorant of the meaning of the words, he says that they had evidently been learned off by rote, as the correspondence between the syllables chanted at places a hundred miles apart was surprising, and this though the performance took five nights. The name Molongo is taken from the being, a sort of mischievous imp or devil, who figures as the chief personage on the last night; when he is out on his depredations, he prevents his tracks from becoming visible by tying the toes to the knees, thus compelling himself to walk on his insteps; he is invisible except to the doctors. If the Molongo dance is not properly performed he takes vengeance both on men and women, although the latter are not permitted to approach the ‘green-room,’ in this case a dome-shaped bush-hut called moyerjo.

There are two leaders who have red bands over the head and forehead continued over each shoulder; in the armlet they wear a feather tuft. The red of the ornamentation is composed of down mixed with human blood. The head-piece, shown in PI. xxii., is formed of grass tied round with hair twine. It is tipped with a kopi-covered portion, the basis of which is emu quills. They wear a belt of human hair from which hangs a bunch of eagle-hawk feathers and a pubic tassle or else a pearl shell in front. On the ankles are tied coolihar leaves which have been singed over the fire. The leader carries a forked stick tipped with white feathers.

The performers make their bow to the audience to the accompaniment of boomerang music; each stamps on the ground, half squats, vibrates thighs and knees in a curious way, quite indescribable to any one who has never seen it, and retires; then he advances again. The music is sung by the audience, and the performers go through various figures. Singing is often kept up, sometimes by relays all night long. On the succeeding evenings there are changes in the costumes and the words of the songs, but no new performer appears. On the fifth evening Molongo himself comes on the scene, with red ochre on his forehead and thighs, and feathers on his back. On this night special efforts are made to keep the dance going without intermission until sunrise, and those who last out are rewarded with extra food. When the whole dance is at an end the head-dresses and other stage properties are destroyed.

This was not the only dance which bore a religious character. Parker says that he saw a performance intended to propitiate Mindi, a sort of evil spirit in the form of an immense snake, which can draw itself in and expand itself at will; it is, properly speaking, under the orders of the god, Punjil, who, according to some authors, sends Mindei or Mindi to punish the natives for their evil deeds.

To propitiate him rude images of bark, one large and two small, were set up in a secluded spot. Both men and women in separate columns danced round it, approaching the spot with a sinuous course, touched the figure with a rod decorated with feathers. The same authority describes the Loddon dance known as Yepene Amygdeet, the dance of the separated spirits, which was introduced from the northwest. The natives held boughs in each hand, and waved them in unison over each shoulder alternately. After dancing for some time in lines and circles they gathered in one compact body; then slowly sinking to the ground, and burying their heads beneath the boughs, they represented, according to the old native, the approach of death. They maintained their motionless posture for some hours; this represented death itself. Then the leader of the ceremonies waved his bough over the prostrate mass of bodies, and suddenly springing to their feet, they joined him in his rejoicings.

In other cases the only object of the corroboree seems to be to amuse the spectators and lookers-on. William Buckley, the wild white man, who lived for many years among the blacks of Victoria, describes one in which men and women, boys and girls, all engaged in dancing, which, if true, clearly demonstrates the secular character of the performance. The music was provided by women, who rolled their opossum skins tightly or stretched them between their knees. Some of these amusement dances consist of representations of scenes from real life.

In the Maranoa district Mr. G. S. Lang saw a realistic representation of a cattle-raid by the blacks. In the first act the cattle, represented by blacks, were lying in the forest chewing the cud; then a party of blacks was seen creeping up to them. Two head were speared and the carcases cut up exactly as in real life; then was heard the sound of horsemen—these were the whites; A desperate fight ensued, and finally the victory fell to the blacks to the immense delight of the spectators.

In other cases the dramatic element is less prominent. Angas describes the canoe dance of the Rufus. Both men and women, painted with red and white ochre, join in the performance; they were ranged in a double row, each with a stick behind his arms; the legs are moved in time to the song. Suddenly they all removed the sticks from behind their arms, held them up in front, and began swaying their bodies alternately from side to side in the most graceful manner, imitating their movements when they paddle their bark canoes.

Thomas, Northcote W. Natives of Australia. Archibald Constable and Company, 1906.

Thomas Northcote

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