A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of
Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be
a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by
the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the local
Dharug language, it usually includes dance, music, costume and often
body decoration
Body art is art made on, with, or consisting of, the human body. Body art covers a wide spectrum including tattoos, body piercings, scarification, and body painting. Body art may include performance art, body art is likewise utilized for investiga ...
.
Origin and etymology
The word "corroboree" was adopted by British settlers soon after
colonisation from the
Dharug ("Sydney language")
Aboriginal Australian word ''garaabara'', denoting a style of dancing. It thus entered the
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
language as a
loan word.
It is a borrowed English word that has been reborrowed to explain a practice that is different from ceremony and more widely inclusive than theatre or opera.
[Sweeney, D. 2008. "Masked Corroborees of the Northwest" DVD 47 min. Australia: ANU, Ph.D.]
Description
In 1837, explorer and Queensland grazier
Tom Petrie
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
wrote: "Their bodies painted in different ways, and they wore various adornments, which were not used every day."
In 1938, clergyman and anthropologist
Adolphus Elkin wrote of a public pan-Aboriginal dancing "tradition of individual gifts, skill, and ownership" as distinct from the customary practices of appropriate elders guiding initiation and other ritual practices (ceremonies).
The word is described in the ''Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia: Second Edition'' as "an Indigenous assembly of a festive, sacred or warlike character".
[
Throughout Australia the word "corroboree" embraces songs, dances, rallies and meetings of various kinds. In the past a corroboree has been inclusive of sporting events and other forms of skill display.][
Another description is "a gathering of Aboriginal Australians interacting with the Dreaming through song and dance", which may be a sacred ceremony or ritual, or different types of meetings or celebrations, which differ "from ]mob
Mob or MOB may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
* Crowd
* Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication
Crime and law enforcement
* American Mafia, also known as the Mob
* Irish Mob, a US crim ...
to mob".
Associated later meanings
The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' (3rd ed, 1997) gives secondary meanings "any large or noisy gathering" and "a disturbance; an uproar". It also documents its use as a verb (to take part in a corroboree).Yuendumu
Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a t ...
community council as "a modern day corroboree".
See also
*Corroboree 2000
Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal ...
, a reconciliation event in Sydney
*''Corroboree'', a poem by Max Fatchen
Maxwell Edgar Fatchen, AM (3 August 192014 October 2012) was an Australian children's writer and journalist.
Early life
Fatchen was born at "Narma" private hospital, South Terrace, Adelaide, the only son of Cecil William Fatchen and Isabel ...
Pow wow
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...
*Wangga
Wangga (sometimes spelled Wongga) is an Aboriginal Australian genre of traditional music and ceremony which originated in Northern Territory and north Western Australia. Specifically, from South Alligator River south east towards Ngukurr, south ...
- traditional music and ceremony of north-western Australia
References
External links
www.indigenousaustralia.info - The Travel Around Company
National Museum of Australia: Video recordings, ephemera, costumes and props for the 1954 production of ''Corroboree''
Corroboree Sydney
{{Indigenous Australians
Australian Aboriginal words and phrases
Dances of Australia