Traditional Ways

The life we have live those many years ago passed on to the generations where we are now teaching our young ones to continue.

Blessings is a spiritual blessings and must be respected.

The land of that each tribe we are to go before our elders to be approved and to be able to respect according to our laws.

No written law, we have to memorize our laws verbally and must pass on to our young ones with respect and knowledge and to be able to rest assure knowing that our next generation takes over.

The Feathers on the Sunburnt Country

Collecting feathers is during the day it’s a bit cool and you can notice the heat dancing and we still go out gathering, till we are all satisfied with the gathering of the feathers.

All potato bags are full then all the ladies and children go home.

Next day it’s time to put the feathers and start decorating with colorful cottons, but for young boys ceremonies, we use the pink colour or same colours like the red ochre to put the feathers together.

That’s how we have been taught to continue our culture for our young boys ceremonies, which is every December when everyone goes on the walkabout. These days is the Christmas holidays.

Our feather collectings starts in November – preparing the head dress feathers. Use the feather head dress in December when the ceremony starts.

Tribal Marriage

At the age of nine years old, I was tribally married to an old man. I was very young and was given married for cultural reasons and law. That all young girls were get married at young.

Even though my parents were against it, but my grandparents had to see the law go ahead. In this painting it show the picture of the marriage system.

When I attended Kormilda the man died. It was a relief for me. This gave me the opportunity to live my life. So I travelled around freely because the man was the eldest son and was not to marry another brother so I was free!!!

The feathers indicating as flowers, feathers for married couple.

I never wanted to get married. My tribal ways, laws, ceremony and bush birth, it’s okay, but when it comes to marriage. It sucks.

The Feather Collecting

During childhood I remember running around up front, searching for white loose feathers left behind by white cockatoos, while the rest of the women my mother, nana, walking picking up feathers, the feathers that I ran past not picking them.

But I manage to collect many and then ended up in the waterhole swimming waiting for my mother and nana and others to come there to the waterhole/

I notice the ladies were not coming over to the waterhole, they were now miles away collecting feather putting them in their bags they carried with them.

It was for the big ceremony. My uncle was one of them. He was about 15 to 16 years old. My grandmother prepared the feather head dress and many other ceremonial stuffs ready for her son’s ceremony. And this is done every December to prepare themselves for their son’s ceremony.

I am now preparing for my son Tyrone, and hopefully I will do what my great grandmother, grandmother, my mother done for their sons, my sister done the same for her sons.

The feathers are symbols for ceremonies such as young boys ceremony, love song marriage.

I believe it’s a ceremonial ornament of whatever we use it for.

The Ceremonial Feathers

This is a story, particular on ceremonial business – young boys ceremony – women’s business and men’s business. That takes place whenever there’s dispute between tribes, they must take to the ceremony grounds to face the punishment or during their young boys ceremony, where mothers and families must put on these ceremonial feathers to see that young fellow move on being a future elder for our tribe. That’s when the ceremonies passed on to the next generations.

Women’s business. If a women is a widow, and starts remarrying before the widow’s ceremony these women faces the deceased husbands family and must she must attend it until they say so. Then for four or five years, they are cleared and then they shower her with gifts and vice versa. She’s a “free woman”.

Men’s business. Strictly men’s story. No women talks about that. So I can’t fill you with that.