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| − | '''Marn Grook''' (also spelt ''marngrook'') is an [[Australian Aborigine|Australian Aboriginal]] ball game, which is claimed to have had an influence on the modern game of [[Australian rules football]], most notably in the spectacular jumping and [[Mark (Australian football)|high marking]] exhibited by the players of both games. | + | :''For the frog of the same name see, [[Corroboree frog]].'' |
| | + | [[Image:Corroborree.jpg|right|thumb|A [[ballet]] performance based on the Corroboree]] |
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| − | Marn Grook, literally meaning "Game ball", was a traditional game played at gatherings and celebrations of up to 50 players by the [[Djabwurrung]] and [http://www2.visitvictoria.com/displayObject.cfm/ObjectID.00043955-3A4A-1A66-88CD80C476A90318/vvt.vhtml Jardwadjali] people of western [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]].
| + | In the northwest of Australia, ''corroboree'' is a generic word to define theatrical practices as different from ceremony. Whether it be public or private, ceremony is for invited guests. There are other generic words to describe traditional public performances: ''juju'' and ''kobbakobba'' for example. In the Pilbara, corroborees are ''yanda'' or ''jalarra''. Across the Kimberley the word ''junba'' is often used to refer to a range of genres. Corroboree and ceremony are strongly connected but different. In the 1930s 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 (Elkin 1938:299). Corroborees are open performances in which everyone may participate taking into consideration that the songs and dances are highly structured requiring a great deal of knowledge and skill to perform. ''Corroboree'' is a generic word to explain different genres of performance which in the northwest of Australia include balga, wangga, lirrga, junba, ilma and many more. 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. It is an appropriated English word that has been reappropriated to explain a practice that is different to ceremony and more widely inclusive than theatre or opera. |
| | + | The image of the ballet "Corroboree" is a reminder of how the arts can also be a colonial enterprise. The masked ballet dancers were women pretending to be men dancing intitiation ceremonies. This sort of confusion is further contributed to by people who insist on writing that corroborees are ceremonies when they clearly are not. |
| | + | ==See also== |
| | + | *[[Australian Aboriginal mythology]] |
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| − | == Eye-witness accounts ==
| + | ==External link== |
| − | [[Robert Brough-Smyth]], in an [[1878]] book ''The Aborigines of Victoria'', quoted Richard Thomas, a [[Protector of Aborigines]] in Victoria, who stated that in about [[1841]] he had witnessed Aborigines playing the game.
| + | *[http://indigenousaustralia.frogandtoad.com.au/cultural.html Introduction to Aboriginal culture] |
| − | :''The men and boys joyfully assemble when this game is to be played. One makes a ball of [[possum]] skin, somewhat elastic, but firm and strong. The players of this game do not throw the ball as a white man might do, but drop it and at the same time kicks it with his foot. The tallest men have the best chances in this game. Some of them will leap as high as five feet from the ground to catch the ball. The person who secures the ball kicks it. This continues for hours and the natives never seem to tire of the exercise.''
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| − | In [[1889]], anthropologist [[Alfred Howitt]], wrote that the game was played between large groups on a [[totemic]] basis — the white [[cockatoo]]s versus the black cockatoos, for example, which accorded with their [[Australian Aboriginal kinship|skin system]]. Acclaim and recognition went to the players who could leap or kick the highest. Howitt wrote:
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| − | :''This game of ball-playing was also practised among the [[Kurnai]], the [[Wolgal]] ([[Tumut]] river people), the [[Wotjoballuk]] as well as by the [[Wurundjeri|Woiworung]], and was probably known to most tribes of south-eastern Australia. The Kurnai made the ball from the [[scrotum]] of an "old man [[kangaroo]]", the Woiworung made it of tightly rolled up pieces of [[possum|opossum]] skin. It was called by them "mangurt". In this tribe the two [[Australian Aboriginal kinship|exogamous divisions]], Bunjil and Waa, played on opposite sides. The Wotjoballuk also played this game, with Krokitch on one side and Gamutch on the other. The mangurt was sent as a token of friendship from one to another.<ref>AW Howitt, "Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers", ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute'', London, 1889, p 2, note 4, Reprinted by Ngarak Press, 1998, ISBN 1875254250</ref>
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| − | [[Tom Wills]], who drew up the rules of Australian rules football in [[1858]]-59, was raised in Victoria's western districts and is said to have played with local Aboriginal children.<ref>http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/MediaRelArc02.nsf/17ed9415cb17e3d34a25682500254734/67d1f54851b3304b4a256965007bb637!OpenDocument&Click=</ref> He recalled watching a game in which they kicked a [[possum]] skin about the size of an orange, stuffed with charcoal.{{citation needed}}
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| − | == Marn Grook and the football term "mark" ==
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| − | Some claim that the origin of the Australian rules term "[[Mark (Australian football)|mark]]", meaning a clean, [[fair catch]] of a kicked ball, followed by a [[free kick]], is derived from the Aboriginal word "''mumarki''" used in ''Marn Grook'', and meaning "to catch".<ref>http://www.footystamps.com/ot_early_history.htm</ref><ref>http://www.aboriginalfootball.com.au/marngrook.html</ref> However, many believe that this is a [[false etymology]] and that the term instead came from the practice — in old and/or extinct [[football|British football codes]] — of a player who had caught the ball ''marking'' the ground with a foot, to show where the catch had been taken, and calling "mark" to be awarded a free kick. The term mark has been used in modern football codes since the 1830s, notably in [[rugby football]] and early [[Association football]] (soccer). It is still used in [[rugby union]], in reference to a fair catch by a player who calls "mark" when catching a ball inside their team's [[22 metre line]].
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| − | == The "Marngrook Trophy" ==
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| − | In [[2002]], in a game at [[Stadium Australia]], the [[Sydney Swans]] and [[Essendon Football Club]] began to compete for the '''''Marngrook Trophy''''', awarded after home-and-away matches each year between the two teams in the [[Australian Football League]]. However, the games are played under normal rules of the AFL, rather than anything approaching Marn Grook.
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| − | ==References==
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| − | <div class="references-small"><references /></div>
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| − | == External links == | |
| − | * [http://www.aboriginalfootball.com.au/marngrook.html AboriginalFootball.com, "Marn Grook"] | |
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| | [[Category:Australian Aboriginal culture]] | | [[Category:Australian Aboriginal culture]] |
| − | [[Category:Australian rules football]]
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| − | [[Category:Sport in Australia]]
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| − | [[Category:Traditional football]]
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| | [[Category:Australian Aboriginal terms]] | | [[Category:Australian Aboriginal terms]] |
| | + | [[Category:Dance in Australia]] |
| | + | [[sv:Corroboree]] |
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| − | {{afl-stub}} | + | {{IndigenousAustralia-stub}} |
- For the frog of the same name see, Corroboree frog.
A
ballet performance based on the Corroboree
In the northwest of Australia, corroboree is a generic word to define theatrical practices as different from ceremony. Whether it be public or private, ceremony is for invited guests. There are other generic words to describe traditional public performances: juju and kobbakobba for example. In the Pilbara, corroborees are yanda or jalarra. Across the Kimberley the word junba is often used to refer to a range of genres. Corroboree and ceremony are strongly connected but different. In the 1930s 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 (Elkin 1938:299). Corroborees are open performances in which everyone may participate taking into consideration that the songs and dances are highly structured requiring a great deal of knowledge and skill to perform. Corroboree is a generic word to explain different genres of performance which in the northwest of Australia include balga, wangga, lirrga, junba, ilma and many more. 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. It is an appropriated English word that has been reappropriated to explain a practice that is different to ceremony and more widely inclusive than theatre or opera.
The image of the ballet "Corroboree" is a reminder of how the arts can also be a colonial enterprise. The masked ballet dancers were women pretending to be men dancing intitiation ceremonies. This sort of confusion is further contributed to by people who insist on writing that corroborees are ceremonies when they clearly are not.
See also
External link
sv:Corroboree
Template:IndigenousAustralia-stub
