CORROBOREE IN STREET

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

CORROBOREE IN STREET

STRANGE SPECTACLE AT DARWIN Darwin people were amazed recently to find aborigines, hideously bedaubed with mud and ochre, and armed with bundles of spears, conducting a corroboree in the main street. The procession was ■ a curious spectacle. The aborigines conducting the proceedings were in their wildest state, probably the same as they were in before the white men settled the country, but aboriginal spectators were dressed in odd particles of cast-off European clothing. A few even wore collars and ties,' The procession was followed by several aborigines riding bicycles. The participants in the corroboree shouted and danced down the street, to the accompaniment of yells of delight from the black spectators, until they reached the corner of the aboriginal compound.. There they continued the corroboree and took possession of the whole road, but the superintendent of the compound, Mr L. Samut, tactfully induced them to proceed into the compound, and conclude their tribal ceremonies on the compound beach. The corroboree was part of a ceremony conducted by natives who recently came from Bathurst Island. There are many aborigines in Darwin, who have come in for the shelter of the compound during the wet season, and they are taking the opportunity of performing their tribal customs. When the corroboree in the compound was finished, the aborigines played Aus-tralian-rules football, at which they are expert.