Corroboree
A
corroboree is an event where Australian Aborigines interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume. "Their bodies painted in different ways, and they wore various adornments, which were not used every day." The word
corroboree was coined by the European settlers of Australia in imitation of an east coast local Aboriginal Australian word
caribberie. 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 traditional performances and ceremonies. 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.