Walkabout

Wikipedia says that Walkabout refers “ to a rite of passage where male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months. In this practice they would trace the paths, or ‘ songlines ‘, that their people’s ceremonial ancestors took, and imitate, in a fashion, their heroic deeds. ”

According to another web page Aboriginal Australia – Come Walkabout “ A country is not just a collection of hills, cliffs, creeks, rock outcrops and waterholes. It is a magical network of land and living things, elements and seasons, Dreamtime stories, spirits and songs. ” They have lived this way for 50,000 years

From another website , “ According to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the Great Ancestors of the Dreamtime. The space between nature and man, life and death, and the past, present, and future is seamless. All time is related. Everything exists for a reason. There are no misfits or accidents — only misunderstandings and mysteries not yet revealed to mortal man. … ”

So what is Walkabout really? It would seem it is not just some simple celebration, but a deeply spiritual time of life, a time of reflection, a time of gaining confidence in one’s own person and abilities, having a sense of their own spirituality, and realizing and experiencing their connection to the land and nature. It is a part of them as a person, a people — it connects them to the land, a higher purpose, and somehow to a higher plane of existence in some ways, and individually it is part of their identity as a man.