A circumcision ceremony and stone arrangement on Groote Eylandt
Abstract
On the evening of April 19th, 1948, a circumcision ceremony began at Umbakumba (Fig. 10), Little Lagoon, in the north-eastern corner of Groote Eylandt, and each night afterwards the whole camp held a dance on the beach beside the lagoon until May 19th, when the ceremony continued throughout the night. The operation was performed on the initiates at dawn the following morning. I witnessed this ceremony from beginning to end, and visited a group of cave paintings known as Jundurruna at Amalipa, and a stone-arrangement at Lake Hubert connected with it. The Groote Eylandt natives are distinguished as the Ingura tribe.
