Bora- Aboriginal Australian EventEvent
Also known as: Burbung
Description
At paired circles of cleared earth connected by a sacred path, boys enter one end of the Bora ground and men emerge from the other. Baiame established this ceremony in the Dreamtime, and the bullroarer's deep hum — his voice, or the voice of spirits — fills the air as secret knowledge is revealed.
Mythology & Lore
The Two Circles
The Bora grounds are two circular clearings connected by a sacred pathway. The larger circle is the public ground where the community gathers. The smaller circle, set apart, is restricted to initiated men and the boys undergoing transformation. The pathway between them is lined with earth mounds and carved trees, and passage along it carries the initiate from one state to another.
Peoples across southeastern Australia practiced the Bora: the Kamilaroi, the Euahlayi, the Wiradjuri, and others documented by Howitt and Mathews. Each performance reenacted the initiation Baiame himself conducted in the Dreamtime. The paired circles, called bora rings, leave permanent marks on the landscape. Sites across New South Wales and Queensland date back thousands of years, and many retain their sacred significance. To walk a bora ring path is to follow the same ground Baiame prepared.
The Voice in the Air
The bullroarer fills the ceremony with a deep hum that carries across the bush. It is a flat piece of wood attached to a cord, swung in a circle. Before initiation, boys are told the sound comes from a supernatural being. Learning the truth, that it is a sacred instrument and what it represents, is part of the knowledge revealed during the ceremony.
Baiame set the pattern for every Bora. The songs, designs, and ritual sequences trace their authority to what he did first. The obligations the ceremony imposes on initiates, secrecy and responsibility and proper conduct, are commands from the creator himself.
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