Traditions of Oceania
Haka and hangi, Dreamtime and corroboree, kava, tapa and the umu oven. 58 traditions on EveryParampara so far.
🇳🇿 Auckland, New ZealandWhakapapa
Māori genealogy, recited to place a person among ancestors, land and tribeHome
🇵🇬 Trobriand Islands, Papua New GuineaTrobriand cricket
Cricket as played in the Trobriand Islands, with chants, dances and a feastGame
🇵🇬 Maprik, Papua New GuineaHaus Tambaran
A sacred house of the Sepik peoples, used for ancestor worship and male initiationSpiritual
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea and 5 moreShell money
Traditional currency made from cowries, ground clam beads, and carved sea shellsCraft
🇦🇺 AustraliaThe Dreaming
A living spiritual worldview and law connecting Aboriginal Australians to ancestors, land, and community.Spiritual
🇳🇿 Auckland, New ZealandTā moko
The traditional permanent tattooing of the Māori people of New Zealand, marking identity and status.Rite of passage
🇳🇿 New ZealandWaka
Traditional Māori canoes used for fishing, transport, and ceremony, built from single logs or stitched planks.Craft
🇦🇺 Sydney, AustraliaSongline
A navigational and spiritual path across Australia that links ancestral stories to the physical landscape.Folklore
🇦🇺 AustraliaWalkabout
A rite of passage involving travel through the Australian landscape to learn ancestral lore.Rite of passage
🇦🇺 AustraliaBush ballad
Verse and song that tell stories of life in the Australian bushPerformance
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea and 5 moreCouvade
Childbirth rituals where fathers take to bed and mimic the labor of childbirthRite of passage
🇻🇺 Pentecost Island, VanuatuGrade-taking
A social system in northern Vanuatu where men and women gain status through ceremonial pig sacrifices.Ceremony
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Whakapapa: Jimmy Pitt, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Haus Tambaran: Sylt-Tinto, CC0, source
- Shell money: Niccolò Gualtieri, Public domain, source
- The Dreaming: September 1985, Public domain, source
- Tā moko: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source
- Waka: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bush ballad: A. B. Paterson, Public domain, source