Ngarrag (Mardayin) Ceremony, Numbulwar (Pt 4)

Men and women, painted with red and yellow ochres, walk towards the seashore to the sound of clapsticks. Every few metres the men of each moiety, supported by their women, do their typical dances with ceremonial cries. Having arrived at the water's edge the men plunge in and dance in the water; women dance, knee deep, to the side. They immerse themselves, washing off their ceremonial paint, leaaving the Mardayin spirit behind. They then form again in their moiety groupings and return to the ceremonial ground in the same manner as they came down, dancing and giving their yells. In Numbulwar, an Aboriginal community, Northern Territory, Australia.