Details of Whirlpool Riji

Catalog Number : 10758
Size : 17cm x 14.5cm
Medium : ochre carving on pearlshell
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The Riji shell is what the young men wear after they have gone through a number of different stages of initiation. It is the third last stage of the initiation of a young man. After the final stage he is allowed to be with his promised wife. Prior to being fully initiated he can only talk to her and no physical contact is allowed. A man is a bongan for 2-4 years. The whole iniation process from boyhood to manhood takes about 8-10 years.

The stages for the ceremony are:
Niyamniyam: the people decide if the young boy is ready for law.
Layanyarr: this involves his brothers-in-law painting him with fat. He is then taken to the law ground for ceremony and when he comes back from the law ground his is called balil.
Oolooloong ceremony: they are given hand strings and move into the next oolooloong ceremony to become gambil boys. After about a year they become roonggoorr t(about 15-16 years of age) and they wear eagle feathers in their hair.
Boongan: a young man who has been through law has a hairbelt and pearlshell put on him he then waits for the red paint stage (about 2-3 years). The red paint stage is called ilyboorr and the boy is now a man and is free to marry. After the red paint, he can be called maambangan.
Carved in 2006.