Traditional Aboriginal Games for Kids

There are a lot of aborigines lived in Australia in the olden days who have been playing enormous cultural games making huge interest among children! Though these games are lost after the making of while colonization, even today there are few elders who are re-establishing the traditional Aboriginal games and instruction about how to play effectively.

Here are a few collections of traditional games that are still on the nook and corner of tribal areas in Australia.

Boogalah

A traditional game where kangaroo skin is sewn-up to make balls that are thrown in air and the person who catches it goes along with their totem gang into another group in the middle, while others standing around like a circle. The ball will be thrown until the person outside the circle catches it. Then, both the group has to change their positions and the group (totem) that stays longer wins the game.

Boomerang

This is a tool that is used by olden aborigines for hunting while now it is used as a playing tool. Returning boomerangs are very famous for its come back. This game requires throwing the Boomerang at the right direction to make a comeback that could be catchable. Sometimes these were used for hunting birds and mammals.

Gorri

This game is used to be played by men throwing a small object (spear) over a line having a moving target. The moving object must be strike with spears from about a small distance. These were included in the historical games where people play this kind of games for hunting wildlife. This game helps kids to learn the level of throwing accuracy and speed.

Keentan

Keentan is a keep-away game where the catch ball is being played. Both genders used to play this game. The players used to jumps up to catch the ball and as it looks like the jump of a kangaroo, it was named as kangaroo-play.

Marngrook

These were traditional played by the Gunditjmara people that came to the invention of footballs. Game Ball is the meaning of Marngrook. Indigenous people used to play this game just like today’s football.

Tarnambai

In this game, children collects seed heads of the Spinifex (spring rolling grasses) and it is used to be tossed on the air. As the wind blows the kids run behind the seeds to catch them.

Wana

A traditional game played by girl kids. A small piece of stick will be kept on the ground that represents a mother’s baby. Each girls must considered herself as the mother and defend her baby from the digging sticks thrown by opponent girls who acts like killing the baby and throw sticks at the mother. Hence, the mother wants to try defending them using her own stick, which is called “Wana”.

These are just the background concept of each game and as are recorded from the elder aborigines. Apart from these games, there are a lot more number of games played by Aboriginal kids in the olden days.