Marn Grook

Marn Grook or marngrook, from the Gunditjmara language for "game ball", is a collective name given to a number of traditional Indigenous Australian recreational pastimes believed to have been played at gatherings and celebrations of up to fifty players. It is distinct from the indigenous ball game Woggabaliri which is believed to be the subject of William Blandowski's engraving "never let the ball hit the ground" (see picture on right).

Generally speaking, observers commented that Marn Grook was a football game which featured punt kicking and catching a stuffed "ball". It involved large numbers of players, and games were played over an extremely large area. Totemic teams may have been formed; however, to observers the game appeared to lack a team objective, having no real rules, scoring or winner. Individual players who consistently exhibited outstanding skills, such as leaping high over others to catch the ball, were often commented on.

Anecdotal evidence supports such games being played primarily by the Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people and other tribes in the Wimmera, Mallee and Millewa regions of western Victoria (which are commonly associated with the name "Marn Grook"). However, according to some accounts, the range extended to the Wurundjeri in the Yarra Valley, the Gunai people of Gippsland, and the Riverina in south-western New South Wales. The Walpiri tribe of Central Australia played a very similar kicking and catching game with possum skins known as pultja.

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