Walkabout
Walkabout is an Australian English word originally referring to the belief of non-indigenous Australians that Aborigines were prone to "go walkabout" - a pidgin (or perhaps quasi-pidgin) expression meaning that they would stop doing their jobs and wander through the bush for weeks at a time.
(In fact most Aboriginal cultures required people to visit certain sites at certain times and to engage in ceremonial meetings of many thousands of years standing. That this process could be dismissed as 'walkabout' is an indication of the unsophisticated approach non-indigenous Australians took to indigenous cultures and also perhaps the sense of humour of the Aborigines who coined the phrase.)
This has lead to a jocular modern usage, whereby someone who has wandered off (for a few minutes or a few months) is said to have 'gone walkabout'. It can also apply to a missing item, for example, "Have you got my stapler Doreen? It's gone walkabout again."
Walkabout, 1971 is an Australian film directed by Nicolas Roeg based on a book by James Vance Marshall. A young girl and her young brother are stranded in the Australian outback and encounter a young Australian Aborigine boy who goes on a walkabout with them, an initiatory rite of passage. He saves them but runs into some trouble himself.
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Referenced By
Australian cinema | Cinema of Australia | Jenny Agutter | Nicholas Roeg | Nicolas Roeg | Rite of passage | Rites of Passage | The Walkabout | The Walkabout (pub chain)
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