We seem to have several things mixed in here.

a) The dancers stepping in and out of long poles rhythmically moved and tapped together, I always thought to be Indonesian, but I could be wrong. It could be "Tinakling dancing in the Philipines." - but isn't the Philippines in the Indonesian region?

b) "mah ko way ko tay oh way koo-ee tah nah" sounds to me like a phonetic transcription of Maori...

c) some other things which involve throwing sticks around which could be anything but boomerangs
"What do you call a boomerang which doesn't come back - a stick!"

d) "At one of the New Mexico pueblos recently, I saw a girl playing with three sticks. The object was to keep the third stick moving between the two in her hands, and occasionally tossing it in the air and catching it with the other two (mostly unsuccessfully). An old aboriginal game? No, she had seen a juggler doing it on TV. "

sounds like something called "Devil's sticks" - something jugglers have been doing around here for some years, similar to the gagdet which like two cones joined at the tips which are tossed in the air from astring suspended from the far ends of 2 sticks held in the hands.

And I looked at this thread cause I wondered what those plastic tubes that you crack the glass vial inside to mix the chemicals to mix and give off light for several hours had to do with music...

Seems like all this confusion could inspire a song and turn this into a music thread after all... :-)

Robin