A Walkabout refers to a rite of passage during which male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the outback for a period as long as six months.

In this practice, they would trace the paths, or song paths, that their ancestors took, and imitate, in a fashion, their heroic deeds.

Merriam-Webster, however, identifies the noun as a 1908 coinage referring to "a short period of wandering bush life engaged in by an Australian Aborigine as an occasional interruption of regular work", with the only mention of "spiritual journey" coming in a usage example from a latter-day travel writer.