That’s part of ceremonial scarification, there are several mobs and groups of indigenous peoples where this is a sacred cultural practice.
Though in many cases the British used the evidence of ritual scarification as some kind of proof that aboriginal people didn’t feel pain the same way Europeans did, so you had to whip them harder and longer than white prisoners for the same transgressions.
That’s part of ceremonial scarification, there are several mobs and groups of indigenous peoples where this is a sacred cultural practice.
Though in many cases the British used the evidence of ritual scarification as some kind of proof that aboriginal people didn’t feel pain the same way Europeans did, so you had to whip them harder and longer than white prisoners for the same transgressions.