History of Psychology Essay

A great sense of trust supports this mutual ‘give-take’ relationship. ‘If you take care of country, country will take care of you.’ These beliefs are totemist and animist, which basically means Aboriginals perceive all natural objects to possess a spirit or soul. While totems are quite significant within Aboriginal culture as they act as symbols in a system of beliefs, signifying a relationship between an individual or group and an animal or plant. Thus, creating a link between the human, natural and supernatural worlds. As the word ‘totem’ comes from a Native American language where it represents group membership; and literally means is ‘he/she/it is a relative of mine’.

All aboriginals are linked to the Dreamtime through their totemic creation ancestors, whose stories are passed on through generations. Just as they would care for their family or tribe, they are obliged to care for their ancestral spirits existing in their land. It is important to remember that ancestral spirits are not necessarily ‘Gods’, but instead they are natural features of the land. As the Ancestor Spirits travelled the land, they taught the Law. When Aboriginals say they have a spiritual connection to the land, this relationship exists through the Law developed at the period of formation that includes a system of totemism. A totemic being represents the original form of an animal, plant or other object as it was in the Creation Period. The Kumbumerri Yugambeh people’s totem is the Eagle. ‘What is meant by totemism in Aboriginal Australia is always a mystical connection, expressed by symbolic devices and maintained by rules, between living persons, whether as individuals or as groups or as stocks, and other existents—their ‘totems’ —within an ontology of life that in Aboriginal understanding depends for order and continuity on maintaining the identities and associations which exemplify the connection.’ (5.3) Totems not only create a sense of belonging and spiritual connectedness to the land and others in the tribe, but they also offer hints to the person's

Aboriginal spirituality is directly linked to dreaming. The dreaming is the term which refers to the past, future and present of Aboriginal spirituality. The dreaming grasps the Aboriginal ideas of creation. It is the foundation on which the Aboriginal religion is built upon. The impacts of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualties concerning separation from the land, the stolen generation and separation from kinship group is discussed. Departure from the land started with the European settlement. It removed the sense of belonging and sense of spiritual identity. One of the first forms of dispossession even date back to when the first fleet arrived in 1778. The removal of Aboriginal people from their land had a detrimental effect on their spirituality

Aboriginal spirituality has it that the spirits of unborn children (jilmas) are present in the land, usually in sacred waterholes. By dreaming, the child 's father brings its spirit into the mother 's body. Children are not born from the physical joining of the parents, but from the spiritual joining of both the parents and the land. From this, we can see that Aboriginals attribute their very existence to the land.

The Indigenous people believed the all living things were a part of nature and living things had a spirit. For many indigenous people, everything in the cosmos (whole universe) is intimately related and that there is kinship with all creations. According to Oren Lyons, an elder of the Onondaga Nation Wolf Clan, the indigenous people view their kinship with all creation consider themselves the caretakers of the earth, they saw "Everything as Alive": from rocks to water, to mountains, plants, and animals…and all things rely on each other. “That’s what we Indians believe”.

Traditional Aboriginal religious and spiritual beliefs (known as ‘The Dreaming’) are based on a kinship with nature and the land and the influence of ancestral spiritual beings.

‘The Dreaming’ is an important part of Aboriginal’s spirituality. It refers to past, present and future, and, like other religions, it explains how the land came to be and connects the Aboriginals to their ancestors. The Dreaming is foundation for Aboriginal culture and features transcendent and immanent world views. The term ‘Transcendent world views’ refers to a person’s belief in a higher dimension and/or a higher power than themselves. There are many examples of transcendent world views in The Dreaming.

The Aborigines are a society of people that focus on their original culture and traditions that have been there for thousands of years, long before Europeans discovered it, and their traditions are cherished and practiced to this day. On top of their traditional culture, they also have had a need to adapt to a modernizing world in their own right.

Aboriginal people have an affinity connection with the land and spirits. The land owns the Aboriginal people, their land is their identity (Korff, 2015, P. 1). What would happen if you took them away from their land? How do you think they felt when mothers had their children torn out of their arms to be placed in foreign households (Kendal, 1995 P. 1). What then becomes of one’s identity when bereaved from your own culture, inflicted to act upon new customs and laws. The pain of identification loss and disconnection with the spirit of the land is a main cause in Aboriginal mental wellbeing. Statistics show Indigenous are more prone to suffrage in physical and mental health (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2012-13

It is clear from these beliefs that spirituality and religion played a major role in the Aboriginal culture. There were many myths and rituals connected to both the tribe's ancestors and the creators of the world, none of whom ever died but merged with the natural world and thus remained a part of the present. These myths and rituals, signifying communion with nature and the past, were known as the Dreaming or the Dreamtime, and reflected a belief in the continuity of existence and harmony with the world.

For over 200 years Aborigines have endured a long history of suffering due to the unpropitious effects of internationalism and western colonization; in Europeans attempt for cultural assimilation and taking their land to which has caused catastrophic consequences within individuals and the community as a whole by

From the Aboriginal point of view, “the land is a spirit entity — a parchment on which their history is indelibly engraved and where special living places — sacred sites, have acquired significance as reminders of their past” (Zimmerman, 2009, para.27).

Aboriginal spirituality originally derives from the stories of the dreaming. The dreaming is the knowledge and a sense of belonging that the Aboriginals had of the beginning of life and the relationship to the land and sea (Australian Museum, 2011). The dreaming stories are passed on from one generation to the next orally. These stories teach the following generations how to behave towards the land and other people. The dreaming stories give them a sense of duty to protect the land and appreciate it because the dreamtime stories indicate that the spirits have not died but are still alive in different forms as animals or humans, therefore the ancestor’s power is still felt through the landforms (Clark, 1963),

Some scholars have some concern if the tradition or rather the indigenous is a formal class in the works of religion. For instance the case of the Australian aborigines, who lives as flexible foragers even if they are restricted to access some government institutions this can be compared to the way and life the Jewish led when they were under the bondage of the Egyptians. The Australian aborigine’s way of life dwells in a nomadic practice, which reminds or catches the eye when compared to the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness. Their life is always simple but this simplicity has nothing to do with their spiritual life. The aborigines have the doctrine or model that describes the origin of the universe according to their tradition. The author did not provide information if the Australian aborigines are secured from the government ignorance as far as equity of facilities and services is put into consideration. This is a difference that exists when comparing the secular tradition with the Jewish tradition.

The dreaming is known to Aboriginal people as the beginning of their history, culture and existence (Edwards 2005, p. 12). Edwards (2005, p.14) states that the significance of land to Aboriginal people is due to its relation to sacred site or sites of significance. According to Grieves (2009, p. 367) Aboriginal people have a spiritual connection to the land, sea and all that it encompasses including natural life and landforms. This connection was developed during the time of creation therefore each person or entity is linked through the spirit of creation (Grieves 2009, p. 367). Furthermore, land relates to Aboriginal law and the connection that Aboriginal people have in addition to their responsibility to be custodians of land, sea and the sky (Grieves 2009, p. 367). Reflecting on the world views of Aboriginal people, Anglo-Australian and global Eurocentric interpretations of the land, demonstrates a distinct