The Importance of Land and Country to Australian Aboriginals

Framing Aboriginal spirituality is a celebration of connectedness. The relationships which the Indigenous people form with their environment reflects that their spirituality is far more complex than a religion, rather, it is an identity. For theses ancient people there is no separation between the people, flora and fauna, and the land (Korff, What is Aboriginal Spirituality?, 2017). All of these elements are profoundly connected through song, dance, sacred stories and art, which are the pillars of Aboriginal spirituality. These traditions also allow the Indigenous people to connect with and understand the earth, therefor understanding ancestor spirits who are ever present within the land. Ancestors may have come to rest within specific land forms (Australian Museum, 2015). These connections create an inextricable relationship with the land; not only in a spiritual sense, but also as a way of understanding one’s history. “The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity” (Korff, What is Aboriginal Spirituality?, 2017). This report will explore the connection between Indigenous spirituality, land rights, European settlement and the impact colonisation had on the Australian Aboriginal peoples.

Aboriginal people, since British settlement, have faced great inequalities and much racial discrimination on their own soil. Aboriginal Australians through great struggle and conflict have made significant progress in the right to their own land. To better understand the position of the Aboriginal Australians, this essay will go into more

• The Dreaming The Dreaming is communicated through songs, stories and rituals, in which is explains how the “creator ancestors shaped the land and brought it to life” (Gammage, 2011, p. 1419). All of life, from religion, geography, life and more, are explained and connected to the Aboriginal people’s spirituality, land and family through this form of communication. The Dreamtime “shapes the Aboriginal people’s view of the universe and themselves” (Wierzbicka & Goddard, 2015, p. 43). The passing on of the Dreaming stories from one generation to the next was a “most important aspect of education” (Edwards, 1998, p. 83) and is seen as the fundamental reality. Edwards stated that through ritual, humans are able to “enter into a direct relationship with

Hello and welcome to ST Leo’s justice group my name is charbel saliba and I will be talking to you about aboriginal dreaming and land rights. The quote I said earlier was a spiritual view of life based on the dreaming which cannot be separated from the land; that is why the aboriginal people’s connection towards the land is inexorable. The two are intertwined; to separate them would be impossible, one would not work without the other thus they are just as important. The land is used as a physical link between human beings and all that is unseen and eternal. It creates a

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

These philosophical ways of being and abiding by are supported by the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime can be explained as ‘how the world came to be’ for Australia’s First People, centered around ‘how people must conduct their behavior and social relations’ (Broome, 2002, p. 19). There are estimated to be 600 different Indigenous countries that exist amongst the Australian continent, all with different ways of ‘doing’ (Edwards, 1998). The Dreaming is an important way of passing on knowledge, cultural values and belief systems from generation to generation (Australian Government, 2015). The deep connection that Aboriginal people have to their land is also an important concept relation to the concept of The Dreaming. The land is where the events of the dreaming occurred, with the spirit beings of The Dreaming, forming sacred parts of the Australian landscape (Edwards, 1998, p. 81). This spiritual way of being is also linked to elaborate laws of kinship (Phillips, 2005).

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.

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

Terra Nullius was once apparent in Australian society, but has now been nullified with the turn of the century. With the political changes in our society, and the apology to Indigenous Australians, society is now witnessing an increase in aboriginals gaining a voice in today’s society. Described by Pat Dodson (2006) as a seminal moment in Australia’s history, Rudd’s apology was expressed in the true spirit of reconciliation opening a new chapter in the history of Australia. Considerable debate has arisen within society as to whether aboriginals have a right to land that is of cultural significance and whether current land owners will be able to keep their land.

Source 1 displays a Indigenous prayer ceremony to prepare for Christmas. The ceremony is influenced by Aboriginal culture such as their connection with the land and the spirits of the First Peoples. For Aborigines “all objects are living and share the same soul and spirit as them”. Spirituality is heavily incorporated into the everyday lives of Aboriginals. Spirituality can be defined as the sense of a connection to something bigger than yourself and involves a search for the meaning of life.

Aboriginal Identity in Post-Colonial Australia The ‘colonisation' of Australia by Europeans has caused a lot of problem for the local Aborigines. It drastically reduced their population, damaged ancient family ties, and removed thousands of Aboriginal people from the land they had lived on for centuries. In many cases, the loss of land can mean more than just physical displacement. Because land is so much connected to history and spirituality, the loss of it can lead to a loss of identity. This paper will examine the works of Tim Rowse and Jeremy Beckett as well as other symbols of identity that are available to modern Aborigines in post colonial Australia.

To better understand Aboriginals as a Dream Culture I want to give more insight into Aboriginal Australians general culture and their conceptions of “Dream Time.” In his discussion of religion, Mircea Eliade describes a concept of Cosmos vs Chaos (Eliade 1957). In this notion an unordered world is chaotic only until is it transposed during a sacred time: “By occupying it and, above all, by settling in it, man symbolically transforms it into a cosmos though a ritual repetition of the cosmogony” (Eliade 1957:31). In other words until a land is tamed or created it is considered unordered. This can be applied to Aboriginal’s understanding of the world prior to their current presence. Aboriginals believe that in a time before the Dreamings, the land and world was a featureless earth. It was not until the dreamtime, or time of creation: “where there is contact with appearances from both realms of inside the earth itself as from ill-defined upper region” that the earth began to have its composed landscapes (Cowan 1992:26). The Dream Time is not only a period but more of a dimension where ancestral beings moved across the earth and created not only land, but every aspect of the earth including animals, plants, and man. It is important to realize that the ancestors created the natural earth and that is why Aboriginals live a particular lifestyle. Most Aboriginals living in this cosmogony are hunter-gatherer tribes. This aspect of their life can be traced to stem from the idea of

“The land is my mother. Like a human mother, the land gives us protection, enjoyment and provides our needs – economic, social and religious. We have a human relationship with the land: Mother, daughter, son. When the land is taken from us or destroyed, we feel hurt because we belong to the land and we are part of it.” This quote was written by Djinyini Gondarra, an Aboriginal that is working to towards enhancing the health and well-being of his fellow aboriginal people. Over the years, aboriginal people have been mistreated and have experienced a large magnitude of discriminations that range from health to social inequalities, which have led to many health-related issues that have made it very difficult for Aboriginal people to break the stigma and prejudice they continue to experience.

Introduction Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

The acknowledgement of country is very important as it recognises the first original owners of the land we now share; the original custodians of the land were the aboriginals. This shows the history and culture of Aboriginals and the hardship that they endured at that difficult time. The acknowledgement of country is used to bring both Indigenous Australians and other cultures together to share the land of their ancestors.