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Australian: Dreamtime to Dust > Aboriginal > Flashcards

Aboriginal Flashcards

1
Q

Define a tribe.

A
  • Consists of several Bands
  • 1000 to 2000 people
  • Own tribal territory/language
  • Politically/culturally independent
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2
Q

Define a band.

A
  • 30 to 50 people
  • Band territory: Smaller/within tribal territory
  • Same language as other bands around it
  • Recognises tribal belonging
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3
Q

What is the ‘Dreaming’?

A
  • Past. Present. Future
  • A way of knowing
  • Foundation of life for Aboriginals
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4
Q

What is a ‘Dreaming Track’?

A
  • Maps the route the Dreamtime Ancestors travelled along
  • Also known as ‘song lines’
  • Tens of metres to hundreds of kilometres
  • May be shared by two or more tribal groups
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5
Q

What would ‘Honey Any Dreaming’ Country mean’?

A

Honey Ants:

  • Created the place
  • Have a physical presence (formation [i.e. rocks] in the land)
  • Food provider
  • Tribal songs and dances
  • Tell stories and perform rituals/ceremonies for the ancestors
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6
Q

What is meant by ‘My Country’?

A
  • Land Ownership
  • Custodianship
  • Connection to the land
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7
Q

How do Aboriginal people inherit country?

A
  • Member of tribe/clan
  • Through kinship (grandparents, parents, marriage)
  • Inheriting special sites: Birth/conception, totemic, dreaming sites
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8
Q

What is ‘Conception Country’?

A
  • Where fetes is given life by Ancestral Spirit
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9
Q

What is meant by the term ‘Rights of Passage’?

A

Ceremonial Initiation

  • Tooth Avulsion
  • Secret Sites
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10
Q

What is an ancestral Dreaming place?

A
  • Places of significance where Ancestral Spirits live
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11
Q

Name the four ‘Cultural Elements’ that Aboriginal society is built upon?

A
  1. SRL: Special relationship with the land
  2. SOK: Social organisation and kinship
  3. RC: Ritual ceremony and notion of ‘secret/sacred’
  4. CT: Cultural Transmission (Inter-generational learning)
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12
Q

Aboriginal Social organisation and kinship (SOK) are based on four principles. What are they?

A
  1. EGAL: Egalitarianism (equality of all)
  2. PMS: Patrilineal (father)/Matrilineal (mother) descent systems
  3. KMLIS: Kinship and Multi-layered Interrelationship Structure
  4. TAL: Total and totemic attachment to the land
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13
Q

Name some elements in the multi-layered kinship structure used by Aboriginal people.

A
  • Tribe: Born into
  • Clan: Father
  • Moiety: Mother
  • Phratry: Mother
  • Skin Group: Marriage of mother and father
  • Band
  • Conception/Birth Places
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14
Q

Describe a basic section system (skin system) that places a central role in Aboriginal marriage rules.

A
  • Given a skin name through marriage of mother/father

- Female must marry into another area, forces gene mixing of group

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15
Q

What is a totem?

A
  • Attachment to the land
  • Object/plant/animal inherited as spiritual emblem
  • Northern Aranda regard every plant and animal of any economic value as a totem: almost every plant there was a person who considered it to be part of their spirit or life essence.
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16
Q

What is an increase ceremony?

A

Perform rituals to increase animal/plant abundance

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17
Q

What is painted on a hollow log coffin?

A

Cross-hatching Decorations

- Arnhem Land

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18
Q

List some of the duties and abilities of the Elders?

A
  • Main transmitters of culture
  • Custodians of secret and sacred
  • Supervise rituals and ceremonies
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19
Q

What are life stages?

A

Growth and development of individual

Three basic life cycles every person is believed to go through:

  1. Pre-Birth
  2. Life
  3. Death
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20
Q

Explain what Ancestral Spirits ‘are’?

A

Look like:

  • Humans
  • Animals
  • Half and Half

Size:
- Normally Big

Come From:

  • Sky
  • Water
  • Ground
  • ‘Come from the West’
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21
Q

Approximately, how many Aboriginal languages existed in 1788?

A
  • 250 languages

- 700 dialects

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22
Q

How many Aboriginal people are estimated to have been living in Australia in 1788?

A
  • 1 million to 2 million
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23
Q

Can Aboriginal artists paint any traditional story they like?

A
  • Story must belong to them through kinship
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24
Q

What types of environmental information is represented in desert art?

A

Concentric Circles:

  • Waterholes
  • Camp sies
  • Ancestral/Special places
  • Desert landscapes
  • Geological features
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25
Q

Name the type of art that is pecked into rock and carved into trees?

A

Petroglyph
- Rock Engraving

Dendroglyph
- Trees

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26
Q

What is stencilled rock art?

A
  • Ochre used to outline hands/weapons to represent culture
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27
Q

Describe Gwion and Mimi Figures?

A

Gwion:
- Elaborate/slim dancer, highly decorated

Mimi:
- ‘Spirit beings’, thin and live in rocks, can be mischievous

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28
Q

What is a more acceptable name for a ‘dot’ painting?

A
  • Sand/desert painting
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29
Q

How was desert art originally displayed?

A

In the sand or on bark

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30
Q

What part of Australia would you find X-ray art?

A

Arnhem Land, Kimberley

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31
Q

Describe ‘cross-hatching’ used in painting and in which part of Australia you would find it.

A
  • Arnhem Land Art

- Diagonal or Straight lines creating a ‘hatch’ appearance

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32
Q

What are the traditional colours used in Aboriginal art?

What pigments are used to produce these four traditional colours?

A
  • Red
  • Yellow
  • Black
  • White
  • Clay
  • Ochre
  • Charcoal
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33
Q

A bark painting from East Arnhem Land has a red ochre background. True or false?

A

False - West Arnhem Land

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34
Q

What do the powerful beings Namargon and Wandjina have in common?

A
  • Both have control over the monsoons in particular areas
  • Namargon: Kimberley
  • Wandjina: Kakadu
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35
Q

Where would you find Gwion or Bradshaw figures?

A
  • Kimberley, WA
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36
Q

What is cicatrisation?

A
  • Scar formation from a wound healing from body modification
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37
Q

What is ‘tooth avulsion’ and why is it carried out?

A
  • Tooth removal

- During Initation

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38
Q

Describe the activities of a ‘yearly round’ or ‘walkabout’?

A
  • Firing the land
  • Teaching next generation
  • Ceremonies
  • Searching for food
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39
Q

Macrozamia nuts cannot be eaten raw. Why?

A
  • Toxic, carcinogenic

- Causes vomiting unless cooked

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40
Q

What is a feast and famine diet?

A
  • Feast during colder months

- Famine during hotter months

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41
Q

What are the environmental and climatic differences encountered by Aboriginal people living in desert and tropical regions?

A 
Tropics
Wet Season:
- People move to Coast
- Inland floods
- Large areas without food
Dry Season:
- Move inland as dries out
- Colder months
- Visit sites (Ceremonial cycle)
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42
Q

Where did Aboriginal people move to during the Monsoon season?

A
  • Moved to the Coast as the inland floods
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43
Q

What is ‘fire stick farming’?

A
  • Regularly burning vegetation to facilitate hunting
  • Clears fire hazards
  • Rejuvenates soil
  • Triggers plant germination
  • Controls pests
  • Keeps country clean
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44
Q

What is the difference between a ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ fire?

A

Cold:
- Burning land at end of Winter

Hot:
- Permanent damage to trees

45
Q

Besides warmth, light and cooking, for what other purposes do Aboriginal people use fire?

A
  • Hunting: drive game to trap
  • Managing land
  • Encourage new growth
  • Ceremonies and dance rituals
  • Spinifex: highly combustable, must be maintained
46
Q

What is spinifex resin used for?

A
  • Used for tool making: spear heads, fastening shaft)
47
Q

What is Pituri, where is it found and what was it used for?

A
  • A mild narcotic plant (Duboisia hopwoodii) found in Central Australia
  • Used to give a ‘high’, for hunting on hot days
  • Plant also used for poisoning waterholes to catch game (emus etc)
48
Q

What items were traded along trading networks?

A
  • Wood: hard (weapons), soft (coolamons)
  • Stone
  • String
  • Weapons (blanks and spear throwers)
  • Shells (pear, baler)
  • Baskets/nets/mats
  • Ochre
  • Pituri
  • Language
  • Food
  • Songs
  • DNA
49
Q

What are the social functions of trading networks?

A
  • Used to promise marriage
  • Language
  • Songs
  • Ceremonies (non-sacred)
50
Q

What was traded between South Australia and the far west of Queensland?

A
  • Ochre

- Pituri

51
Q

What is a Dhari and where is it from?

A
  • Torres Strait Islander Head Dress
52
Q

What plant was used both for food and to make nets along the Murray Valley?

A

Typha Bull Rush

  • Long leaves to weave nets
  • Roots eaten, rich in carbohydrates
53
Q

Where did the densest Aboriginal populations live?

A
  • Murray Valley

- Then Western Districts, Victoria (Lake Conda: Manmade dams to expand eel breeding area)

54
Q

Describe some of the surgical practices used by Aboriginal people?

A
  • Trephination (cut openings in head)
  • Fracture repair/setting
  • Amputation
55
Q

What is ‘erekinja’ and from what language does this term originate?

A
  • Aranda, Central Australia
  • Treponemal disease
  • From dreaming story about Bandicoot
56
Q

What did Aboriginal people use to splint broken legs?

A
  • NSW: Bark bound with vegetable string
  • Central Australia: Sticks tied with possum/kangaroo skin
  • Murray: Clay with Carbon Carbonate acted as a cast
57
Q

Where did the healthiest traditional people live?

A
  • Central Australia
58
Q

What is a treponeme?

A
  • A bacteria that causes disease like syphilis
59
Q

What were Tasmanian boats made from?

A
  • Reeds
60
Q

Name some material culture objects that were not used in Tasmania?

A
  • Fishing nets
  • Boomerang
  • Shields
  • Coolamon
  • Woomera
  • Axe
61
Q

When did Tasmanians stop eating fish?

A
  • 3000 years ago
62
Q

How big was the Tasmanian Aboriginal population when colonists first arrived?

A
  • 5,000 to 10,000 (1803)
63
Q

How big was the Tasmanian Aboriginal population in 1847?

A
  • 47
64
Q

Who was recognised as the last traditional Tasmanian person?

A
  • Truganini
65
Q

What was the purpose of a stone arrangement?

A
  • Ceremonial Ground, usually for initiation
66
Q

What year was the Aboriginal flag designed?

A
  • 1971
67
Q

What does the word ‘Jila’ mean and where is it used?

A
  • Waterholes

- Great Sandy Desert

68
Q

What was the name of the Sand Goanna Dreaming ancestor described in the film ‘Women of the Earth’?

A
  • Wati Nintukka
69
Q

What is the meaning of ‘Terra Nullius’?

A
  • Empty Land
70
Q

When was the Mabo Decision handed down?

A
  • 1992
71
Q

What Australian coastline did Captain James Cook map?

A

Eastern (Botany Bay, Sydney)

72
Q

When did the two smallpox outbreaks occur in southeastern Australia?

A
  • 1789
  • 1828
  • Mortality rate: 75%
73
Q

Other Europeans had travelled the Australian coastline before the English. Who were they?

A
  • Dutch
74
Q

Who was the first Englishman to land in Australia?

A
  • William Dampier
75
Q

Who were Macassans?

A
  • Fishermen from Indonesia

- Looking for sea cucumbers (trepang) to trade with Chinese

76
Q

How long were Macassans visiting Australia?

A
  • 900 years
77
Q

What diseases did Macassans bring to Australia?

A
  • Smallpox
  • Yaws (erekinja)
  • Leprosy
78
Q

What was the drought food that Yatunka was collecting in the film ‘Last of the Nomads’?

A
  • Quandongs
79
Q

Who were the ‘Stolen Generation’?

A
  • Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander descendants removed from families by federal/state government agencies/church missions, under acts of respective parliaments
80
Q

What are other names for ‘sea cucumbers’?

A

Trepang- Indonesia
Beche de Mere

  • found Admiralty Gulf to Gulf of Carpentaria
  • Boats called Prau: each caught 100,000 sea cucumbers
81
Q

How many tribes are there?

A

350 - 400

82
Q

What is ‘sickness country’?

A
  • BULADJANG
  • Found in the Kakadu area: Uranium mining

Other minerals found in this country are:

  • Arsenic
  • Lead
  • Mercury
  • Do not disturb the rocks in this area or you will become very sick.
83
Q

{A B}
{C D}

  1. A (man) marries B (woman), Children ?
  2. C (man) marries D (woman), Children ?
  3. B (man) marries A (woman), Children ?
  4. D (man) marries C (woman), Children ?
A
  1. Children C
  2. Children A
  3. Children D
  4. Children B
84
Q

What defines a ‘family group’?

A
  • Share land defined by Dreaming sites to which one has access
85
Q

Name these phratry totems and their dreaming ancestors.

  1. Yarriwurrgan
  2. Yarrigarrngurk
  3. Yarriyarrninj
  4. Nawalganj
  5. Yarriburrik
  6. Andjarrabuma
A
  1. Green Ant (Gabo) given by Ngarradj, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
  2. Stone (Gunwarde) given by Duruk the ‘Dog’
  3. Sun (Gundung) given by Almudj the Rainbow Snake
  4. Native bee (Nabiwo) given by Nadjurlum the Whirlwind
  5. Fire (Gunak) given by Nammadol the Wedge Tailed Eagle
  6. Water (Guku) given by Gulindj the Flying Fox Man
86
Q

What were the two categories of ceremonies?

A
  1. Spatial

2. Temporal

87
Q

What are ‘Trans-Australia’ spatial ceremonies?

A

Large gatherings that take place at great distances from home bases. The following take place at these:

  • Trade and exchange
  • Ceremonies - stories, dance, song
  • Arguments are settled
  • Obligations ratified and recognised
  • Alliances confirmed
  • Marriage arrangements made
88
Q

Explain ‘Intertribal and Intra-tribal’ contact.

A

Contact between two or more neighbouring tribes or between groups/bands within a tribe:

  • As previous listing, plus:
  • Special places are visited;
  • Yearly round or ‘walkabout’ is undertaken- groups and tribes meet and from this:
  • Further ceremony is entered into to promote resource
  • Growth and appease spirit people
  • Firing the land is carried out to promote plant growth and cleans the land
  • Places are visited to look after special sites
  • Teaching of young is undertaken where children are show places and where food can be gathered
  • Water holes and soaks are kept clean
89
Q

What is ‘seasonality’?

A
  • The year is divided into the child spending time with men, old men (father’s father and mother’s father) kin from both sides of the family, hunting, birth time etc.
90
Q

What happens at group/band ceremonies?

A
  • The young are taught stories, songs, dance and both secular and spiritual lore
  • Visits are made to special places
91
Q

What are ‘temporal’ ceremonies?

A

These extend over months, years or throughout life and they involve:

  • Songs, stories, actual events, learning taboos and the notion of ‘secret-sacred’. All these are tied up with ‘MENS’ AND ‘WOMENS BUSINESS’
  • Age-grade acquisition of secular, special, spiritual,
  • Mythical and magical knowledge.
  • Rights of passage ceremony or initiation (men and women)
92
Q

Describe forms of punishment and who carried them out.

A

Ridicule: Usually carried out by the women
Combat: Used to settle interpersonal arguments
Spearing: Deliberate or with some defence.
‘Being Sung’: Ritual murder by singing and bone pointing as part of sorcery and magic
Assassination: Carried out by two or more warriors
Self-Banishment: Rare but not unknown (Warri and Yatunka)

93
Q

What is passed on through ‘oral tradition/spoken culture’?

A
  • Teaching
  • Ceremony
  • Ritual
  • Dancing
  • Singing
  • Song Poetry
  • ‘Singing’: magic or sorcery
  • Stories
  • Message Sticks
  • Body Designs
  • Art
94
Q

Explain Arnhem Land art.

A
  • Over 2000 art sites in the 37,500km2 area
  • ‘Stone Country’
  • Thirteen languages
95
Q

Where are Arnhem land paintings put?

A
  • Shelter walls
  • Bark homes, bark walls on ceremonial grounds
  • Sacred objects carved from wood. These are also incised and often decorated with intricate designs and multicoloured feathered strings
  • Body painting – novices, initiates and elders
  • Toys made from bees wax
  • Message sticks
  • Body painting – ceremony
  • Hollow-log coffins
  • Every-day objects (dilly bags, spears, spear throwers, mats and items of apparel)
96
Q

What are different stones used for?

A
  • Sandstone: grinding dishes
  • Chalcedony, silcretes, cherts, quartz: knifes, blades, points, chisels and engraving and woodworking tools
  • Granites, greenstone: grind stones and axes
97
Q

Where were boomerangs NOT used?

A
  • Tasmania
  • Cape York
  • Parts of Arnhem Land
98
Q

History of the woomera.

A
  • Spear thrower
  • 42,000 years: Mungo 3 Man (arthritic wear of his right elbow)
  • 28,000 years: La Gravette cave in France
  • 19,000 years: Gwion figures, Kimberley (depicted holding woomeras as well as boomerangs)
99
Q

What are the three major foods types used?

A
  1. Fruits
  2. Seeds
  3. Tubers (bush potato/yam/onion)
100
Q

What are the five ecological stages associated with burning recognised by the Mardu people?

A
  1. Nyunma: Freshly burnt
  2. Waru-waru: Green shoots and young plants
  3. Nyukara: Mature plants with edible fruits
  4. Manguu: Mature spinifex that can be burnt
  5. Kunkara: Eldery spinifex dying in the middle
101
Q

When do Jawoyn complete early burns?

And late burns?

A
  • March to June: “cool burns”

- June to October

102
Q

Where were the following crops grown?

Yams

Millet

Cycad and Bunya nuts

A
  • Arnhem Land and Cape York: Waterlily and Yam stacked for Winter
  • Darling River, NSW: Panicum seeds stored in bags
  • South East Queensland: Trenches used for leeching
103
Q

Where was the “hut village” located?

A
  • South Western Victoria
  • Permanent huts (stone sides and thatched roofs)
  • Up to 500 people
104
Q

What did people live in on the Murray River?

A
  • Mounds
  • One per family
  • Oldest: 3000 years ago, Murray River
  • 2500 years ago, Western Victoria
105
Q

How did people use typha bull rush?

A
  • Carbohydrate source: root (points to growing population)
  • Stripping/processing leaves: Dragging them across back teeth (molars) to strip into thinner strands- makes vegetable string for weaving
106
Q

What percentage of plants in Central Australia have ‘increase ceremonies’ attached to them?

A

20%

107
Q

What other diseases affected the Aboriginal population similarly but less devastatingly than Smallpox?

A
  • Measles

- Influenza

108
Q

Aside from food, what other uses did plants have?

A
  • Medicine
  • Native tobacco
  • Water source
  • Wood for implements and weapons
  • Cementing/Adhesive (like spinifex resin)
109
Q

Where were eel traps and canal construction used?

A

South Western Victoria

  • Lake Condah
  • Toolondo
  • Mount William

Australian: Dreamtime to Dust (1 decks)

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