Aboriginal Spirituality

Question 1

dreaming

Answer 1

kinship
ceremony
obligations to land

Question 2

dreaming definition

Answer 2

encompasses physical and spiritual dimensions giving meaning to all aspects of life

Question 3

kinship

Answer 3

sophisticated network of relationships in dreaming
blood - family (obligations) relationships with people, identity with language
totemism - animals plants objects, original forms of these in creation period, derived from them, origins connections past present future (cyclical) birthplace
ancestral beings - creation beings, immanent

Question 4

ceremonial life

Answer 4

building blocks for spirituality
- balance rights (responsibility of elders)
- initiation ceremony
(sacred knowledge)
- burial rituals (returning soul to song lines)

Question 5

obligation

Answer 5

to land and people
stewards of the land
right is preserved and passed on through dreaming
spiritual sites and song lines to be protected
perform rituals

Question 6

effects of dispossession

Answer 6

separation from land
separation from kinship groups
stolen generation

Question 7

separation from land

Answer 7

from elders, no knowledge
can’t perform ceremonies 
sacred sights not cared for
loss of totemic connections
loss of identity 
lost culture in absence of connections through dreaming

Question 8

kinship groups

Answer 8

loss of sense of prirpose
loss of language and culture
loss of songs (souls cannot be sung to rest and spirits sung to life)

Question 9

stolen generation

Answer 9

loss identity 
loss knowledge (elders can’t pass on)
dreaming and ceremony 
culture (no exposure to land)
lost people and rituals to land 
can’t understand art and stories 
can’t pass on knowledge and therefore obligations

Question 10

land right movements

Answer 10

Mabo
native title
wik

Question 11

Mabo decision

Answer 11

Mer. Owners of land

opened up principle of native title, terra nullius

Question 12

native title 1993/4

Answer 12

clarify decisions made in mabo decision
continuous unbroken connection to land
allowed ownership, access to sites, ceremonies, meet obligations to land, honour obligations of people through ceremony

Question 13

Wik decision 1996

Answer 13

further clarified uncertainty that arose between native title and farmers
co-exist
spirituality is still lived