Contemporary Aboriginal Spiritualities

Question 1

What is the Dreaming?

Answer 1

Metatemporal/ Complex concept that is of fundamental importance to Aboriginal culture

Question 2

How is the Dreaming expressed?

Answer 2

Expressed through the kinship system of Aboriginal people, their obligation to the land and people and ceremonial life.
(KCO)

Question 3

What is Kinship?

Answer 3

Complex system of belonging and responsibilities with a ‘clan’, based on familial and totem relationships.

Provides framework, cohesion and identifies responsibilities.

Binds people together and they learn about the way of life, history and spirituality.

Question 4

What are totems?

Answer 4

A natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a clan or family as their spiritual emblem

Question 5

What is Ceremonial Life?

Answer 5

It acts out the Dreaming, laws and stories and emcompasses the expression of art

Ceremonies are performed for;
- Social gathers or initiation/mournings

Acknowledges the Dreaming as a fundamental aspect of human life

Question 6

Name an example of ceremonies that are performed

Answer 6

Burial practices: cluster of human bones eroding from the ground

Balance rite: Aboriginal rituals to bring harmony in nature which aims to cause the proliferation of a particular animal or natural phenomena that is connected with a particular ancestral spirit being from the dreaming.

Question 7

What is the obligation to land and people?

Answer 7

For Aboriginal people, the land act as a dwelling place for the ancestral spirits and is the life source of the people, hence their identity as an aboriginal is inextricably connected to the land.

Question 8

What does the land provide for the Aboriginal people?

Answer 8

The land provides a foundation for belief, rituals, traditions and laws because the story of the Dreaming are embedded within it, offering its physical expression

Question 9

Why are there obligations for others to not enter sacred places of other clans?

Answer 9

As it shows a sign of respect for ancestral spirits.

Question 10

What is the role of Aboriginals towards the land?

Answer 10

Aboriginals are custodians rather than the owners

Question 11

What does being custodians give Aboriginals responsibilities for?

Answer 11

Balance rite to sacred sites to offer preservation of the dreaming and their spirituality as well as offering identity and intimate connection

Question 12

What are the obligations to Aboriginal people determined by?

Answer 12

Totemic responsibilities and responsibilities bestowed through the dreaming among tribes and kinship

Question 13

What is dispossession?

Answer 13

The action of depriving someone of land, property, or other possessions.

Question 14

What are the issues for Aboriginal spiritualities in relation to the effect of dispossession?

Answer 14

1. Protection Policy (1869-1940s)
2. Assimilation Policy (1950-1951)
3. Stolen Generation
   (1900-1972)
4. Self-Determination
   (1972)

Question 15

What is the protection policy?

Answer 15

Aim of removing Aboriginal people from unsuitable environments and placing them into the protection of the state by detaining them. (Home, or on mission or reserves)

Question 16

What is the Assimilation policy?

Answer 16

Individuals families were persuaded to share the life in the towns with whites along with breeding them out (mix)

Question 17

What is the Stolen Generation?

Answer 17

The term stolen generation refers to the aboriginal children who were removed from their homes by the government and church missionaries.

Question 18

What is the Self-Determination?

Answer 18

In this policy Aboriginals are supposed to be able to determine and control their own business.

Question 19

What are the effects of dispossession that Aboriginals face?

Answer 19

○ Separation from the land
○ Separation from kinship groups
○ The Stolen Generation

Question 20

What does separation from land mean to Aboriginals?

Answer 20

Removed from their Dreaming sites, ancestors, areas they were “responsible” (custodians) for

Question 21

How does dispossessing them of the land causes thier spirituality and cultural heritage is stripped?

Answer 21

Without the land individuals are restricted from fulfilling obligations to the land → severing ties with ancestral spirits

Question 22

What does separation from kinship groups mean for Aboriginals?

Answer 22

It breaks the cycle of the Dreaming being passed on. Impossible to live a traditional life. Loss of language, identity. Given it is an oral culture, any removal impacts the next generation

Question 23

How does separation from kinship groups affect Aboriginals?

Answer 23

It breaks the cycle of Segregation of an individual from their kinship group

→ prompted decline in the kinship system.

→ Aboriginal culture, tradition, and law = no longer able to pass on

→ Loss of language + inability to authentically understand spirituality

Question 24

What does Stolen Generation mean for Aboriginals?

Answer 24

Intentional removal of indigenous from families. Both for “protection” (100 000 removed between 1950’s-70’s) and also for intentional “breeding out” (earlier 20th century)

Question 25

How does the stolen generation affect Aboriginal spirituality?

Answer 25

Children separated from elders
→ no generation to pass down knowledge, language, traditions
→ Loss of identity and self esteem in culture / lost between two opposing cultures and struggles to find a balance.

Question 26

What is ‘The Bringing them home Report’? QUOTE

Answer 26

“Represents the first of its kind - a complete analysis of the history of the forcible removal policies of successive Federal”.

Question 27

State some of the ‘Relevant statistics from the closing the gap data’ (dispossession)

Answer 27

• Indigenous child mortality rate was 141 per 100,000. Twice the rates for non-indigenous children with 67 per 100,000.
• Indigenous employment rate was around 49% compared to 75% of non-indigenous.
• In 2015-2017 life expectancy at birth was 71.6 for indigenous males (8.6 yrs less than non) and 75.6 for indigenous females (7.8 yrs less than non)

Question 28

What is Land Rights Movement(LRM)?

Answer 28

A religious-political movement to secure the rights of Aboriginal people to their land and ensure that their religious, spiritual and cultural integrity is preserved (Connection to the Dreaming)

Question 29

State the Land Rights Movement?

Answer 29

○ Mabo Decision
○ Native Title
○ Wik Decision

Question 30

What is the Mabo decision 1992? (LRM)

Answer 30

The Mabo decision overthrew the legal fiction of terra-nullius that is. the land of Australia belonged to no one when the British arrived in 1788.

Question 31

What is Native Title Act 1993? (LRM)

Answer 31

To recognised the existence fo aboriginal native title (land rights)

Question 32

What is the Wik Decision, 1996? (LRM)

Answer 32

The High Court ruled that native title could coexist with pastoral leases. This had begun in 1993 with the Wik people which were later joined by Thaayorre people which claimed Native Title over traditional lands on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.

Question 33

What was the Native Title Ammendment Act 1998?

Answer 33

The legalisation was called the Native Title Amendment Act also know as the 10 point plan.

Question 34

Why is the Dreaming importanct?

Answer 34

The Dreaming has an INEXTRICABLE link to the land and is the foundation of Aboriginal religion culture, spirituality and the land is the medium by which Aboriginals are able to reconnect with their land

∴ The Dreaming had and still holds high esteem in terms of motivation for the Land Rights movement (the Dreaming itself is a metatemporal → it incorporates the past, present and future as a complete and present reality)

Question 35

Why is the Dreaming importanct for the Land Right Movement?

Answer 35

• The Mabo decision recognised the connection between the land and the dreaming and found that a form of native title existed.
• The Land Rights Movement aims to reconnect the Aboriginal people with the land, thus restoring concept of the Dreaming also.
• These advancements in Land Right Movement will not only allow Aboriginals to reclaim sacred land, but further their potential power and impact sustaining spirituality within Australian society into the future.