Aboriginal Spirituality Essay

‘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.

There are many marriage rules and traditions that happen all around the globe. As an aboriginal couple they have different regulations as a male and as a women. As a male, he was permitted to have more than one spouse at the same time. But as a women, she can only remarry if she is a widow. Another thing that is interesting about the marriages in Aboriginal people is the “Blackfella Way”. Meaning the couple has not received an official church blessing or any other type of legal confirmation of their relationship. So in current times, if you do not have any confirmation about your marriage, your marriage would not exist. The other interesting thing about Aboriginals way in current time is the name of their extended family. Instead of calling their cousins, cousins, no matter if it is a boy or girl, they called them “Cousin Brother” or “Cousin Sister”. Even though this is something that makes total sense, I still find it really interesting to know that is what they call each other.

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

Good communication with the families may improve the impact of excessive drinking by family members. This can be done understanding how to best communicate with Aboriginal and/or Torres Straight Islanders. In the Aboriginal culture, silence is important and it is not uncomfortable to have pauses in conversations. Also ‘going around’ sensitive topics is more respectful and polite in the Aboriginal culture. Talking about their mother-in-law or sister is also a subject that is not considered polite to talk about, especially if their have any issues with their relationship. Also understanding that if an Elder is needed to deal with an issue, they must be treated with a high level of respect and dignity

What is an ‘indigenous’ religion or belief system? When we hear the term ‘indigenous religion’, what comes to our minds? How do we react internally when those words are mentioned? How do adherents of indigenous religions feel about those outside of their social and cultural circles, who know very little of their beliefs and who understand them even less. And how did the term ‘indigenous’ become associated with various belief systems that, in many cases, preceded most modern religions being practiced today?

The continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities affected most of the Aborigines’ aspects’ of life due to the variety of policies that the White British brought out under the slogan of protection, support and Aboriginal’s benefit. Terra Nullius was one of the British laws that applied in Australia and prevented Aboriginal people performing the necessity of the Dreaming such as, hunting, ceremonies and visited their sacred sites. Terra Nullius simply defined as the empty land, white people who they arrived to Australia considered that the Australian lands belong to no one. This British impression about Australian land derive from the earliest days of British settled as a result of Aboriginals’ lands included no fences which

Being born on Australian soil for the Indigenous was regarded very important culturally, if a baby was born on the land, they were considered traditional owners of the land. Australian Indigenous women birthing was renowned traditionally as “Women’s Business”. The birthing process involved preparing a hole in the ground, covering the hole with soft leaves and grass as well as red, soft sand. The midwives that assisted the mothers in labour were grandmothers and other women in the community who could offer physical and emotional support that alleviated the discomfort, pain and fear of the birthing process (Jones 2012). Pre-colonisation evidence suggests that Aboriginal women very rarely had medical complaints during pregnancy, the diet women had was very strict and would consist of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced disadvantages in various areas, particularly housing. The disadvantages these people face now are the result of policies introduced by the European settlers, then the government. The policies introduced were protection, assimilation, integration and self-determination. It is hard to understand the housing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if their history is not known.

Through my life, I have seen several different approaches to Indigenous people’s rights and importance in Australia. I have been fortunate enough to visit Ayers Rock and undertake a tour which allowed me to see Aboriginal culture in art and drawings as well as hearing Dreamtime stories from guides. I have also witnessed family friends who have been severely racist and disrespectful of Indigenous heritage and history. I also was lucky to work with some Indigenous students who were in Reception during my Professional Experience 1, and I was able to see first-hand how a culture clash can affect a student’s behaviour. I feel that even before entering this course, I have had the privilege of being able to observe both positives and negatives

The Dreaming can be described as Aboriginal creative epoch and each language group have their own values and beliefs, and what associates with it. (Edwards, 1998, p.79). For example, Kamilaroi of Northern NSWs nation explores the spiritual connections through a name called Baiame, known as ‘All Father” who they believe is the supernatural ancestor and creator of earth. Baiame’s stories of creation are shared from generation to generation of

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.

Healing Systems Essay For this assignment, I decided to focus on the healing systems of the Aboriginal people in Australia. The Aboriginal Australians are quite possibly one of the oldest cultures still around today and the traditional Aboriginal healing practices have been around for just as long. There is no definite answer on when the Aboriginal Australians first came to be but they have been around longer than many other cultures today and their health practices have been around just as long if not longer.

Over the past 230 years, Aboriginals have protested in many different ways to gain rights, which they believe they are deserving of. Through aims of what they wanted to achieve, the processes they went through brought them disappointment over the poor results of some actions and pleasure over the success of others. Over those years, very few periods of protest have been as revelational or effective as the protests occurring between 1938 and 1972. During this period many different groups of Aboriginals have fought for the common cause of being recognised as people rather than interferences caught in the midst of Australians expansion as a nation.

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 Aboriginal Dreaming refers to the religious and spiritual beliefs of the aboriginal people of Australia. The dreaming is what they base their traditional lives around, the dreaming determines their values and beliefs and their relationships with the animals, plants and environment around them. The Dreaming tells the stories that explain their views and beliefs on how the world came to be and its history and the totems which represent each historical factor of the dreaming. The dreaming stories explain how the Spirit Ancestors made the trees, rocks, waterholes, and rivers, mountains and stars as well as the animals and plants, and which spirits