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WORLD RELIGIONS & WORLD VIEWS: Aboriginal Spirituality

Aboriginal Spirituality

Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that all objects are living and share the same soul or spirit that Aboriginals share.

Eddie Kneebone, Aboriginal Reconciliation campaigner and painter 

This is a very fundamental statement about Aboriginal spirituality. It implies that besides animals and plants even rocks have a soul.

An Aboriginal person's soul or spirit is believed to "continue on after our physical form has passed through death", explains Eddie Kneebone. After the death of an Aboriginal person their spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock. The shape is not important because each form shares the same soul or spirit from the Dreamtime.

What is not Aboriginal spirituality?

Many texts and books use 'Aboriginal religion' when addressing Aboriginal spirituality. But these two terms should not be confused:

Spiritual "relates to people's deepest thoughts and beliefs, rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings". 

Religious is "something that [...] is about or connected with religion", i.e. "the belief in a god or gods and the activities that are connected with this belief, such as prayer or worship in a church or temple". 

Hence spirituality is the foundation of religion, the deeper layer of any religious practice and expression.
 

SOURCE: Korff, J 2020, Aboriginal spirituality and beliefs, <https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality>, retrieved 7 August 2022

Beliefs & Identity

The Creation Period – The Dreaming

Similar to other religions, there was a time in Aboriginal belief when things were created. This “Creation Period” was the time when the Ancestral Beings created landforms, such as certain animals digging, creating lagoons or pushing up mountain ranges, or the first animals or plants being made. Europeans refer to this as "The Dreaming" but the Aboriginal word for this Creation Period varies throughout Australia and each linguistic region has its own beliefs pertaining to that particular area. For example, it is known as Alcheringa (Aldjuringa) amongst the Aranda of Central Australia, as Lalai in the Kimberley, and as Nayuhyungki amongst the Kunwinjku (Gunwinggu) east of Kakadu National Park.

SOURCE: Welch, David M. (2022) Aboriginal Culture, https://www.aboriginalculture.com.au,

Practices/ Rituals/Ceremonies

Significant Places/Sacred Sites

Sacred Sites are places within the landscape that have a special meaning in Aboriginal tradition.

Aboriginal Sacred Sites are spirit centres for aboriginal people as well as animals and plants. They can be trees, rocky outcrops, hills, ochre deposits, waterholes or clearings; anywhere that ancestral spirits are associated with. Some ancestral spirits left their human energy or their spirit at these sites in the form of plants or animals. A sacred site is formed by a mythological event. To enter a sacred site a person must be initiated and ceremonies relating to the mythological event are often held at or near them. The objective of having these ceremonies is to get the ancestral being to send out the life energy or spirits of the sacred site, so they can cooperate with nature at just those seasons when the increase of particular species should occur. There are male sacred sites (men’s business) which are forbidden to women and women’s sacred sites (women’s business) which are forbidden to men.

Aboriginal Sacred Sites: Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) (Central Australia); Mount Borradaile (Northern Territory); Windjana Gorge (Kimberley, WA); The MacDonnell Ranges (Northern Territory); Rainbow Valley (Central Australia); Cave Hill (SA & NT border).

SOURCE: Mbantua Gallery (2022), Aboriginal Culture, https://mbantua.com.au/aboriginal-culture/

Videos

Stephen Oliver: NAIDOC Awards 2015 [3:39 mins]

Comedian Stephen Oliver delivers a powerful, rapid fire routine at the 2015 NAIDOC Awards.

SOURCE: NITV (2015), Stephen Oliver: NAIDOC Awards 2015, posted on YouTube, https://youtu.be/GW3dks0Eu5Q

The Australian Dream [1:43:45 mins]

Walkley award-winning writer Stan Grant tells the remarkable story of indigenous AFL legend Adam Goodes. Through the backdrop of Goodes' journey, the film explores race, identity and belonging in Australia today.

SOURCE: Gordon, Daniel (2019), The Australian Dream, available from Clickview, https://clickv.ie/w/ir1t

IQ2 Racism Debate Stan Grant [8:34 mins]

Is Australia really a multicultural safe haven of equal opportunity? Or is racism more prevalent than ever before? Stan Grant took to the stage for the last IQ2 debate of 2015. His speech is widely acknowledged to be one of the most powerful ever heard at IQ2.

SOURCE: The Ethics Centre (2016), IQ2 Racism Debate: Stan Grant, posted on YouTube, https://youtu.be/uEOssW1rw0I

Aboriginal History: Life Stories and Aboriginal Views [23:31 mins, Rated PG]

Featuring interviews with prominent Aboriginal figures, this programme traces Aboriginal views of history. Drawing on significant dates in Australian history, the programme allows Aboriginal people to tell their versions of events that have shaped Australia. Aboriginal people speak openly about cultural dispossession and resistance and give vivid accounts of life on the missions.

SOURCE: Classroom Video (1995), Aboriginal History: Life Stories and Aboriginal Views, posted on ClicView, https://clickv.ie/w/QiUq

Coroboree

Ceremonial Coroboree (dance)

SOURCE: "Traditional Dance Festival." National Geographic Kids Featured Images. Cengage Learning. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

Men dancing a ceremonial coroboree (dance)

Books from the library

Special Festivals/Celebrations

Issues