Contemporary+Aboriginal+Spiritualities+<3

__**CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINAL SPIRITUALITIES.**__

DREAMING: - the ancient time of the creation of all things by sacred ancestors, whose spirits continue into the present, as conceived in the mythology of the Australian Aborigines.

TOTEMISM: - the belief that people are descended from animals, plants, and other natural objects. Totems are symbols of natural ancestors which are often associated with clans such as groups of families with common descent. KINSHIP : - A relation between two or more persons that is based on common ancestry (descent) or marriage (affinity). CEREMONIAL LIFE : - //Ceremonial Life // goes through the Aboriginal Life explaining rituals such as initiation, body decoration and funeral ceremonies. DISPOSSESSION : - to take away possession of something, eg. Property. STOLEN GENERATIONS: - is a term used to describe the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies. NATIVE TITLE : - Native title is the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs. WIK DESCISION: - The wik decision was based on the wik people and the rights of indigenous people who can prove a connection to the land can coexist with the rights of the leaseholders (or pastoralists), but where there is any inconsistency between the two, the rights of the pastoralist will prevail. MABO DECISION: - It was the decision made that aboriginals were the original custodians of this land and that it was indeed belonged to the indigenous Australians before the contact with the Europeans. This meaning that the land was not empty (terra nullius) when Europeans had arrived. Also in 1962 aboriginal people were given the right to vote. SEPARATION: - The act of separating or state of being separated. TERRA NULLIUS: - Aboriginal term: meaning “empty land.” A land belonging to no one. SPIRITUALITY: - The quality or fact of being [|spiritual]. INITIATION: - Formal admission or acceptance into an organisation or club, adult status in one's community or society, etc. TRADITIONS: - the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice. DISCRIMINATION - Allowing a quality (such as race or gender ) to make a difference in particular decisions or circumstances either in favour or against a person.

ACTIVITY. CROSSWORD. Print this crossword and using your knowledge from the Subject Specific terminologies use the definitions to find the words to the crossword. Have Fun =)



SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS.

Q. Analyse issues for aboriginal spiritualities in relation to the effect of dispossession and the lands right movement. Your answer should look like this:

The effect of dispossession

The effect of dispossession had a negative impact on the aborigines and their spiritualities. When the arrival of the European settlement had encountered with the aboriginal people, they had forced upon dispossession of the aboriginal people from their land. With this invasion to their land and the takeover of their culture many issues had appeared and caused the aboriginal spirituality to come under immense stress.

The issues they had encountered due to the Europeans colonisation invading their land and sacred sites that they cherished and lived upon had greatly impacted their lives and communities till even now in the present are far from recovering. The Europeans had separated them from their lands, raided aboriginal campsites, poisoned waterholes and introduced diseases to which aboriginal people had no immunity to fight it. The loss of lives had devastating effects on aboriginal people, disturbing sacred sites and the disruption of kinship groups. Also as the Europeans had begun to settle they had introduced the removal of the children of aborigines also known as the stolen generations, this affecting them greatly by separating kids and forcing them to live as a “white child” till gradually breeding out the aborigines. This had broken down the rights for aboriginals to practise their rituals and pass down the culture through the children. It had created a huge effect which now to this day many aboriginals have lost many cultural aspects of their living such as loss of languages, rituals, practises and sacred sites.

Land right Movements. The land rights movement were the issues that aboriginals were facing and because of the loss of many cultural aspects they begin to fight back in order to get the respect and possessions they were so cruelly taken away from. These issues were made up of three cases which defined the aboriginal peoples right to their land. Native Title – this title recognises that the aboriginal people have rights and traditions to this land. Wik Decision - this decision was cased by the wik people of cape York and it concerns only their right of access to the land held under pastoral leases with wee used but not owned by pastoralist for cattle grazing. The court decided ( that indigenous people who can prove a connection to the land may have rights to hold their ceremonies and perform other rituals and traditional activities just as long as they don't interfere with the pastoralists activities. Mabo decision – the decision that recognises that the aboriginal people were the real owners of this land and that this land should not be considered as “terra Nullius” because the aboriginals did have the right to their lands before European settlement.

Q. Explain the significance of “Aboriginal Spirituality”.

Aboriginal Spritiuality is determined by the dreaming which consists of the following : - Obligations of the people to the land. - The rules for living. - Totemic identities - Kinship relationships. The dreaming is the past, present and future. It is a relationship between the land, kin and ceremonial life. Aboriginal spirituality is significant because it emphasises on how the world was formed. Eg. - Physical appearance. - Land - Animals. It explains the way humanity was created and portrays the role of the spirit world. this is very vital to the aboriginal people as it is a gateway to the past life and it teaches the ceremonies and rituals necessary to bring out the power of the dreaming. It is a link between their ancesteral spirits and is experienced through rituals, symbols, songs and stories which are gradually passed down through the younger generations.

LINKS TO OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES.

[] - This website goes into detail about the the definition of Native Title and explains in more detail on how the courtcase had resulted in favour of the aborginals. It outlines the Native title Act 1993. i believe this website is relevant to this topic because it explains exactly what is the native title and this is a good source of information because it's an actual government site. [] - As shown in the links title itself it shows that its about "aborginial spirituality". I was able to obtain alot of information from this site because its easy to understand and is straight to the point. I also believe this is a useful link because its relevant to the topic and it has sup topics that go into more detail into the aboriginal culture, ary and of course spirituality. []

- Once i had opened up this website i had seen this -

//"A resource for Year 11 and 12 Studies of Religion Students".// Just by seeing this heading, i found many subtopics that related to the topic "Aboriginal Spirituality" and was categorised in even smaller sub topics which was useful for me looking for the main information had needed with the questions. This website is a great source of information because it is classified as an educational website and is focusing on year 12 Studies of religion which I found was very helpful with understanding and constructing this study guide.

VISUAL REPRESENTATION.



//" The stolen Generations - Families Torn One by one, cultures divided never to be recovered "// //- this picture is from the 2002 Movie " Rabbit proof Fence" directed by Phillip Noyce. It clearly represents the issues and demolition of the invasion of the white settlement and its affect on the aboriginal people. In this picture you can see the white english man grabbing and pulling the young aborginal child away from her mother and the anger bestowed on the mothers face. Imagine if your children were taken away from you. It created alot of disclosure upon the aborigines and also greatly affect the young as they were put into mission homes or foster homes and taught to act white.//

BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites. [] - date accessed 28/12/10 [] - date accessed- 01.02.11. [] date accessed - 01.02.11. [] - date accessed - 08/02/11. [] - Picture : date accessed 12/02/11.

Extracts from books :

Title : Religion and beliefs system in Australia. Chapter 9 - Studies of religion. Published: 2006. Authors : Lovett, Mcgrath, Fletcher, Follers.

Excel HSC - studies of religion I & II Authors : Paul Bulmer& Katherine Doret.