Australian aboriginal beliefs and spiritualties essay

Australian Aboriginal Beliefs and Spiritualties The Dreaming Question 1: The Nature of the Dreaming and its relation to the origins of the universe is to express how the earth and land was formed by their ancient ancestors that rose from their eternal sleep and created life. The Sacred sites are considered to be the water holes, rock formations and caves, the uses for these sacred sites are burial grounds, ceremonial meeting places and significant places such as birthing caves. The Dreaming also has stories that help to portray its meaning for example the Kangaroo man or the rainbow serpent. Aboriginal Art was considered to be one of the most significant things in an essential part of Aboriginal life, the Art was to tell great stories and show significant ideas and as a way of teaching.

Question 2: The importance and significance of the Dreaming to Aboriginal people Is Not just to act as a form of Guidance but it is a way of life for Aborigines It basically is their code of life, It is essential to the life of traditional Aboriginal people and their lifestyle and culture, for it determines their values and beliefs and their relationships with every living creature and every feature of the landscape. It is the way Aboriginal people explain the beginning of life and how everything in their world came into being. What links the People and the Dreaming together is the natural world especially the land to which a person belongs. Aboriginal people see themselves as related to, and apart of, this natural world and know its features in intricate detail. This relationship to the natural world carries responsibilities for its survival and continuity so that each person has special obligations to protect and preserve the spirit of the land and the life forms that are a part of it. Apart from this there are over 900 different Aboriginal Tribes in Australia so each of them has their own belief but that doesn’t mean they exclude others, they all run along the same Belief one creation. Question 3: Kanyini is connections Between the Aboriginal People, caring and responsibilities of one and each other. The Australian Documentary ‘ Kanyni’ which goes deep into detail of how Aboriginal’s lived and connected with the universe, it showed how diverse and how serious the relationship to the land and to their ancestors was and still is, Bob Randall is the main actor in the movie and part of the Stolen Generation.

The connection that Aborigines have with the Earth is inextricable meaning that their purpose on this land is to go with the flow of the environment and only by doing this it fulfills the creative destiny. We have a completely different perspective towards the land and universe compared to the Aborigines because they see everything as part of them and that they are all united with everything. In Kanyini Bob talks about when the Europeans came into Australia and turned everything upside down creating nothing but chaos, The Aboriginal lifestyle and culture was destroyed, their Traditions and customs were abolished. This completely demoralized the Aborigines because you weren’t just taking their rights away but their purpose and soul, we broke the connection. The Dreaming is a part of all aspects of Aboriginal life.

The expression ‘ Dream time’ is most often used to refer to the ‘ time before time’, or ‘ the time of the creation of all things’, while ‘ Dreaming’ is often used to refer to an individual’s or group’s set of beliefs or spirituality. Aboriginal spirituality takes shape in many forms. The Aborigines are one with the land and the land is one with them.

It is the land on which we live, the water we consume, the sun, moon and stars, the life around us and the air we breathe, they are all linked by The Dreaming as The Dreaming is the reason for their existence. It’s an accelerated process; we’re worried that they will go too fast and they won’t look hard enough (for potential environmental impacts). ”- Rob Randall Bibliography Coleman, N. 2006. Studies of Religion. Australia: Science Press, No 2: p16-28 Wikipedia. 2010.

Dreamtime. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Dreamtime (date accessed 10th april. 2010) Curriculumsupport. 2010, The Dreaming.

http://www. curriculumsupport. education. nsw. gov.

au/shared/thedreaming. htm (date accessed 12th april. 2010)