Jane E Lawton. Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development. Editor: Elizabeth M Dowling & W George Scarlett. Sage Reference, 2006.
The spirituality of Aboriginal people in Australia is traditionally associated with specific tracts of land in diverse ways. The ancestral spirits permeate social life, and individuals within each group develop a genuine sense of belonging with the spiritual and physical landscapes. Within individual regions, various social groups possess certain traits in addition to their spiritual beliefs. They have a shared language or dialect and economic system, and particular songs and ceremonies that belong to their specific clan. Descent groups occupy particular environments and come to be associated with specific territories. Children at birth are taught which descent group they belong to and what part of the land is theirs to be part of and protect. They are taught songs and told stories about their ancestors.
There have been perhaps 300 language groups in Aboriginal Australia. Today, many of those languages no longer exist. There are approximately 20 languages still spoken by more than a few people. As none of the languages were written, many have been lost forever. Clans or other descent-based groups comprised the social frameworks within each. Descent groups acted as guardians of the land inherited from their ancestors. By belonging to a clan, individuals are provided with a birthright, a passport to a portion of the land, shared customs, and the obligation to comply with the rigorous rules of the social structure that accompany clan membership. All children learn these rules at an early age. At each stage of development, they are expected to know and behave in certain ways in relationship to their own family, the land, and their spiritual relationship to both.
Clans consist of men, women, and children who are considered to be descendants of the same ancestor or ancestors, but whom at any one time, are scattered throughout a number of different lands. All clan members within a language group are related, even if distantly, and all relationships are recognized and respected. Unwritten rules govern how people are addressed by one another and what behaviors are appropriate for each relationship and each age group. These social relationships and rules are all part of the laws of the Dreaming.
At birth, children possess their own spiritual presence, and the rest of the group already knows their kinship ties. They are given a special name at a ceremony. From their earliest days, children live within their kin structure and are gradually taught how to behave toward other people. They have special kinship terms and relationships. For example, it is common for the mother’s brother to occupy the most important place in the life of a male child, guiding the young boy along the early steps towards initiation and manhood.
An extended family usually lives at the same camp and moves about the territory as a group. Kinship is a crucial element in the structuring of social and spiritual relationships in Aboriginal societies. Kinship is of prime importance throughout Aboriginal Australia, and is applied to all people inclusively. It is part of the spiritual relationship to the land and their ancestors.
In traditional societies, everyone with whom an Aboriginal person comes into social contact is likely to be recognized as some kind of relative. Every individual is connected to everyone else by descent, marriage, or some other form of affiliation. To an outsider, the network of relationships and obligations might seem complex. Nobody remains outside the kinship system, and all are required to carry out their obligations and responsibilities toward others and the land. No one is forgotten. If children are left orphaned or adults widowed, they are incorporated into the kinship system. This in turn connects all to a spiritual life. In its simplest form, the notion of kin is based on the idea that a man calls his brother’s children son and daughter. In turn, they address him as father as they do their biological father. A man’s sister’s children are considered son and daughter.
Traditionally, spiritual beliefs permeate every aspect of life. The spirit helps the individual pass through a series of important life events or rites of passage. The laws are laid down in the Dreaming. The Dreaming is a term used to describe the spiritual, natural, and moral order of the cosmos. Each life segment brings with it a set of rights and obligations.
Children spend a lot of their time in the company of other youngsters and various adults, especially members of the extended family. They enjoy great freedom as long as their actions do not harm anyone and they obey instructions such as staying clear of dangerous and sacred places. Proper respect to elders and family is to be shown at all times. Many of the proper ways of behaving are conveyed to children through stories and songs around the campfire. These stories vary from region to region and are passed on orally. The stories have several levels. The first stories were for children and all community members. The same story may vary in information for different ages and contain sacred information. Art and drawings are also used to convey spiritual information linking always to the land.
Creation stories follow a general pattern, all related to the land and landscape. Before creation, the land now called Australia was a barren place, devoid of all human life. In the Dreamtime, Ancestral Beings came down from the stars and rose from the earth. They moved across the land, singing into existence an intricate network of rivers, deserts, mountains, forest, animals, and birds. They stretched to the sun announcing; “I am Ant!” “I am Snake!” “I am Kangaroo!” “I am Emu!” As they called out the names they created sacred songs that brought aspects of the land into being. Each region would be influenced by several powerful figures and those Ancestral Beings would then continue to support and resource the communities living within that area. When their work was done, the Ancestral Beings sank into the earth or returned to the sky, ready to be called upon by prescribed ritual.
Australian Aboriginals understand that they act as custodians of the land, and are therefore responsible for protecting the world of the spirit beings that created the land and still live in mountains, waterholes, trees, rocks, and sky. The Ancestral Beings are honored and called to protect the land by prescribed rituals of the elders. The places on the earth where Ancestral Beings brought forth life are still known as sacred sites.
The all-pervasive powers of the Ancestral Beings of the Dreaming are present in the land and natural species, and reside within individuals. Particular groups, tribes, or clans fulfill their responsibilities, working within a highly complex structure that incorporates spiritual belief, sacred law, ceremonies, kinship, and places in a particular area with which they have been associated for many thousands of years. It is associated with their day-to-day survival in provision of food and medicines, ritual songs, objects, and graphic designs.
One of the best-known sacred sites in Australia is Uluru (Ayers Rock), on the land of the Pitjantjatjara people, which is of particular significance to the Mala (Wallaby) and Kunia (Carpet Snake) clans. There are many other sacred sites throughout Australia. In simple terms, sacred sites are like churches. Each site has particular meaning and significance and special ceremonies and ways of behaving associated with it. Often their location and significance are closely guarded secrets and cannot be shared with outsiders. It is not proper to discuss sacred sites with everyone, as some sites are only to be shared by men and some sites are only for women. Men’s and women’s business are scrupulously segregated, but of equal power and importance in traditional societies.
Land represents the mainspring of the psyche and well-being of the people who inhabit a certain territory. Communities and individuals are still directly responsible for the protection of the land under their guardianship. This responsibility or custodianship forms the basis of much of the conflict that continues to exist between Aborigines and those who operate in a way that abuses the sacred obligations placed on those who inhabit the land. Land can never be sold or traded, as it represents a sacred bequest from the Ancestral Beings and the Dreaming.
Specialized knowledge of any territory, such as details of ritual and the more intimate details of the particular relationship of any community to their traditional lands, is jealously guarded. It is considered sacrilegious to share privileged information with outsiders. From an early age children are taught relationships and knowledge about their role in learning and passing on rituals and information belonging to their particular family group.
Aboriginal law is very sacred and complex. Ceremonial objects used in rituals to do with the law are revered, and kept in the possession of either the “clever man” or “clever woman.” It is a serious transgression of the law to look upon them, even by accident. Aboriginal elders are “wise men and clever women” who have the sacred responsibility of acting as guardians of the land and the sites created by the Ancestral Beings. They believe that disturbance of a sacred site by entering without the appropriate ceremony represents a violation of that trust that has been handed down for hundreds of generations, long before Australia was settled by others. All children are taught to show respect to their elders.
The Ancestral Beings are still relevant today. Day-to-day activities are carried out within the framework of that original structure created many thousands of years ago. They continue to inspire, protect, support, and govern daily life of traditional Aboriginal people, and are recognized by all Aborigines, even those who have grown up in cities. The Dreaming has deep and sacred meanings. It is inaccurate to refer to Dreaming stories as fables or folklore, as the Dreaming is not fictitious to many Aboriginal people.
This traditional and complex culture was in no way prepared to encounter white explorers and settlers from alien cultures with a vastly different belief system. The colonizers believed that Australia was an empty continent, or terra nullius, which is Latin for “a land belonging to no-one.” It was established as a concept in European international law in the age of European colonization. Nyoongar elder Yongar Mungan tells the story of Aboriginal leader Yellagonga who, when greeted by Captain James Stirling in the southwest of Western Australia, “He bowed and offered his country and resources to the settler.” It was thought the settlers were countrymen who had returned from the spirit world.
Today, many Aboriginal people in Australia still honor their traditions. All people in Australia know that to the first people of Australia the land was filled with an intricate web of Dreaming. “We walk together on sacred ground. Black feet, white feet, footprints, soft upon the land. The Tjukurpa (Pitjantjatjara word for Dreaming) moves beneath our feet. The landscape is alive.”—Anon.