iNDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN SPIRITUALITY

iNDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN SPIRITUALITY

Bill Whiskey – “Ngangkari“ traditional spiritual healer

Ngangkari client testimony

Frank Ansell, “Ngangkari“ traditional spiritual healer

Ceremonies

Indigenous ceremonies are concerned with acting out The Dreaming – its laws and stories. They are a deep expression of spirituality and can incorporate storytelling, music, song and dance, by which the characters and events of the eternity or “everywhen” are brought into the sacred space of the everyday.

Ceremony is the commemoration of the actions of creation and ensure that vital components of Indigenous law and The Dreaming stay intact. They provide a time where all people in a language group work together for the survival of The Dreaming.

What are Dreaming Stories about?

Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia and there are different versions on the same theme. For example the story of how the birds got their colours is different in New South Wales and in Western Australia.

Stories cover many themes and topics. There are stories about creation of sacred places, landforms, people, animals and plants.

RELIGIOUS RITUAL

CORE BELIEFS

For many Indigenous Australians, however, religious beliefs are derived from a sense of belonging to the land, to the sea, to their people, to their culture.

The central tenet of traditional Indigenous society is the belief in the interconnectedness and unity of spiritual, human and natural worlds. In traditional Indigenous society, there are not sharp distinctions between the sacred and the secular.

Indigenous spirituality has been described as embodying a reverence for life as it is. It does not promise a life after death, salvation or heaven that is offered by other religions.

The Tracks of Life

Men and women have different roles in ceremonies which vary between family groups. Roles in ceremonies vary considerably, depending on the reasons why the ceremony is being held. Some ceremonies were for men only, others were for women only and both men and women had their own particular spiritual and sacred objects. Sometimes this is known as “men's business” and “women's business”. Neither men nor women possess greater spiritual abilities than the other, they just coexist in different ways to ensure that sacred elements of The Dreaming would be practised and passed on.

As a part of these dances members of the language would paint particular designs on their bodies to indicate the type of ceremony being held and the language group and family group performing. Special costumes are worn and particular instruments are used, depending on the celebration.

SACRED TEXTS

The journey of the Spirit Ancestors across the land are recorded in Dreaming Tracks. A Dreaming track joins a number of sites which trace the path of an Ancestral Being as it moved through the landscape, forming its features, creating its flora and fauna and laying down the Laws.

One of these Spirit Ancestors is the Rainbow Serpent, whose Dreaming track is shared by many Indigenous communities across Australia.

Rainbow Serpent

Indigenous Australians in traditional communities celebrate events of spiritual and social significance including birth, initiation, death and events that are based on seasons and the supply of resources.

For Indigenous Australians such as those in the traditional communities of northern Australia, there are sacred ceremonies that ensure the continuation of the Dreaming and the spiritual maintenance of the land.

Ceremonies and rituals take on many different forms and are often secret and sacred with attendance restricted to certain groups. Most ceremonies practised in Indigenous communities cannot be discussed fully due to their sensitive and sacred nature.

Indigenous Australian cultures and beliefs are the oldest in the world.

Spirituality for Indigenous Australians takes many forms. Its forms and practices have been profoundly influenced by the impact of colonialism, both past and present.

Some Indigenous Australians share the religious beliefs and values of religions introduced into Australia from other cultures around the world. This makes for some interesting statistics…

22.2% of Indigenous Australians are Catholics

21.5% of Indigenous Australians are Anglicans

2% of all Catholics in the 2006 census were Indigenous Australians

48% of Indigenous Australians on Palm Island are Catholics

Sometimes the creation of special and sacred objects is required. Drawings in sand, the moulding and carving of spirit figures in clay or wood, the painting of bark, or painting of bodies can feature in many ceremonies.

Ceremonies and rituals take on many different forms. Some are very private and involve only people in that family group while others involve all people belonging to the language group, as well as children.

The Rainbow Serpent is represented as a large, snake-like creature, whose Dreaming track is always associated with watercourses, such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. It is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.

The Rainbow Serpent is a consistent text and has been found in rock art up to 6000 years old. It is a powerful text about the creative and destructive power of nature. Most paintings of Rainbow Serpents tell the story of the creation of the landscape particular to an artist's birthplace.

Some aspects of Rainbow Serpent stories are restricted to initiated persons but generally, the image had been very public. Today, most artists add personal clan designs to the bodies of Rainbow Serpents, symbolising links between themselves and the land.

If we consider the word ‘texts’ in its most sophisticated sense, we need to explore spoken text, written text, art, song and dance. There are countless Dreaming stories, as we discovered earlier, and these also need to be considered sacred texts.

For Indigenous people, this life is as good as it gets. Life is what it is – a mixture of good and bad, of suffering and joy. It is celebrated as sacred.

Living itself is religion. A focus group of members of the Indigenous community identified Spirituality as the number one factor affecting their well-being.

"Indigenous spirituality is defined as at the core of Indigenous being, their very identity. It gives meaning to all aspects of life including relationships with one another and the environment. All objects are living and share the same soul and spirit as Indigenous people. There is a kinship with the environment."

Stan Grant, Wiradjuri man

Some examples are initiation ceremonies, burial ceremonies and smoking ceremonies.

ART

The paintings are, in fact, the sacred geography of Indigenous people; that is, they are authentic statements of the spiritual landscape. Their artistic tradition comes from of a deep sense of spirituality.

These paintings are expressions of the spirituality of the artist, their spiritual attachment to the land and their belief systems.

Increasingly, non-Indigenous Australian artists are drawing on the sacred paintings of Indigenous people for their inspiration on several levels, not the least of which is to explore the relationships between spirit and place.

So all land is sacred?

Yes. Pretty much!

Yiriwala — ceremony law leader, law carrier and healer of the Gunwinggu people of Arnhem Land, was a pioneer in the Indigenous arts movement that was just starting around the time of his death in 1970.

He received many honours and praise: Pablo Picasso said, on viewing his work, that it was what he had been trying to achieve all his life.

For Yiriwala, his paintings were not art and he remained disappointed that the mindless dealing in Indigenous art and artefacts degraded Indigenous religion and Law. His art was like the pages of a sacred book: the stories of the travels of the creator beings.

Sacred places

We will explore more Indigenous art when we look at the symbols section

One hundred and thirty nine of his paintings are now held in the National Gallery of Australia.

Smoking ceremonies

Burial ceremonies

Initiation ceremonies

SONG

“Warumpi Band is a name that was given to us. We were just a band from Papunya and the proper name for Papunya is Warumpi. It refers to a honey ant-dreaming site… the… important place there is not the buildings and the settlement, but rather the land. The most significant feature of that land to Indigenous people is the nearest Dreaming site, which is Warumpi, a small hill nearby where the honey ants come out of the ground. There’s a waterhole there and there are places in the landscape people can show you that are charged with the story of the ants…”

Special ceremonial grounds can be created for different purposes.

These are known as Bora Rings.

Bora rings are usually two circles made of stone or moulded earth with an interconnecting pathway.

The Bora Ring itself becomes part of the story, the creation place itself, filled with life force. Indigenous people carry out important ceremonies and meetings within these sacred grounds.

Burial practices differ throughout Australia. Across the Northern part, burial has two stages. Primary burial is when the dead body is laid upon an elevated wooden platform, covered with leaves and branches, and is left there for several months to rot and let the muscle separate from the bones.

Bones are then collected, painted with red ochre, and dispersed in different ways. The latter is done during the secondary burial stage. There are also cases when bones are placed into a large hollow log and left at a certain area of a bushland.

A smoking ceremony is when various native plants are collected and used to produce smoke.

This has been believed to have cleansing properties and the ability to ward off unwanted and bad spirits, which was believed to bring bad omens.

Initiation ceremonies are performed to introduce and celebrate adolescent boys and girls as adult members of the community.

The ages of the person being initiated varies between language groups, but usually occur between the ages of 10 and 16 years of age. Only those boys and girls who had proven themselves worthy of the responsibility of adulthood mentally and physically are initiated. This may involve learning of sacred songs, dances, stories, and traditional lore. Circumcision, scarification, and removal of a tooth or a part of a finger are often involved.

The time is decided on by specific members in the language group. This is often called one's right to passage. That is they have the right to pass from childhood to adulthood. Those being initiated are instructed and prepared for their roles within the ceremony and later in life as an adult. These teachings are taught over a period of many years by significant people within the language group.

POETRY

“No English words are good enough to give a sense of the links between an Indigenous group and its homeland. Our word ‘home’, as warm and suggestive though it may be, does not match the Indigenous word that may mean ‘camp’, ‘heart’, ‘country’, ‘everlasting home’, ‘totem place’, ‘life source’, ‘spirit centre’ and much else in one. Our word land is too spare and meagre. We can now scarcely use it except with economic overtones unless we happen to be poets… The Indigenous people would speak of earth and use it in a rich symbolic way to mean his ‘shoulder’ or his ‘side’. I have seen an Indigenous embrace the earth he walked on… a different tradition leaves us tongueless and earless towards this other world of meaning and significance.”

Professor W. E. H. Stanner

Yuwa! Warumpinya!

Nganampa ngurra watjalpayi kuya

Nganampa ngurra watjalpayi kuya

Nganampa ngurra tjanampa wiya

Nganampa ngurra Warumpinya!

Yuwa! Warumpinya!

Yes! Warumpi!

They always say our place is bad

They always say our home is no good

It’s our place, not theirs

It’s our home, Papunya!

Yes! Warumpi!

This poem by Jennifer Martiniello expresses the possibility of new birth of knowledge, as the seeds captured on the necklace sprout, even after being ‘pierced and strung’. Her poem is an expression of the longing for spiritual knowledge that is shared by many contemporary Indigenous people. It is also a statement of certainty of that knowledge being alive, of never being ‘adrift from nature’ and, by implication, nature’s beginnings, which never end.

Song is an important and enduring part of Indigenous cultural expression, with its roots deep in the spiritual practice.

Indigenous songs are original and highly developed in terms of language, rhythms and forms. They often contain words of sacred beginning - hymns of praise.

In contemporary times, many Indigenous people have been developing song about their own places and their spiritual attachment to them. Some bands, such as the Warumpi Band from a settlement called Papunya, sing in their own language about spiritual connection to land which is important to them. The song ‘Warumpinya’ s one example.

My Island Home

Knowledge

Six years I have been in the city, and every night I dream of the sea.

They say home is where you find it, will this place ever satisfy me?

I come from the salt water people, we always live by the sea.

Now I'm down here living in the city, with my man and a family.

My island home, my island home, my island home, is waiting for me.

In the evening dry wind blows, from the hills and across the plains.

I close my eyes and I'm standing, in a boat on the sea again.

And I'm holding that long turtle spear, and I feel I'm close now to where it must be.

My island home is waiting for me.

Warumpi Band

my necklace seeds

are sprouting subtle

grooves appear divide

smooth shiny shells—

the black cleft of hearts

against themselves

golden yellow tendrils

like pre-birth antennae

wind out along the string

swell split black pods

between beach pearls

do not know they are

adrift from nature

“Spirituality is a feeling, with a base in connectedness to the past, ancestors, and the values that they represent, for example, respect for elders, a moral/ethical path. It is about being in an Indigenous cultural space, experiencing community and connectedness with land and nature including proper nutrition and shelter. Feeling good about oneself, proud of being an Indigenous person. It is a state of being that includes knowledge, calmness acceptance and tolerance, balance and focus, inner strength, cleansing and inner peace, feeling whole, an understanding of cultural roots and deep well-being."

Vicki Grieves, Macquarie University

“Our spirituality is a oneness and an interconnectedness with all that lives and breathes, even with all that does not live or breathe. [It is] a feeling of oneness, of belonging… [being connected with] deep, innermost feelings…”

Mudrooroo, Indigenous writer

the island women

say they don’t know

why my necklaces sprout

shouldn’t happen they say

once the seeds are pierced

and strung

in my grandmother’s country

earth is mother, woman

is earth she lives from inside

the land like she lives

from inside her body

perhaps

it is in the nature of seeds

to know this

Jennifer A. Martiniello

Check out Christina Anu’s version. She has added an extra verse which strengthens the meaning.

The late Jack Davis, Nyungar Elder from south-west Western Australia is a celebrated poet, playwright and writer.

His poem ‘The Firstborn’ expresses the relationship between the people and the earth, with the earth a living, feeling entity, expressing longing and even anger.

The Firstborn

How can we define spirituality?

Where are my first-born, said the brown land, sighing;

They came out of my womb long, long ago.

They were formed of my dust—why, why are they crying

And the light of their being barely aglow?

I strain my ears for the sound of their laughter.

Where are the laws and the legends I gave?

Tell me what happened, you whom I bore after.

Now only their spirits dwell in the caves.

You are silent, you cringe from replying.

A question is there, like a blow on the face.

The answer is there when I look at the dying,

At the death and neglect of my dark, proud race.

Jack Davis

You might like to watch this 5 minute clip outlining the religious feelings of an

Indigenous Elder

What is an Elder?

This is someone who has gained recognition as a custodian of knowledge and lore, and who has permission to disclose knowledge and beliefs. It is important to understand that, in Indigenous culture, age alone doesn't necessarily mean that one is recognised as an Elder. Traditionally, Indigenous people traditionally refer to an Elder as 'Aunty' or 'Uncle'.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Something to consider:

Since Indigenous people traveled vast distances across their country, significant information was recorded using symbols in spiritual ceremonies.

Sand painting and ‘Awelye’ (body painting) ceremonies kept the symbols alive and remembered.

Later, these symbols were transformed into a more permanent form using acrylic on canvas but the meanings behind the symbols remains the same.

What is “Men’s Business”?

In many areas men have the role of land guardians for a special spiritual site where ceremonies are performed.

In many areas men were given the role of guardians of a special spiritual site where a ceremony was performed.

This role meant that the site would need to be cared for accordingly so that that particular spirit would continue to live there.

SACRED SYMBOLS

Contemporary Indigenous paintings are rich in spiritual symbols.

Generally the symbols used by Indigenous artists are a variation of lines, circles or dots. Similar symbols can have multiple meanings and the elaborate combination of these can tell complex Dreaming Stories.

The Dreaming sets out the spiritual structures of society.

Each tribe or family group has an important religious specialist who will initiate and foster contact with spirits and divinities. Specific elders may also be keepers of specific stories or rituals. Sometimes this knowledge is segregated according to gender – as we read earlier, there is “men’s business” and “women’s business”.

In the past, male-centric European historians focused heavily on the role of men in Indigenous spirituality, so much so that it seemed only men were involved in religion and customs.

"Imagine a pattern. This pattern is stable, but not fixed. Think of it in as many dimensions as you like—but it has more than three. This pattern has many threads of many colours, and every thread is connected to, and has a relationship with, all of the others. The individual threads are every shape of life. Some — like human, kangaroo, paperbark — are known to western science as ‘alive’; others like rock, would be called ‘non-living’. But rock is there, just the same. Human is there too, though it is neither the most or the least important thread — it is one among many; equal with the others. The pattern made by the whole is in each thread, and all the threads together make the whole. Stand close to the pattern and you can focus on a single thread; stand a little further back and you can see how that thread connects to others; stand further back still and you can see it all — and it is only once you see it all that you can recognise the pattern of the whole in every individual thread. The whole is more than its parts, and the whole is in all its parts. This is the pattern that the ancestors made. It is life, creation spirit, and it exists in country."

Ambelin Kwaymullina, Lawyer and member the

Bailgu and Njamal people of the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Indigenous symbols are an essential part of a long tradition.

They use symbols to indicate a sacred site, the location of a waterhole and the means to get there, a place where animals inhabit, and as a way to illustrate Dreamtime stories.

To understand and appreciate Indigenous symbols imagine how you would indicate, record and recall essential information or place names or events in a non-material world.

This painting by Denis Nelson Jupurrula is an example of symbols. This painting is titled ‘Kangaroo, Rain, Flying Ant, Possum Dreaming’. The bottom left of the painting shows the kangaroo tracks around a campfire (white circle).

The smoke (white line) rises from the fire into the sky creating rain clouds (purple sky with symbols for rain). In the centre of the painting is the flying ant which migrates to form a new colony when the rains come.

The possum tracks are shown on the left side of the painting in the yellow section.

What is “Women’s Business”?

Emu Dreaming

Check out this 7 minute video on The Dreaming...

Both sexes in indigenous society were deeply involved in a spiritual life and were ‘part of The Dreaming’. Although much has been written about the ceremonies reserved only for men, women were major participants in many rituals and even had they own secret ceremonies. Women played a major role in all the family focused formalities, like marriage and death. Womenare the guardians of a special knowledge and therefore hold great religious and spiritual power within the family group.

“Some think that our women are bossed by our men, but being a mother and grandmother is very important in our communities. Men don't have babies and they need women to take care of them, and grow them strong. Our men have their own ways in The Dreaming, different to us. They have corroboree and ceremonies, and ways we don't know; men's business. We know what we have to do, we have our women ways. We never speak their business. That'd be shame.”

Shirl, Indigenous Australian woman.

SACRED STORIES

by Geraldine Nangala Gallagher

This artwork shares the Yankirri Jukurrpa from the Ngarna region. Ngarna is an important men's ceremonial place and must of the story is kept secret from the uninitiated. Emus survive on a diet of native vegetation found in the area, including the Yakajirri (bush currant) and mukaki (bush plum). The Jampijinpa/Jangala men and Nampijinpa/Nangala women are the custodians of this Dreaming.

Tracks whether human or animal are shown by the tracks left behind in the sand and are generally represented as an aerial view.

As examples:

A snake is represented by a curvy line.

An echidna by a series of short parallel lines

A dingo by a set a paw prints.

A lizard or goanna by two parallel lines with small prints on either side made by feet.

Check out this quick introduction to the sacred art of Indigenous Australians (1.40 mins)

Lander River

Women's privileges are secret, spiritual and sacred, and taboo to men. They incorporate daily, cyclical, and ritual experiences that are articulated, owned, and shared as the private business of women and, as such, practised and passed on from woman to woman. The role of mothers in this process is critical and senior women are elected to the roles of Elders, with specific responsibilities for care of country, the protection of knowledge, and the provision of guidance and direction on matters pertaining to one's particular clan.

Although women's business cannot be explicitly discussed, it provides a cultural, social and spiritual direction for women.

In Indigenous families, mothers are teachers, nurturers, and are integral to the kinship system that binds communities, and spiritually links individual, environment, and land.

by Malcolm Maloney Jagamarra

The Lander River is of deep spiritual significance to the Warlpiri Indigenous people in Central Australia.

The painting depicts the birthplace of Malcolm Jagamarra, where ceremonies, sacred songs, dance cycles and many Dreamings evolved.

The Dreaming has different meanings for different Indigenous people. It is a complex network of knowledge, faith and practices that derive from stories of creation, and which dominates all spiritual and physical aspects of Indigenous life.

Great Ancestral Spirits arranged the earth by creating people, animals, plants and birds and these were all put in their respective places according to the land forms and spirits surrounding them. These Ancestral Spirits made rules and the law to govern the land, its people, animals and plants. If life on earth was to continue, these rules would need to be followed. The Dreaming sets out the structures of society, the rules for social behaviour and the ceremonies performed in order to maintain the life of the land.

Those who did not follow the rules were punished.

What is the Dreaming?

The Dreaming (or 'Tjukurrpa') is often used to describe the time when the earth and humans and animals were created. The Dreaming is also used by individuals to refer to their own dreaming or their community's dreaming.

The Dreaming beliefs are passed on through story-telling and ceremony. They are the way of educating Indigenous Australian children, and they are not fairy stories, myths or legends. The Dreaming is as important to Indigenous people as the Bible is to the Christian belief.

“The Dreaming means our identity as people. The cultural teaching and everything, that's part of our lives here, you know? ...it's the understanding of what we have around us.”

Merv Penrith, Elder, Wallaga Lake

Bush Tucker Dreaming

“…we come from the earth and will always have close links with it. The land which looks after us is our mother, is central to our spirituality, culture and survival. In the old ways there was no such thing as male oppression of women because that would have hindered survival - there was no profit in it…”

Ruby Langford of the Bundjalung people

In this painting, June Sultan Napanga depicts symbols of women, coolamon (bowls or vessels) and digging sticks. This indicates Indigenous women gathering food

Stories of creation and Ancestor Spirits have resonated through the generations from the dawn of time and link the past with the present and the future. The land, being the creation of the Ancestor Spirits, is regarded as sacred and the Creation stories carry with them the responsibility to preserve and respect the spirit of country and the life forms associated with it (often referred to as “caring for country”).

In essence, the Dreaming comes from the land. In Indigenous society people do not own the land – it was part of them and it was part of their duty to respect and look after mother earth.

What are Dreaming Stories about?

Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia and there are different versions on the same theme. They cover many themes and topics.

There are stories about creation of sacred places, landforms, people, animals and plants. There are also stories about the development of different languages and the first use of fire. In more recent times there are stories telling of the arrival of the first Europeans on ships or stories about trading with fisherman in northern Australia.

“It runs in families because my younger brother is a senior Ngangkari and my two children also know about this work. They are not Ngangkari yet but know what they do,” Maringka, a Ngangkari healer says.

As a little girl, Maringka used to watch her father at work. “My father had been a Ngangkari his whole life, and his mapanpa had been given to him by his father. …My hands became open, my forehead became open and I could see everything differently."

“I would watch him work, see what he did, and watch him closely when he was extracting sickness from the person’s body, and throwing it away. I was fascinated… I observed my father’s practice for years, and I became very knowledgeable."

“When my father finally gave me the mapanpa (the healing hands), I was able to travel into the skies with other Ngangkari, soaring around in the sky, travelling great distances, and coming back home in time for breakfast."

INDIVIDUAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE

The Rainbow Serpent is one of the

most well-known stories.

"And that... is the resting place of the Rainbow Serpent, and all of the gullies and all of the lagoon itself was about the Rainbow Serpent created after he had created the universe and all the dry gullies is the tracks that he's made looking for a resting place."

Carl McGrady, Indigenous Education Assistant.

The Rainbow Serpent is represented as a large, snake-like creature, whose Dreaming track is always associated with watercourses, such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. It is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. The Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.

The Rainbow Serpent is a consistent theme in Indigenous painting and has been found in rock art up to 6000 years old. It is a powerful symbol of the creative and destructive power of nature. Some aspects of Rainbow Serpent stories are restricted to initiated persons, but generally the image has been very public.

Ngangkari travel around in the sky, just our spirits travelling, while our bodies remain sleeping on earth – our spirits join together and travel. My father taught me that. He taught me everything, carefully and slowly."

“In Marali (a spiritual zone), we look down on all the people and determine who is not well. We can see from above. It allows us to plan work for the next day. All the Ngangkari fly around. We can do healings on people from afar and also we can learn things from people – preparatory work and see what is not right.”

She says all Ngangkari can see illness in the body. “All Ngangkari can see what a person is made up of – can see illnesses that have been in the body for some time and also new illnesses and pain. We can remove this pain and illness,”

Aboriginal laws were encoded in each group's religious tradition, and were handed down from generation to generation, by word of mouth. They were a part of the oral tradition, passed on by the guardians of that tradition, who gained access to it as they were initiated. All Indigenous people were familiar with their own laws and with the daily rights and obligations that were imposed. From early childhood they learnt what the law allowed and what it forbade. They knew both the spiritual dangers and punishments that threatened the law breaker. They witnessed the process by which offenders were punished, cases argued and decided. The ethical negotiation involved everyone in the community. When there was a dispute, the elders met to discuss the punishments: their word was law. Offenses regarded as unlawful included the unauthorised killing of a person, sacrilege, incest, adultery, theft, unauthorised assault, insult and neglect of kinship obligations.

RELIGIOUS ETHICS

In this section we will look at the impact of "Ngangkari" on Indigenous Australian people.

Who are Ngangkari?

Ngangkari are Indigenous healers who have the spiritual gift of healing hands that hold sacred tools.

The practice of traditional healing is still very much a part of contemporary Indigenous society.

Indigenous spirituality incorporates “…the intrinsic human capacity for self-transcendence, in which the self is embedded in something greater than the self, including the sacred” and which motivates “the search for connectedness, meaning, purpose, and contribution.”

Taken from: Benson, Donohue and Erickson’s

Faith Maturity Scale

The story of the Mimi Spirits is also widely known.

‘Singing’ a person

“During marali, we can find if a person’s kurunpa (spirit, will or self) has become disconnected from their body and we take this back down and put it back inside the person’s body. They are feeling ill – not like themselves because they are separated from their full spirit.”

Maringka says the Ngangkari also work on clearing sadness and emotional pain.

“Sometimes people have bad thoughts that cause them a great deal of worry and anxiety. I work on their head a lot and I cure people who have a headache. We fix injury as well as sadness – mental health – we work on that, too, but sometimes it manifests as physical pain. We can make people feel happier, more balanced and harmonious,” she says.

The Mimi are tall, thin beings that live in the rocky escarpment of northern Australia as spirits. Before the coming of Indigenous people they had human forms. The Mimi are generally harmless but on occasions can be mischievous.

When Indigenous people first came to northern Australia, the Mimi taught them how to hunt and cook kangaroos and other animals. They also did the first rock paintings and taught Indigenous people how to paint.

Totemism is also associated with The Dreaming stories and refers to the mystical association of an individual or social category with certain species of plants or animals or natural phenomena that are believed to be ancestrally related to the person.

Being ‘sung’, sometimes also referred to as ‘pointing the bone’, is an Aboriginal custom where a powerful elder is believed to have the power to call on spirits to do ill to another Aboriginal person alleged to have committed a crime or otherwise abused their culture.

Singing a person is still practiced today.

“Our law is not like whitefella’s law. We do not carry it around in a book. It is in the sea. That is why things happen when you do the wrong thing. That sea, it knows. Rainbow knows as well. He is still there. His spirit is still watching today for lawbreakers. That is why we have to look after that sea and make sure we do the right thing. We now have to make sure whitefellas do the right thing as well. If they disobey that law they get into trouble alright”.

Kenneth Jacob, Wellesley Islands Native Title claim, 1997

The Ancestral Spirits made rules and the law to govern the land, its people, animals and plants. If life on earth is to continue, these rules need to be followed.

Check out these short videos to examine the importance of the Ngangkari

“In March 2016 I sat and intermittently spoke for two hours beside a tribal man at Royal Perth Hospital who’d flown to Perth from Broome that morning. He was there because his 40-year-old large, long, tribal initiation chest scars had inexplicably and suddenly erupted into festering pus wounds. He had likely been sung by a featherfoot.”

A ‘featherfoot’ (or kurdaitcha man in Arrernte) denotes a sorcerer in Aboriginal spirituality.