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Religion in Oceania

Australian Indigenous People

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australians#Belief_systems

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/stories/s790117.htm

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/dreaming

http://australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-spirituality

http://australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-spirituality#sthash.DgcUSHFn.dpuf

Aborigines are Australia's indigenous people. Recent government statistics counted approximately 400,000 aboriginal people, or about 2% of Australia's total population.

Australian Aborigines migrated from Asia at least 30,000 years ago. There are about 500 different Aboriginal peoples in Australia, each with their own language and territory and usually made up of a large number of separate clans.

Rainbow Serpent

The Rainbow Serpent is represented as a large, snake-like creature, whose Dreaming track is always associated with watercourses, such as 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 theme in Aboriginal painting and has been found in rock art up to 6000 years old. The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful symbol of 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.

Key Beliefs

  • The earth is eternal, and so are the many ancestral figures / beings who inhabit it.

  • These beings are often associated with particular animals, for example Kangaroo-men, Emu-men or Bowerbird-women.

  • Powerful beings created human, plant and animal life; and they left traces of their journeys in the natural features of the land.

  • They also connected particular groups of people with particular regions and languages.

  • Some groups held belief in a supreme being.

  • The Dreaming continues to control the natural world.

Key Festivals

The Dreaming

Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia and there are different versions on the same theme.

For example, the story of how the birds got their colors 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. There are also stories of language or the first use of fire. And more currently, there are stories telling of the arrival of the first Europeans on ships or stories about trading with Macassan fisherman in northern Australia.

The Dreaming establishes the structures of society, rules for social behavior, and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. The Dreaming governs the laws of community, cultural lore and how people are required to behave in their communities. The condition that is The Dreaming is met when people live according to law, and live the lore: such as singing the songs, dancing the dances, telling the stories, painting the songlines and Dreamings.

  • Ritual ceremonies involving special sacred sites, songs accompanied by dance, and body painting, and even sports, invoke these gods and continue to provide the means to access the spiritual powers of The Dreaming.

  • At important stages of men and women’s lives, ceremonies are held to seek the assistance of spiritual beings. This makes them direct participants in the continuing process of the Dreaming.

  • Other ceremonies are known as increase rites, in which the willingness of ancestral beings to release the land’s fertility depends upon humans continuing to perform certain rituals.

The Dreaming' or 'the Dreamtime' indicates a psychic state in which or during which contact is made with the ancestral spirits, or the Law, or that special period of the beginning.

During the Dreaming, ancestral spirits came to earth and created the landforms, the animals and plants. The stories tell how the ancestral spirits moved through the land creating rivers, lakes and mountains. Today we know the places where the ancestral spirits have been and where they came to rest. There are explanations of how people came to Australia and the links between the groups throughout Australia.

There are explanations about how people learned languages and dance and how they came to know about fire.

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

The Dreaming did not end with the arrival of Europeans but simply entered a new phase. It is a powerful living force that must be maintained and cared for.

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