Aboriginal+Spirituality

//Aboriginal spriiautality is significant as it encompasses how the world was formed e.g. physical appearance of waterholes and animals. It explains the birth of humanity and the role of the spirit world. It teaches the ceremonies and rituals necessary for a spiritual and ethical life. Ceremonies are necessary to bring out the power of the dreaming. Experienced through rituals, symbols, songs and stories. The Dreaming explains the laws, ordering relationships and responsibilities. It is the lInk between anscestral spirits and humans. It teaches which places are sacred and how they are to be cared for.//

//Resources for Dreaming:// @http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/dreaming @http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-Australia-Spirituality

The dreaming is the past, present and future. It is a relationship between the land, kin and ceremonial life. > The following lists the three main aspects of Aboriginal social structure and then the details and grouping within these are given. >> The value of a kinship system is that it structures people's relationships, obligations and behaviour towards each other, and this in turn defines such matters as, who will look after children if a parent dies, who can marry whom, who is responsible for another person's debts or misdeeds, and who will care for the sick and old. >> The kinship system allows individual naming for up to 70 relationship terms in some tribes. That is, far more than the European terms "father/mother", "grandfather/grandmother", "uncle/aunt" etc. It is also the system where brothers of one's father are also called, in one sense, "father", and cousins may be called "brother" or "sister". A person knows, of course, who their real mother and father are, but under kinship laws, they may have similar family obligations to their aunts and uncles, the same as they would to their mother and father, and this is reciprocated. The common terms of endearment amongst modern urban Aborigines, "brother" or "sister", used when talking to people, are derived from these kinship terms and associations. >>
 * ABORIGINAL SPIRITUALITY IS DETERMINED BY THE DREAMING**
 * LAND: Aboriginal people have an obligation to sustain the land as they hold an animistic belief that once their ancestors have died they become spirits of the land they once inhabited. This is particularly evident in the importance of Aboriginal people returning to a place known as 'My Country', the country of their birth. Additionally the land also has physical importance to Aboriginals as the sustainer of life. It is important that the land is well looked after to ensure that their source of food and shelter is sustained. To assist this, once a year many Aboriginal mobs will return to their country to perform 'Rituals of the Estate'; whereby the Aboriginal elders summon ancestral beings to their sacred site and petition them to ensure the land remains plentiful. Another ceremony used to ensure a continual supply of food and shelter are balance rites. This is where men ensure that their hunting habits are appropriate in allowing the regenerations of species. e.g. Not hunting Kangaroos this month because they killed too many last month.
 * KINSHIP: Aboriginals have a concept of kinship which defines their rights, responsibilities and obligations to the mob as a whole. These obligations may involve being in the role of the hunter or gatherer, it involves the elders being responsible for instituting rites of passage. Kinship also refers to the wider connections between groups of Aboriginal people, often associated with totems and totem groups. These intricate arrangements of community relationships helped to regulate competition for resources, dispute resolution and intermarriage laws, knows as //moiety//.
 * MOIETY:Aborigines have complex ** social and marriage laws **, based on the grouping of people within their society. They also have a complex ** kinship system ** where everyone is related to everyone else. In order to understand the complexities of their social organisation, it is best to consider it in the following way, dividing it first into three main aspects. First, the ** physical structuring ** of society in terms of numbers – family, horde, tribe, second, the ** religious structuring ** based on beliefs and customs, totems, and marriage laws, and these beliefs divide people into moieties, sections and subsections, totemic groups, and clans. Third, there is also a ** kinship system ** that gives a ** social structuring **. The social structuring and kinship system can become very complex and difficult to understand for non-Aboriginal people, but is a natural part of life for Aborigines, and its details vary from tribe to tribe.
 * 1) The __physical or geographical structuring__ of the society. A tribe or "language group" of perhaps 500 people is made up of bands of about 10-20 people each, who join together for day to day hunting and food gathering. Each band of people can be called a //"horde"//. Within each horde are several families.
 * 2) The __religious and totemic structuring__ of the society. On a religious level, society in much of Australia is divided into two //moieties//. These moieties may be based on Ancestral Beings from the Creation Period. Within each moiety are significant animals, plants, or places, which are of a highly religious nature. Each person, as well as belonging to one or the other moiety, is also connected to one or more of these subjects, called //"totems".// Sometimes moieties are further divided into//sections// or //subsections//.
 * 3)  The __social structuring__ - relationships between people – the //kinship system//. The kinship system allows each person in Aboriginal society to be named in relation to one another. This is seen when a non Aboriginal person goes to live in an Aboriginal community, and proudly tells their friends that they have been adopted by the group, being called a "mother/father", "daughter/son" or "brother/sister" to someone. When Aborigines accept an outsider into their group, they have to name that person in relation to themselves, to allow that person to fit into their society. This is because they need to have in their own minds the kinship relation of that person to themselves, and that person must have a defined social position.

Since European settlement in 1788 there have been continual government efforts to act in regards to Aboriginals. These policies are outlined below.
 * EUROPEAN/AUSTRALIAN POLICIES IN REGARDS TO ABORIGINALS**
 * PATERNALISM: (1788-1908)
 * From 1788 Europeans expected that Aboriginals would quickly 'die out'. In fact they even aided this process by providing Aboriginals with small pox blankets! However, when this did not occur Governors implemented the policy of Paternalism. In it's essence it meant that the Aboriginal culture was uncivilised and 'of the devil' as a result they were to be treated as slaves.


 * PROTECTIONISM: (1838-1943)
 * As the above policy began to falter under the strong racism present in early Australia the Governors began to accept that Aboriginals were not going to die out and decided that Aboriginals must instead by protected from the brutish habits of white Australians. e.g. Heavy drinking. Officially speaking this was an end to the racism, Aboriginals were no longer supposed to be attacked and unfairly treated; the reality, however, was extremely different. There was also a growing belief that 'half-castes' (half Aboriginal, half Australian) were rejected by their mobs.


 * ASSIMILATION: (1950-1964)
 * Protectionism had paved the way for assimilation. Towards the end of protectionism missions and government reserves had been established to isolate Aboriginals from the wider community. Under the policy of Assimilation these missions and reserves were converted to train Aboriginals for assimilation into the wider society. This policy was mainly concerned with children. Children were taken from their homes and put into the missions/reserves. If they were of a lighter 'caste' they were sent to homes where they were able to experience the same education as white people. If they were of a darker caste they remained in missions where they were taught how to perform domestic duties, with the intent of them, in the future, becoming domestic servants for white families.


 * INTEGRATION: (1965-1980)
 * Assimilation had failed, with many Aboriginals failing to assimilate into society and adopt Australian ways. Instead they remained on the fringes of society, whilst living in a segregated world. Integration involved combining Aboriginal and Australian culture into one seamless culture. Whilst Aboriginals still had to adopt Australian ways; Australians, in general were supposed to be more tolerant of their habits.


 * SELF - DETERMINATION: (1980s - 1990s)
 * With racism still rife in Australian society integration failed. By this time governments and society were becoming fairly 'tired' of attempting to make Aboriginals like white society; instead they decided to let Aboriginals do what they pleased. They were able to make their own choices, within the constraints of Australian law, which governed both Aboriginals and white Australians.
 * INTERVENTION: (Late 1990s - today)
 * As time went on the atrocities experienced by Aboriginals came to light and the Australian Government realised that action needed to be taken to bridge the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in regards to health, education and much more. This policy focuses on the road to equality, where all of society are one.


 * EFFECTS OF THIS CONTINUAL DISPOSSESSION**
 * Loss of language, land and culture
 * Loss of identity
 * Unable to connect to ancestral beings; loss of spirituality
 * Loss of kin, which can lead to lower self esteem and/or self worth; as they have no rights, role or responsibility to others.
 * The dreaming cannot be taught, it is something that is felt and experienced by, being in one's own country and being surrounded by ones kin.
 * Trauma from being forcibly removed from their lives; may result in mental illnesses and/or substance abuse
 * No-one to perform essential rites such as 'Rituals of Estate' which affects the land, and subsequently their spirituality