Aboriginal Spirituality Research Paper

Contemporary Aborigional SpiritualitiesDiscuss how aboriginal spirituality is determined by the dreaming -Kinship-Ceremonial Life
-Obligations to the land and peopleAboriginal spirituality is determined by the kinship because kinship is the fabric of traditional aborigional society. In this extended family everybody is related through the complex web of the dreaming.Tribes are made up of clans decended from a spirit ancestor denoted by a totem. The natural totem is from the clans region. It unifies the clan under the leadership of the spirit ancestor, creating a dreaming kinship with other clans bearing the same totem.Individuals have their own totem as traditional aboriginal society believes that procreation was a dreaming event. This creates
Tribal law forbids any act that disrespects or exploits nature and totemic taboos and restrictions must always be observed. Humans must also assist the land in living via the performance of ceremonies and rituals. If the ceremonies are not observed then the power of the land to renew itself will fail and natural disasters will occur

Discuss the continuing effect of dispossession on aborigional spiritualities in relation to:-Seperation from the land-Seperation from kinship groups-The stolen generationsThe continuing effect of dispossession on aboriginal spititualities in relation to seperation from the land is one of immense stress to the spirituality. This began with the initial dispossession of european settlement and aborigional spiritualities remain, for the most part, a long way from recovering. The arrival of the europeans and the forced dispossession of aborigional people from the land meant access to sacred sites was denied. Seperated from their dreaming lands meant they had, in effect, lost their spirituality and totemic identity and became non-beings. The sistainig ceremonies could not be held.The continuing effect of dispossession on aboriginal spititualities in relation to
Unlike land rights, native title recognises the validity of aborigional territorial laws already existing prior to eurpoean settlement.When british colonists declared australia terra nullius, native title rights were automatically extinguished under state and federal law. Today, native title, while not giving actual land ownership title, allows under specific and restricted conditions, some access to ancestral lands. This facilitates use of the land for spiritual and ceremonial as well as other purposes.The first native title legislation was passed with the pitjantjatjara lands act (1956) where land was transferred to the local indigenous community, who had maintained a close and continous association with their ancestral land. Although this legislation provided no basis for claims by other groups, it heralded and era in change.The woodward royal commission was the first governmental inquiry to appreciate the crucial link between aborigional spiritualities and the land. It found that only territorial restoration could make possible the preservation of a spiritual link with his own land which gives aboriginal a sense of identity and lies at the heart of his spiritual beliefs.The first real protection for native title rights came in 1975 when the racial discrimination act was