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STUDIES OF RELIGION HSC COURSE

FOUNDATION STUDY 1: ABORIGINAL BELIEF SYSTEMS AND SPIRITUALITY

THE DREAMING

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

Metaphysical / Those things that relate to the origin and structure of the universe.
Defining the Dreaming

Aboriginal Definition

/ White Person’s Definition
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief and the feeling within yourself that allows you to become part of the whole environment around you – not the built environment, but the natural environment… Birth, life and death are all part of it, and you welcome each.
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that all objects are living and share the same soul or spirit that Aborigines share. Therefore all Aborigines have a kinship with the environment. The soul or spirit is common – only the shape of it is different, but no less important.
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that the soul or spirit will continue on after our physical form has passed through death. The spirit will return to the Dreamtime from where it came, it will carry our memories to the Dreamtime and eventually it will return again through birth, either as a human or an animal or even trees and rocks. The shape is not important because everything is equal and shares the same soul or spirit from the Dreamtime. / The Dreaming (also referred to as “Dreamtime” holds the essence of truth of Aboriginal religious beliefs. Dreaming does not refer to a dream that one would have during the night. Instead, the Dreaming holds the Aboriginal view of creation: it is the beginning of everything – the beginning of time, the creation of life, the birth of humanity, and the ordering of all things. It is the remote past of the Spirit Ancestors or Spirit Beings or Ancestral Beings; it is the period, long ago, when Spirit-beings interacted with Aboriginal people. This past lives on in ceremonies that have been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation for over 140,000 years – the time that the Aboriginal people have lived on this land called Australia.
For Aborigines, the Dreaming explains the origin of the universe, the workings of nature and the nature of humanity, the cycle of life and death. It shapes and structures Aboriginal culture by regulating kinship, ceremonial life, and the relationship between male and female with a network of obligations involving people, land, sea and spirits. It even affects the rights of Aboriginal people to land, through sacred sites.
Aboriginal spirituality is not the equal of the European ideology of reincarnation. The Dreamtime is there with them, it is not a long way away. The Dreamtime is the environment that the Aborigine lived in, and it still exists today, all around us. / Within the Dreaming, the Creator, through the Spirit-Beings, shaped the land, making its mountains, valleys, hills, gullies, rivers, streams, flora and fauna. These are formed as a result of the action and interaction of Spirit-Beings. As a result the whole of creation is of spiritual significance. Sacred sites are places associated with Ancestral Beings. Aborigines see themselves as part of, and inextricably bound to, the rest of creation.
Dreaming is the centre of Aboriginal religion and life; it is the closest translation of the Aboriginal concept of how the world works.

By looking at what you have highlighted, make a list of essential elements that should be included in a definition of the Dreaming.

Morrissey and co-authors (2001) define Dreaming as the past, the present and the future. Is this definition appropriate? Explain.

This definition of Dreaming leads to the formulation of the following beliefs of Aboriginal religion:

·  Ancestral Beings eternally leave the world full of signs of their goodwill towards the people they have also brought into being. If these people, with the wisdom about living giving to them, can interpret these outward signs to say that they have to follow a continuing pattern, then they will always live under the assurance of good fortune.

·  The human person, made up of material and spiritual elements, has value in him/herself and for others, and there are spirits who care.

·  The main religious rituals are concerned to renew and conserve life, including the life-force that keeps inspiring the world in which humans subsists, and to which they are bonded, soul and spirit.

·  The material part of life, including humankind, is under a discipline that requires individuals to understand the sacred tradition of the group and to conform to the pattern determined by that tradition.

·  Life is accepted as a mixture of good and bad, of joy and suffering, but notwithstanding this, is to be celebrated.

·  The major rituals convey a sense of mystery by symbolisms pointing to ultimate or metaphysical realities that show themselves by signs.

The following diagram shows the relationship between the Dreaming and all aspects of the physical, spiritual and social spheres of existence. Stories in which the activities of the Ancestor Beings are recorded, illustrate this relationship.

THE EMU AND THE TURKEY
The emu and the turkey were sisters. Both were able to fly and each had several young. One day the emu played a trick on her sister, the turkey. She placed all but two of her young under her wing and said to the turkey, “Look, I have only two children now to care for and find food for. I have killed the others.”
The turkey did not want to be outdone by the emu, so she killed all but two of her young. After the turkey had done this the emu raised her wings showing all her young. She laughed at the turkey and said, “I still have all my young but you have now only two.”
The turkey decided to play a trick on the emu for what she had done. So she sat on the ground and folded her wings back under herself. Then she called the emu, saying, “Look what I have done. I have cut my wings for I am so tired of flying. I will just walk around instead.” The emu decided that if the turkey could cut her wings then she could too. But when she had cut her wings the turkey unfolded her wings and flew into the air. /
Explanation
ARKAROO’S DREAMTIME JOURNEY
Back in the Aboriginal Dreamtime a giant serpent known as Arkaroo who was living in the Mainwater Pound in the Gammon Ranges slithered to the plains to quench his thirst. Arkaroo descended upon Lakes Frome and Callabonna and drank them both dry, but the water was saline and he became bloated. He dragged his heavily-laden body back up towards the Gammons and, in doing so, he carved out the deep sinuous gorge that is now known as Arkaroola. On his way back he stopped at several places for a rest and while resting he formed springs and waterholes along the way. There are a few permanent water sources to be found along the gorge to this day.
He dragged himself up into the Gammon Ranges where he now sleeps safely in a hideaway at the Yacki Waterhole. Restlessly he sleeps on with his belly full of water and whenever he turns, the rumbling in his stomach sends out great noises that can be heard from time to time as minor earthquakes and tremors.
The Paralana Hot Springs were formed when two young warriors fought for the love of a young girl. The victor, after killing his opponent, plunged his firestick murder weapon into the Spring, so making it hot. Since then the water has emerged only slightly below boiling point. /
Explanation
THE ORIGIN OF FIRE
Kar-ak-ar-ook, a female (now the Seven Stars) was the only one who could make fire. She would not any one any of it. She kept it in the end of her yam stick. But Waung (The Crow) fell on a plan to get it from her. Kar-ak-ar-ook was very fond of ants’ eggs, and Waung made a great many snakes, and put them under an ant hill and then invited Kar-ak-ar-ook to come to the nest to dig up the eggs.
After she had dug a little, she turned up the snakes, and Waung to her to kill them with her yam-stick. She accordingly struck the snakes, and fire fell out of the yam-stick. Waung picked up the fire and went off with it. Kar-ak-ar-ook was afterwards set in the heavens by Pund-jel (the Maker of Men).
Waung, however, was nearly as selfish as Kar-ak-ar-ook. He would not give fire to anyone, but he would cook food for the people and keep the best pieces of meat for himself. Because of this, Pund-jel was very angry with Waung, and he gathered together all the people, and caused them to speak harshly to Waung, and Waung became afraid. To save himself and to burn them, he threw the fire amongst them, and everyone picked up some of the fire and left. Tchert-tchert and Trrar took some of the fire, and lit the dry grass around Waung, and burnt him. Pund-jel said to Waung, “You shall be a crow to fly about, and shall be a man no more.” Tchert-tchert and Trrar were lost or burnt in the fire. They are now the two largest stones at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges. /
Explanation
KOOBOR THE DROUGHT-MAKER
An orphaned koala-boy, Koobor, was constantly ill-treated and neglected by his relatives. Although he had learnt to live on the foliage of the gum-trees, he was never given sufficient water to quench his thirst.
One morning, when his relatives set out to gather food, they forgot to hide their water-buckets, so that for once in his life Koobor had enough to drink. But, realising that unless he stored some water for himself he would soon be thirsty again, the boy, collecting all the buckets, hung them on a low sapling. Then, climbing into the branches, he chanted a special song that caused the tree to grow so rapidly that it was soon the tallest in the forest.
When the people returned in the evening, tired and thirsty, they were indignant to see the water-buckets hanging at the top of a very high tree, with Koobor sitting in the midst of them. The men demanded that Koobor should return the stolen water, but he replied that, as he now had all the water, it was their turn to go thirsty. After a number of attempts had been made to climb the tree, two clever medicine-men succeeded, and, harshly beating him, threw the little thief to the ground.
As the people watched, they saw the shattered body of Koobor change into a koala, climb into a nearby tree, and sit in the top branches where today he does not need water to keep him alive. Koobor then made a law that, though the aborigines may kill him for food, they must not remove his skin or break his bones until he is cooked. Should anyone disobey, the spirit of the dead koala will cause such a severe drought that everyone except the koalas will die of thirst. /
Explanation
INUA’S LADDER
An old opossum-man, Kapili, his wives, two crow-women, and their brother, Inua, lived on the sea coast of Arnhem Land. One day, after Kapili had quarrelled with his wives over food, the old man got into his canoe and paddled to a distant island to visit friends.
Meanwhile the brother and his sisters, desiring a change of diet from the fruits of the jungle, built a trap at the mouth of a nearby river, in which the family caught so many fish that when they had eaten them, the ground around their camp was littered with the discarded backbones.
After some days, Kapili returned, and ordered his wives to bring him some food. They angrily refused, telling him that if he wanted food he had better get it for himself. The old man, too exhausted after his long canoe journey to hunt, sat down by the fire to warm himself, and fell asleep.
Seeing this, the woman took a wooden dish, scooped up the hot coals and burning wood from their fire, and poured them over the naked body of their husband. Screaming with pain, Kapili rushed into the sea to ease his suffering, while his wives, knowing he would take vengeance on them, fled into the jungle.
Hearing the commotion and cries of pain in the camp, and not wishing to be involved in a domestic quarrel, Inua, making a ladder from the backbones of the fish lying on the ground, climbed into the sky. But when he heard that Kapali had killed his sisters for their cruelty, Inua descended to earth again, and took their bodies back with him into the sky, where the whole family were changed into stars.
Since those days, the crow-women and their brother have always lived in the sky. Every day they collect their food from the Milky Way, every night they sit quietly among the stars, safe from the vengeance of Kapili, the bad-tempered opossum-man. /
Explanation

The knowledge of the details of the Dreaming and the roles of the spirits and their great creations was owned by individual groups and held in trust by the elders. It was the responsibility of these entrusted members to ensure that the Dreaming stories and rituals associated with the Dreaming were accurately remembered and passed on in dance and oral tradition – story, song, poem – and in art.