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Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime, songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature.
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Baldwin Spencer and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who, however, later revised his views.
In Arrernte mythology, Karora is a bandicoot ancestral deity. According to one legend, during the Dreamtime Karora lay sleeping in the earth when from his head rose a tall pole called a tnatantja. It was a living creature, its bottom resting on his head and its top reaching up into the sky. From his armpits and navel emerged bandicoots, who dug their way out of the earth just as the first sun rose into the sky. Karora followed them, seized two of the animals, then cooked and ate them. His hunger sated, he lay down to sleep again and a bullroarer emerged from under his armpit. It took on human form and grew into a young man, and when Karora woke his son danced around him. It was the very first ceremony.
The Wawalag sisters, also written as WauwalukWawilakWaggilak, Wagilag, or Wawalik, are ancestral creator beings whose story is part of "the most widespread" sacred rituals in the Aboriginal culture from Arnhem land, Northern Territory, Australia. Their story takes place in Dreamtime, a period of time in Aboriginal belief where ancestral beings created the land as well as the social and linguistic structures in it. The sisters are said to have helped draw linguistic and social differences amongst the clans in Arnhem Land, but the ceremonies associated with their stories create cultural unity.
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas comprise numerous different cultures. Each has its own mythologies, many of which share certain themes across cultural boundaries. In North American mythologies, common themes include a close relation to nature and animals as well as belief in a Great Spirit that is conceived of in various ways.
The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.
Walkabout is a 1971 adventure survival film directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil. Edward Bond wrote the screenplay, which is loosely based on the 1959 novel Walkabout by James Vance Marshall. Set in the Australian outback, it centres on two white schoolchildren who are left to fend for themselves in the Australian outback and who come across a teenage Aboriginal boy who helps them to survive.
The Warlpiri, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered through their traditional land in the Northern Territory, north and west of Alice Springs. About 3,000 still speak the Warlpiri language. The word "Warlpiri" has also been romanised as Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, and Wailbri.
The Peramangk are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands traditionally comprise the Adelaide Hills, as well as lands to the west of the Murray River in mid Murraylands and through to the northern part of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia.
The Coniston massacre, which took place in the region around the Coniston cattle station in the then Territory of Central Australia from 14 August to 18 October 1928, was the last known officially sanctioned massacre of Indigenous Australians and one of the last events of the Australian Frontier Wars.
Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land and other regions in the Top End of Australia, including parts of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Traditionally, bark paintings were produced for instructional and ceremonial purposes and were transient objects. Today, they are keenly sought after by collectors and public arts institutions.
The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of some of the indigenous peoples of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew, and the practices of Midewiwin are referred to as Mide. Occasionally, male Midew are called Midewinini, which is sometimes translated into English as "medicine man".
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Dirawong is a goanna Ancestral Being who taught humans how to live on the land, as well as important ceremonies and rituals. Dirawong is known as a benevolent protector of its people from the Rainbow Serpent. Dirawong's gender is ambiguous.
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Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. Over 300 languages and other groupings have developed a wide range of individual cultures. Due the colonization of Australia under terra nullius concept these cultures were treated as one monoculture. Australian Aboriginal art has existed for thousands of years and ranges from ancient rock art to modern watercolour landscapes. Aboriginal music has developed a number of unique instruments. Contemporary Australian Aboriginal music spans many genres. Aboriginal peoples did not develop a system of writing before colonisation, but there was a huge variety of languages, including sign languages.
Edwin "Guboo" Ted Thomas, a Yuin man, was a prominent Aboriginal leader. He toured Australia with a gumleaf orchestra during the Great Depression of the 1930s, played rugby league and became a respected elder who campaigned for protection of sacred sites on the South Coast. He went to the United Nations in New York and urged the World Council of Churches to accept Indigenous religions, and also met the Dalai Lama.
Robert (Bobby) Mellor Granites Jabanungga AKA Robert Kantilla, Robert Japanangka, Robert Japananga, Robert Jabanunga Kantilla (1946–1985) was a TV actor, Aboriginal dancer and musician best known for playing the didgeridoo at many Canberra festivals as well as national and international events. Jabanungga Avenue in the Canberra suburb of Ngunnawal is named in his honour. The word Jabanungga is a skin name.
Blood Brothers is a 1993 four-part Australian documentary series that tells the stories of three different Aboriginal Australian men and an Aboriginal ceremony.
Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987), also known as Djakku, was a Aboriginal Australian artist known for his painting. He was a member of the Kardbam clan of the Bininj people, and spoke the Kuninjku language.
References
- 1 2 Philip, Neil (2004). Mythology of the World . Boston, MA: Kingfisher. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7534-0964-0.
Mythology of the World.
- ↑ Moreton, Romaine. "Blood Brothers - Jardiwarnpa" . Retrieved 27 May 2011.