Aboriginal Indigenous spirituality

Too many white people have tried to explain Aboriginal spirituality. I don't want to follow. I'd like to let Aboriginal people express what they feel Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality are all about.

What is Aboriginal spirituality?

Our spirituality is a oneness and an interconnectedness with all that lives and breathes, even with all that does not live or breathe.—Mudrooroo, Aboriginal writer [1]

Aboriginal spirituality, Mudrooroo continues, "is a feeling of oneness, of belonging", a connectedness with "deep innermost feelings". Everything else is secondary.

Aboriginal spirituality and the land

Aboriginal spirituality is invariably also about the land Aboriginal people live on. They experience a connection to their land that is unknown to white people. A key feature of Aboriginal spirituality is to look after the land, an obligation which has been passed down as law for generations.

A powerful explanation of the spiritual connection of Indigenous people to the land can be found in a publication of the now abolished ATSIC [13]:

We don't own the land, the land owns us. The land is my mother, my mother is the land. Land is the starting point to where it all began. It's like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I'll go. The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity.—S. Knight [13]

Aboriginal author and Yorta Yorta woman Hyllus Maris (1934-86) expressed this connectedness with the land beautifully in her poem Spiritual Song of the Aborigine [6]:

Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that all objects are living and share the same soul or spirit that Aboriginals share.—Eddie Kneebone, Aboriginal Reconciliation campaigner and painter [3]

This is a very fundamental statement about Aboriginal spirituality. It implies that besides animals and plants even rocks have a soul.

An Aboriginal person's soul or spirit is believed to "continue on after our physical form has passed through death", explains Eddie Kneebone [3]. After the death of an Aboriginal person their spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock. The shape is not important because each form shares the same soul or spirit from the Dreamtime.

But what is the Dreamtime?

What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'?

'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming' has never been a direct translation of an Aboriginal word. The English language does not know an equivalent to express the complex Aboriginal spiritual concepts to white people.

Aboriginal languages contain a lot of words for spirituality and beliefs, such as

• tjurkurrpa, jukurrpa, tjurgurba (Pitjantjatjara people, north-western South Australia),
• altjeringa, alcheringa, alchera, aldjerinya (Arrernte people, central Australia),
• palaneri,
• bugaregara,
• ngarangani,
• ungud (Ngarinyin people, north-Western Australia),
• wongar (north eastern Arnhem Land),
• bugari (Broome, north-Western Australia).

There is no spelling orthodoxy because native speakers did not write down Aboriginal languages.

'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.—Mudrooroo, Aboriginal writer [7]

Aboriginal spirituality does not consider the 'Dreamtime' as a time past, in fact not as a time at all. Time refers to past, present and future but the 'Dreamtime' is none of these. The 'Dreamtime' "is there with them, it is not a long way away. The Dreamtime is the environment that the Aboriginal lived in, and it still exists today, all around us" [3]. It is important to note that the Dreaming always also comprises the significance of place [14].

Hence, if we try to use an English word, we should avoid the term 'Dreamtime' and use the word 'Dreaming' instead. It expresses better the timeless concept of moving from 'dream' to reality which in itself is an act of creation and the basis of many Aboriginal creation myths. None of the hundreds of Aboriginal languages contain a word for time [4].

This land is the home of the Dreamtime.—Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Aboriginal writer [18]

Note that the Dreaming is not the product of human dreams. The use of the English word 'dreaming' is more of a matter of analogy than translation [14].

The Dreaming also explains the creation process. Ancestor beings rose and roamed the initially barren land, fought and loved, and created the land's features as we see them today. After creating the 'sacred world' the spiritual beings "turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men." [12]

The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse Indigenous groups across the continent [14].

It is interesting to note that many Aboriginal people also use the term 'Dreaming' to refer to their concepts about spirituality. This might be because some of them find ceremonies or songs in a state of dreaming, a state between sleeping and waking [7]. Strictly speaking, dreaming and mythology can be considered as the same thing: the deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on to be guided by them when the conscious mind is in a state of quietness [19].

The fact that the Dreaming is still around Aboriginal people is a fundamental difference to other spiritual beliefs. In Christianity, for example, the spiritual world is 'heaven', reachable only after death and never while the person is still alive.

Each Aboriginal person identifies with a specific Dreaming. It gives them identity, dictates how they express their spirituality (see below) and tells them which other Aborigines are related to them in a close family, because those share the same Dreaming [5]. One person can have multiple Dreamings [5].

Each form shares the spirituality from the 'Dreaming'. It is during ceremonies that the trance-like dreaming state seizes the Aboriginal people and they connect with the ancestral beings [8].

What is not Aboriginal spirituality?

Many texts and books use 'Aboriginal religion' when addressing Aboriginal spirituality. But these two terms should not be confused:

Spiritual "relates to people's deepest thoughts and beliefs, rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings" [2].

Religious is "something that [...] is about or connected with religion", i.e. "the belief in a god or gods and the activities that are connected with this belief, such as prayer or worship in a church or temple" [2].

Hence spirituality is the foundation of religion, the deeper layer of any religious practice and expression.

How Aboriginal people express spirituality

Indigenous people express and identify with their spirituality in different ways. These include

• ceremony (corroborees),
• rituals,
• totems,
• paintings,
• storytelling,
• community gathering,
• dance,
• songs,
• dreamings,
• designs.

[Aboriginal] spirituality is preoccupied with the relationship of the earth, nature and people in the sense that the earth is accepted as a member of our family, blood of our blood, bone of our bone. —Mudrooroo, Aboriginal writer [17]

Example of a ritual

One example of how Aboriginal people express spirituality is a ritual they do before they walk across country. To express respect for the country's spirits they perform a welcome ritual whose exact nature varies from nation to nation.

• In some NSW nations Aboriginal people put ochre on the forehead, top of the palms and chest. This signalled that they were open to receive information [15].
• Other NSW Aborigines pick up a pebble or earth, throw it into the air and say "I am John, I'm in your country, please welcome me."
• The Nyoongar in the Perth region rubbed soil into their armpits so that it would take on their smell. The soil was then released back to the land. This told the ancestral spirits about the person asking for the protection while travelling on the land [16].

How Aboriginal spirituality can change and adapt

Aboriginal spirituality is not immutable, but adapts and changes. Christianity, for example, has influenced it in many ways ever since missionaries (forcibly) taught Aboriginal people the Bible.

As a result Aboriginal people have integrated elements of Christianity into their spirituality and expressive ways without necessarily becoming Christians.

An example are the paintings of the Daly River (Nauiyu Nambiyu) community, a former mission 300 kms south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The community is still closely connected to the catholic church. Aboriginal artists like Miriam-Rose Ungunmer-Baumann and Mary Leahy Pumbum created paintings showing Christian scenes.

The inclusion of Christian stories and symbolism in traditional Aboriginal art and spirituality is often perceived as out of place and alien.

Since many Aboriginal people have been in missions and subject to Christianisation it would surprise if these influences hadn't manifested in their spirituality. Often Aboriginal and Christian spirituality can peacefully coexist in the same person's belief system.

I once met an Aboriginal elder who was well versed in the Bible. When I asked him why he told me that since the Bible seemed such an important book to white people he had to find out more about it.

• At 22% Catholics are the largest Christian group among Indigenous Australians [21].
• 2% of all Catholics in the 2006 census were Aboriginal [21].

Toyota Dreaming

Aboriginal adaption in spirituality also extends to the Dreamings available to them. While traditional Dreamings include Australian flora and fauna, post-invasion Dreamings incorporate things which have impacted on Aboriginal culture and society. This has led to new Dreamings such as [14]

• "Cough", relating to introduced diseases such as tuberculosis, the common cold, influenza and whooping cough,
• "Itchiness", from smallpox, chicken pox, etc,
• "Toyota", because four-wheel drive vehicles altered ways of life and contact with places and other groups.

Biami - a recent Aboriginal spirit

According to Aboriginal writer Mudrooroo, Biami (or Byamee, Biame, Baiame) is an Aboriginal 'all-father deity' which found its way into Aboriginal spirituality as a response to Christianity [10]. Biami has a continuous presence in Indigenous writings from the eastern states of Australia, because that was where Aboriginal people learned about Christianity.

Leslie Saxby Jupurula, an Aboriginal teacher and painter, tells a story of Biami which is surprisingly similar to the book of Genesis in the Bible:

The Biame Art Gallery in the Hunter Valley, NSW, has published a complete story of 'Biame and Creation' on their website.

Aunty Eileen and the evil spirit

"Aunty Eileen, a Bundjalung elder from northern NSW, was approached by a man who was being haunted by a spirit every night."

How would you expect this story to continue?

If we fancied a romantic view of Aboriginal spirituality (which is still promoted a lot in advertising) we would expect Aunty Eileen to chose some mythical method, to perform a ceremony or sing the spirit away.

None of this happened in this real-world story [8]. Aunty Eileen simply told the man to put a Bible under his pillow and read a verse from it should the spirit return the next night.

Aboriginal spiritual art and World Youth Day 2008

World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney provided another example of how traditional Aboriginal art and spirituality join modern-day spiritual beliefs.

Aboriginal artist Richard Campbell, a member of the Stolen Generations, created a series of Indigenous artworks which were used on official merchandise for the World Youth Day.

The artworks reinterpret major Catholic themes and stories from within Aboriginal spirituality, and his works Fourteen Stations of the Cross, The Madonna, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection, were used on merchandise for the 225,000 pilgrims [9].

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.33, [2] Collins Cobuild Dictionary, 1987, [3] in: Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.34, [4] Voices of the First Day, Robert Lawlor, 1991, p.37, [5] Paddy Japaljarri Stewart in: 'Dreamings', Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia, vol.1, p.305 [6] Spiritual Song of the Aborigine, Hyllus Maris, in: Discover...The Australian Aborigines, 1998, p.18 [7] Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.41 [8] Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.44 [9] The Koori Mail, online edition, 25/11/2007 [10] Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.46 [11] www.indidgellenium.com/Dreamtime%20Connection.html [12] www.aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html [13] Knight S., 1996, Our Land Our Life, card, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Canberra [14] Penny Tripcony, Manager, Oodgeroo Unit, Queensland University of Technology, http://www.oodgeroo.qut.edu.au/academic_resources/academicpape/tooobviousto.jsp [15] Personal communication with an Aboriginal tour guide in Sydney. [16] Personal communication with an Aboriginal Elder in Perth. [17] Us Mob, Mudrooroo, 1995, p.47 [18] Oodergoo Noonuccal in the play 'The Rainbow Serpent' [19] Die Welt der Aborigines, Mudrooroo, 1996, p.211 [20] in: Teaching Aboriginal Studies, Allen & Unwin, 1999, p.89 [21] 'Aboriginal Elders to be first to welcome Pope Benedict', NIT 1/5/2008, p.3

The author of this site wishes to recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land in which we live and work.

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