Part One: The Dreaming

WARNING NOTICE
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following title may include images and
voices of deceased persons.
Focus:
The Dreaming is an ever-present reality which describes the formation of the world and everything in it.
There are many Aboriginal deities; some are regarded as supreme creator beings, others are regarded as
ancestral beings.
Dreaming mythologies of the many different Aboriginal tribes are variations on a common theme.
Important Words
Dreaming beginnings when ancestral beings formed the land, its features, animals, plants, the laws that
kept everything in existence. The Dreaming is an ever-present reality
Totem animal or natural species considered related though the spirit ancestors to an individual or group
of people, and taken as their symbol
Traditional Aboriginal Tribal Life
Australia's indigenous people, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, have occupied this
country for some 50,000 years, perhaps even longer. It is estimated that there were around 300,000
Aboriginal people at the time of first settlement in 1788. They lived in tribal groups, sparsely scattered
throughout Australia's vast continent.
Due to huge distances separating the various groups, Aboriginal tribes had little or no contact with
each other. It is, therefore, a misunderstanding to think that Aboriginal people shared a uniform set of
beliefs and a single way of carrying out ceremonies and rituals. At the time of European settlement there
were over 500 Aboriginal language groups. While there were similarities in their beliefs and customs, each
group had its distinctive characteristics.
Similarities in beliefs and customs probably evolved as a result of the common challenges
Aboriginal groups shared. Apart from the eastern coastal areas, the continent was either arid or semi-arid
and largely unsuitable for cultivation. Aboriginal people were completely at the mercy of nature. They relied
on the regularity of the seasons to stimulate the plant growth necessary for their own survival and that of
the animals on which they depended for food. Endless droughts presented them with their biggest
challenge and led Aboriginal people to appreciate the life-giving properties of rain as well as its destructive
power through floods, storms and cyclones.
From these common challenges evolved the Aboriginal understanding of the world and spirituality.
While specific variations exist due to geographical distance, Aboriginal belief systems share one common,
all-embracing theme - the Dreaming.
The Dreaming - Heart of Aboriginal Spirituality
Aboriginal Art
The 'Dreamtime' is an English term used by some people to convey the Aboriginal concept of the
beginnings. It refers to the time when ancestral beings formed the land, its features, the animals and plants,
as well as the laws that kept everything in existence.
As a point in history, however, time is an unknown concept in traditional Aboriginal understanding.
The 'Dreaming' is a more correct expression of an event that cannot be placed in time, as the events and
ancestral beings that brought them about are caught up in an eternal moment that is an ever-present
reality. 'Dreaming' is used in this Title because it acknowledges the distinct, although very similar, belief
systems of Australia's many Aboriginal tribes.
While there are variations in the mythologies of different Aboriginal groups, there is basically one
unifying theme. It arises out of the common challenges faced by the attempts of different Aboriginal groups
to address issues all human societies in the course of history have sought to resolve. These are:
creation of the universe
creation of life
reason for night and day
reason for the seasons
why people die
reasons for the existence of different tribal languages
reasons for natural disasters
how life came about.
Aboriginal Dreaming and Dreaming stories, belief systems and deities, address questions raised by these
issues.

Ancestral Beings
 At the core of the Dreaming are Aboriginal deities, or ancestral beings. While these mythological
beings possessed supernatural powers, they looked like animals or plants - even insects. They also
displayed human weaknesses, such as selfishness, greed, deceitfulness and jealousy; some were even
evil.
Names and roles of these ancestral beings differed from place to place. Some areas told of a
supreme creator being with names such as, Biami, Bunjil, Eingana, Goin, Nurelli, Ngukunder and Ngalyoo.
Often, the Rainbow Serpent was imaged as this supreme creator and different myths exist about her
actions in forming the land.
One creator spirit also created other beings to help in the creation process. Aboriginal people
believe that it was the Father Spirit (Sky God) who made this world and still keeps it in fertility. In the
Dreaming, the Father Spirit worked through ancestor spirits to form all the features of the land. Stories of
these ancestor spirits abound in all parts of Australia.
Bunjil
Bunjil was an Eaglehawk whom Victorian Aboriginal tribes consider a supreme creator. In addition
to creating the landscape, Bunjil created human beings and taught them to live by providing them with laws,
customs and rituals. He is considered to be the guardian of the secret knowledge and is also connected
with the initiation of boys into manhood.
Aboriginal people believe that Bunjil warmed the sun, which in turn warmed the world. He resides in
the sky as a bright star and has a son, Binbeal, who is the god of rainbows.
Rainbow Serpent
The Rainbow Serpent is considered by many Aboriginal tribes to be a supreme creator, although
she usually shared her creative powers with other ancestral beings. She is a mythological snake-like
creature whose body arches across the immense sky in the form of a rainbow. Usually depicted as a
female, she is known by many names, e.g. in Queensland, she is known as Taipan, while in parts of the
Northern Territory she is called Ungar.
Believed to have created the billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons on which Aboriginal people
depend for survival, the Rainbow Serpent has a strong connection with water. She is also the instigator of
the destructive forces associated with rain, floods, storms and cyclones. Easily angered, she can unleash
great destruction upon the land.

Greatly feared because of her great powers, the Rainbow Serpent rules the relationship between the
sexes. She regulates male physiological processes and women's menstrual cycles. Pregnant and
menstruating women must take great care not to violate her pools lest a violent storm, flood or cyclone
should be unleased upon the tribe.
Eingana is a supreme creator snake goddess and mother of water animals and human beings.
Eingana has power over life and death, controlling the substance of which life is made; creatures die when
she lets go of that vital substance.
At first, Eingana gave birth to living creatures by vomiting them out of her mouth. However, she was
not satisfied with what she had created, so she swallowed them again. Lacking a vagina, she was unable to
give birth; instead, the creatures grew bigger and bigger inside her body causing her to reel in agony. The
ancestor being, Barraiya, saw Eingana in great pain and used his spear to make a hole near her anus, so
that labour could begin. Traditionally, this is the reason women have vaginas, enabling them to give birth.
Multiple Creator Beings
While some tribes recognised the existence of a supreme creator, it was more common for groups
to believe that their own ancestor beings were responsible for the creation of the world. This is not
surprising in view of the fact that Aboriginal groups were generally very isolated from one another.
Some ancestral beings became cultic heroes who taught the first people the skills needed to
survive, i.e. how to hunt, make weapons, tools, and fire, and how to carry out ceremonies. When their work
of creating the earth was finished, these beings returned to the land from which they first came, or became
physical features of the landscape.
Besides remaining present in the land, the spirits of ancestral beings are passed on to individuals
before their birth. This spirit helps form their identity. Through connection with ancestral beings, each
person becomes part of the sacred essence of the earth and its creation spirits.
Muramura
The muramura are female spirit beings who travelled all over the land during the Dreaming. They
are believed to have been responsible for creating human beings.
One of the most prominent muramura is Darana, the Rainmaker, who is believed to have created
red dust. According to mythology, Darana turned two youths into heart-shaped stones. It is believed that if
these stones were scratched, endless hunger would result. If they were destroyed, the land would be
covered in red dust, destroying all creation.
 Most of the muramura were either turned into stone, forming various rock structures, or else they
changed into animal forms and became buried deep within the earth. Two groups of muramura girls,
however, were drawn up into the sky where they became the star constellations - Pleiades and Orion.
Ancestral beings, in the Dreaming mythologies of Aboriginal tribes living in the Kimberley region, are
called the wadjina. They take a variety of forms including human, and some have no form at all. For
example, Warana was an Eaglehawk, whereas Walanga's form was undefined because he belonged to the
sky and now resides as the Milky Way.
Wadjina
The wadjina are associated with the rainy season and the production of spirit children. Most of them
became rock paintings and their spirits reside in sacred waterholes where they ensure the regularity of the
rainy seasons.
Two Lightning Brothers
Two ancestral beings of Northern territory Dreaming stories are Tcabuinji and his younger brother
Wagjadbulla. Tcabuinji killed his brother who wanted to take possession of his wife, Cananda.
He is thought to reside in a waterhole during the dry season, and in the wet season he rides on top
of the thunderclouds, wielding his axe to produce lightning. His voice is said to sound like thunder.
The Dreaming - Origin of the Universe
Dreaming Mythologies
Dreaming mythologies of the many different Aboriginal tribes are variations on a common theme.
According to traditional Aboriginal beliefs, the universe, or the earth and sky, has always existed along with
the supernatural ancestral beings.
At the beginning of time, i.e. the Dreaming, the earth was a dark, cold and formless mass. The sun
and moon lay dormant, deep within the earth along with supernatural deities which would become the
ancestral beings of the Aboriginal people. These beings were sometimes in human form, sometimes
animal, and resembled perfectly-formed men and women, or creatures like the kangaroo and emu.
Irrespective of their appearance, ancestral beings behaved like human beings and could transform
themselves from one form to another.
At some point in time, these supernatural beings awoke from their deep sleep and emerged from
beneath the surface of the earth. This was to mark the beginning of creation, the Dreaming.
The purpose of Dreaming mythology is not to present a chronological account of how things came
to be. It emphasises that creation is an interconnected network of relationships comprising the land, plants,
insects, animals and fish, as well as human beings and their ancestral beings - what Aboriginal people
understand by the Dreaming. From this point on two parallel themes appear in the creative process.
1. The first tradition develops the unfolding of creation from the perspective of a supreme creator being, the
Sun Mother.
2. The other, probably more common tradition takes a polytheistic approach.
Supreme Creator - Sun Mother
According to this tradition, the supreme Father of All Spirits was the only one awake while all lay
dormant. He woke the Sun Mother and commissioned her to go down to earth to wake up the sleeping
spirits. The Sun Mother did so, and as she walked across the land the plants began to grow. She
descended into caves within the earth where her light gave birth to insects of all kinds which flew out to
feed on the flowers. Her heat melted the ice, creating the rivers and streams. Then she created fish, birds
and animals. Eventually she created two children, the Morning Star and the moon, and sent them to earth.
There is no uniform agreement as to how human beings came to be.
1. Some traditions maintain, they were created at the same time as all the animals; some ancestral beings
looked like men or women, others like animals, and some could interchange their form from animal to
human.
2. Other traditions maintain that animals and plants were created first; those ancestral beings who kept the
laws given to them were turned into human beings, while the law-breakers were turned into the various
rock formations and landscapes we see in Australia today.
Polytheistic Approach
Dreaming mythologies from the polytheistic tradition maintain that ancestral beings travelled around
the land creating the physical features of the environment, as well as its peoples, plants and animals. Many
mythologies, however, acknowledge the involvement of a Supreme Creator who 'gave life' to the ancestral
beings. In various ways, these ancestral beings subsequently shared in the creative power of the Supreme
Creator.

After this period of creating, some ancestral beings were transformed into a particular site where their
spirits remain. Others moved on, leaving part of their spirit behind. This helps explain how the Dreaming is
relevant not only to the past, but also to the present and the future.
 It is interesting that there is no myth that places much attention on the creation of human beings. It
seems they were just created along with everything else in the world, thus confirming the interrelatedness
of all creation. For example:
1.One tradition holds that the muramura women spirits created human beings by smoothing out the limbs of
unformed creatures.
2.Another tradition maintains that human beings were made from unformed totem animals that lacked
sense organs; reportedly, they grew in strength as they rested in the sand hills, and eventually stood up as
human beings.
3.The Wotjobaluk people believe that only one gender existed at first, and that woman was created by an
ancestral being by the name of Gidja, who accomplished this task by castrating Yalungur the Eaglehawk.
Ancestral beings remain in the different forms they took and in the various places they created
throughout the country. In fact, the physical features of the landscape mark the deeds of these wandering
ancestral beings. For example:
1. Gagudji people in Arnhemland believe that the prominent sandstone formation in Kakadu National Park
was created in the Dreaming when Ginga the crocodile-man became badly burned. As he jumped into the
water to save himself, he turned into the sandstone formation we see today.
2. At Victoria River, there is a rock formation attributed to the spirit god Walujapi. She is said to have carved
a snake-like track along a cliff-face there, leaving an impression of her buttocks when she sat down to rest.
3. The Darling Scarp in Perth is believed to represent the body of a serpent being, Wagyl, who wandered
over the land, creating the rivers, waterways and lakes in the area.

The sun appears after the spirit beings raise the sky above the highest mountain in the world. In the
polytheistic tradition, the sun was considered to be either, one of the spirit beings who lay dormant beneath
the earth's surface or in the sky, or a mighty fire started by one of the ancestral beings and maintained by a
spirit in the sky. Different understandings of the sun will be explored in greater detail in Part Two.

Part Two: Sacred Stories

Focus:
Aboriginal sacred stories of the Dreaming often explained the origin of the universe and everything in it -
they formed the framework by which Aboriginal people made sense of the world.
Aboriginal people never used a written language to pass on Dreaming stories - individuals 'owned' myths
according to their totems, and it was their responsibility to see that the stories were kept alive and passed
on to the proper persons.
Aboriginal sacred stories exhibit a common theme as well as variations.
Important Words
Myth a story that attributes the way the world is to work, as well as the will of the gods and the condition
in which human beings find themselves
Totem animal or natural species considered connected though spirit ancestors to an individual or group of
people and taken as their symbol
Nature and Transmission of Sacred Stories
Aboriginal sacred stories are set in the time of creation and often seek to explain the origin of the
universe and everything in it. They also address the issue of evil and present the supreme creator as
lawgiver and law enforcer.
Other stories are concerned with various aspects of the Dreaming. Instead of focusing specifically
on the events of creation, they seek to explain the condition in which human beings find themselves.
Dreaming myths, stories of the people's ancestral spirits, are stories of the creative period, as well as 'living
stories', i.e. stories that still have truth and relevance for today as well as the future.
Transmission
Aboriginal people have never used a written language to pass on the Dreaming stories from one
generation to the next. Different people 'owned' certain myths according to their totems, and it was their
responsibility to see that the story was kept alive and passed on to the proper persons.
Sacred myths were acted out in rituals such as initiation ceremonies of young men, in which only
certain people were allowed to participate. Other myths were for general hearing and were passed on from
generation to generation, usually around the campfire at night. They set out laws, explained why things
were as they were and sometimes simply entertained.
Myths might be told by a wide number of people in different areas with several versions being
known. The version, depth and detail would depend on the audience. Various groups across the land would
own different sections of the myth, with no local group owning the complete myth. Storytellers in great
demand were those who embellished the stories with hand, facial and body movement, and who whispered
and shouted and made the telling a dramatic event.
 Sacred stories formed the framework by which Aboriginal people made sense of the world and
answered the many questions of human existence. We will now take a closer look at a sample of these
sacred stories.
Creation of the Universe
As you read the following three stories, notice the emergence of a common unifying theme. There
are, however, also variations in the stories, but these are not significant to the common theme.
Rainbow Serpent
In the Dreaming all earth lay sleeping. Nothing moved. Nothing grew. One day the Rainbow Serpent
awoke from her slumber and came out from under the ground.
She travelled far and wide and eventually grew tired and curled up and slept. She left marks of her sleeping
body and her winding tracks. Then she returned to the place where she had first appeared, and called to
the frogs, 'Come out!'
The frogs came out slowly because their bellies were heavy with water, which they had stored in
their sleep. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs and when the frogs laughed, water ran all over the
earth to fill the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent's wanderings. This is how lakes and rivers were formed.
With water, grass and trees sprang up. Also, all animals awoke and followed the Rainbow Serpent
across the land. They were happy on earth, and each lived and gathered food with his own tribe. Some
animals lived in rocks, others on the plains and others in trees and in the air.
The Rainbow Serpent made laws that they all were to obey, but some became quarrelsome and
made trouble. The Rainbow Serpent said, 'Those who keep my laws will be rewarded; I shall give them
human form. Those who break my laws will be punished and turned to stone, never to walk the earth
again.'
The lawbreakers became stone and turned to mountains and hills, but those who kept the laws
were turned into human form. The Rainbow Serpent gave each of them their own totem of the animal, bird
or reptile from whence they came. The tribes knew themselves by their totems. Kangaroo, emu, carpet
snake, and many, many more ... So no one would starve the Rainbow Serpent ruled that no man should
eat of his totem, but only of other totems. This way there was food for everyone.
The tribes lived together on the land given to them by the Rainbow Serpent or Mother of Life and
knew the land would always be theirs, and no one should ever take it from them.
Baiame and the Rainbow Snake
We have been told, as our fathers were before us, that there was land, but it was a flat, barren plain.
No animals ran there. No birds sang overhead, no trees or bushes grew. No sound of water could be
heard; nor was there any man or woman. The sun, the moon, and the stars slept beneath the earth. All the
eternal ancestors slept there, too, until at last they woke themselves out of their own eternity and broke
through to the surface.
Baiame, or the Maker of Many Things as some call him, brought the Dreaming ancestors from under the
ground and over the seas. With them, life came to the barren, flat plain.
Some of the Dreaming ancestors looked like men or women. Others looked like the animals or
creatures, which descended from them. But often the Dreaming ancestors could become shape shifters. So
the swordfish ancestor, for example, could look like a swordfish, or a man or woman.
As the Dreaming ancestors wandered over the land many adventures befell them. They met with
other ancestors. Arguments often arose and the ancestors would set out on their travels again.
They met strange creatures and fought many battles. Each time this happened the shape of the
land would change. Hills arose from the earth, plants would grow. Where the Barramundi-fish ancestor
swam, rivers would then appear.
When a wrong was done, when people, ancestors or animals did what they should not, the Rainbow
Snake would rush down upon them. He would then either drown them, making bays and rivers, or swallow
them. Then he would spit out their bones to form rocks and hills.
From the Dreaming Rainbow Snake came the feared ngaljod snake, still deadly and dangerous to
those who are careless. But the Rainbow Snake is not just vengeful. To some people the Rainbow Snake is
an old woman, who in the Dreaming taught her children - humans - to talk and understand. She taught
them to dig for food, and what foods were safe to eat.
The sun, moon and stars also came to be in the Dreaming. One day emu ancestor and eagle
ancestor were fighting. Eagle took one of emu's eggs and threw it into the air. Soaring up, it burst into
flames. Baiame fed the flame with wood. So the sun was made, and is made anew each day with more
fresh wood.
Everything that is, was made in Dreaming. How animals and humans should look and behave was
fixed for ever. The Dreaming ancestors taught their tribes, animal and human, how to perform secret
ceremonies. Then the ancestors disappeared into caves or water-holes, to remain underground, but ever
present.
The Father of All Spirits and the Sun Mother
There was a time when everything was still. All the spirits of the earth were asleep - or almost all.
The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the Sun Mother. As she opened
her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth. The Father of All Spirits said to the Sun
Mother, 'Mother, I have work for you. Go down to the Earth and awake the sleeping spirits. Give them
forms.'
The Sun Mother glided down to Earth, which was bare at the time, and began to walk in all directions, and
everywhere she walked plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work, the Mother
rested, well pleased with herself. The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go
into the caves and wake the spirits.
This time she ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides. The bright light that radiated from
her awoke the spirits, and after she left insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Sun Mother sat down
and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers. However, once again the Father
urged her on.
The Sun Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her. Her heat melted
the ice, and the rivers and streams of the world were created. Then she created fish and small snakes,
lizards and frogs. Next she awoke the spirits of the birds and animals, and they burst into the sunshine in a
glorious array of colours. Seeing this, the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Sun Mother's work.
She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth and to live
peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the sun.
The living creatures watched the sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the west.
However, when she finally sank beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted
them. All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed
to them like a lifetime, the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. Earth's children
learned to expect her coming and going, and were no longer afraid.
At first the children lived together peacefully, but eventually envy crept into their hearts. They began
to argue. The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate their bickering.
She gave each creature the power to change their form to whatever they chose. However, she was not
pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; there were giant lizards and fish
with blue tongues and feet. However, the oddest of the new animals was an animal with a bill like a duck,
teeth for chewing, a tail like a beaver, and the ability to lay eggs. It was called the platypus.
The Sun Mother looked down upon the earth and thought to herself that she must create new
creatures, lest the Father of All Spirits be angered by what he now saw. She gave birth to two children. The
god was the Morning Star and the goddess was the moon. Two children were born to them and these she
sent to earth. They became our ancestors. She made them superior to the animals, because they had part
of her mind and would never want to change their shape.
A Common Theme
None of these stories makes any attempt to explain the origin of the universe. The world and all life
have always existed, but were at first dormant. New living things were formed because ancestral beings
were able to change their form. The landscape came about as a result of the activities of ancestral beings.
Sacred stories embed the unfolding of creation within a context of 'violence' - a theme common
across all primordial religions, e.g. Norse, Aztec and Shinto, to name but a few. We hear of ancestral
beings quarrelling with one another, often motivated by greed and jealousy. The Sun Mother gave ancestral
beings the ability to change their form and put an end to the quarrelling in the hope that this would make
them less greedy and jealous, but the plan was not successful.
The condition of violence in which Aboriginal people find themselves is rooted in the activities of
ancestral beings. Stories point out that this violence takes the form of coveting, i.e. wanting what one
cannot have and be. It is this human tendency to covet that leads to envy, greed and jealousy which are
expressed in violent and evil acts. Violence and evil are part of life because they came from the ancestors
who gave rise to humanity and whose spirits reside in each person.
Presented as lawgiver and law enforcer, the supreme being taught human beings how to behave in
relation to one another, and how to interact with the land and its inhabitants and live in harmony with the
world. Ancestral beings who observed the rules given by the supreme being were rewarded by becoming
human; those that did not obey, became rivers and waterways or hills and other rock formations.
Variations in the Rainbow Serpent Story
Subtle variations occur between these three sacred stories. The 'Rainbow Serpent' story presents
the supreme creator, the Rainbow Serpent, as the single creator of everything, beginning with the ancestral
beings. From them, the Rainbow Serpent created the physical world, animals, plants, birds, fish and human
beings.
 Human beings are given a 'superior' status because they were created from those ancestral beings
who observed the law given them by the Rainbow Serpent. By the same token, the implication of this
'reward' is that a higher standard of ethical conduct is required of humanity, in accordance with this superior
status. This is given expression in the totems given to each person in accordance with the animal from
which they had been formed.
The rule that, 'no man should eat of his totem, but only of other totems', is very significant. It is much
more than a matter of ensuring there is plenty of food for everyone. The totem embraces the respect all
people are required to have for one another, and sets people apart as caretakers of the land, sky and sea,
and all their inhabitants. It embraces the Aboriginal understanding that human beings are one with the land,
and creation is part of them, just as they are part of creation. It is only by being one with the land, i.e. by
acting as caretakers rather than exploiters of creation that humanity will survive and prosper.
Variations in the Story of Baiame and the Rainbow Snake
'Baiame and the Rainbow Snake' comes from the polytheistic tradition. In this story we are told that
the supreme creator, Baiame, 'gave life' to ancestral beings. They had many forms, some resembled
human beings and others, animals, birds, fish and plants. Living things were created by these ancestral
beings according to the form they originally possessed or changed into. Thus, human beings were formed
from ancestors that resembled human beings, while kangaroos were created from the ancestral beings that
resembled them.
Contrary to the first story, the role of lawgiver and law enforcer is assigned, not to Baiame, the
Maker of Many Things, but to the Rainbow Snake, who presumably is the supreme being of the first story.
While punishment is administered in the same way described in the first story, waterways and the physical
landscape were also created by the day-to-day activities of ancestral beings. The Rainbow Snake is also a
supreme being, except in this story she is assigned the role of teaching her tribes; we hear of how the
Rainbow Snake taught people to talk and understand, what foods were safe to eat, and how to obtain food.
Perhaps the last part of the story is of greatest significance.
Then the ancestors disappeared into caves or water-holes, to remain underground, but ever present.
Ancestral beings are ever present in the land and its inhabitants. This is the reason Aboriginal
people believe that the land is alive and they are part of that living organism - the land. This understanding
forms the foundation of Aboriginal people's belief that to prosper, they must be one with the land, and be
prepared to act as caretakers of creation
Variations in the Story of the Father of All Spirits and the Sun Mother
Both the Father of All Spirits and the Sun Mother are supreme creator beings, but in this story the
Sun Mother is commissioned by the Father of All Spirits to wake up all ancestral beings that lay dormant
beneath the earth's surface. In this story, the physical landscape of the earth and its rivers and waterways
are attributed directly to the creative power of the Sun Mother, and not the activities of ancestor spirits, or
any punishment handed out.
Creation is paused at the point of 'giving life' to all the ancestral beings, and there is no attempt to
explain how the animals, fish, birds and insects that inhabited the land came into being. Ancestral beings,
rather than being handed a law, are instructed by the Sun Mother to live in peace and harmony, which of
course, they fail to do.
According to this story, human beings descended from the morning star and the moon - both
created by the Sun Mother in her disappointment at the behaviour of ancestral beings. The implication is
that humanity is superior to other forms of life because of its ability to reason, which gives human beings
the capacity and responsibility to live in harmony with each other and all creation.
According to the story, the Sun Mother, who is a supreme creator, becomes the sun in the sky. In
other words, Aboriginal people associated the sun with a life-giving force that brings warmth and light to the
world. It is a force that can be used for right relationship and respect for creation.
Creation of the Sun
Cooperation of All Ancestor Beings
In view of the importance of the sun to Aboriginal tribal groups, it is understandable that people
were preoccupied with attempting to comprehend how it came into being. As a life-giving force, the sun
provided the warmth and light everyone needed in order to live. Aboriginal people recognised that the sun
shared its warmth and light equally with all living beings. In their primitive worldview, this generous gift,
given in equal measure to everyone, could only have come about by ancestral spirits cooperating and
working together.
The question of exactly how the sun came to be located in the sky was influenced by Aboriginal
people's understanding of the world. Like all peoples of ancient times, Aboriginal people regarded the earth
as a flat entity with a layer of sky on top. To them, the sun was above the sky, or in some traditions it was
buried beneath the surface of the earth, and therefore, could not be seen through this layer. The sun was
made visible when ancestral spirits cooperated and worked together to raise the sky above the sun. This is
reflected in the beginning of the sacred story, titled 'The First Sunrise'.
'The First Sunrise'
Long, long ago in the Dreaming the earth was dark. There was no light. A huge grey blanket of
clouds kept the light and the warmth out. It was very cold and very black. This great grey mass of cloud
was very low; so low that the animals had to crawl around! The emu hobbled, neck bent almost to the
ground; the kangaroo couldn't hop, and none of the birds could fly higher than several feet in the air. Only
the snakes were happy because they, of all the animals, lived close to the ground.
The animals lived by crawling around the damp dark earth, feeling for fruits and berries. Often it was
so hard to find food that several days would pass between meals. The wombat became so tired of people
bumping into him that he dug himself a burrow, and learned to sleep for long periods.
Eventually, the birds decided they'd had enough. They called a meeting of all the animals. The
magpies, who were more intelligent than most of the birds, had a plan:
We can't fly because the sky is too low. What we need to do, is to raise the sky. If we all gathered sticks,
then we could use them to push the sky up - and then we could fly up with the sky, and make lots of room
for everyone.
All the animals agreed it was a good idea, and they set about gathering sticks. The magpies took a big stick
each, and began to push at the sky.
Look, it's going to work!
The sky! It's moving!
The emus and the kangaroos, the wombats and the goannas sat and watched as the magpies
pushed the sky slowly upwards. They used the sticks as levers, first resting the sky on low boulders, then
on small hills. As the animals watched, the magpies, pushing and straining, reached the top of a small
mountain.
Munmuck, munmuck, at least we can walk about.
It was still very dark, but at least the emu could straighten up, and the kangaroo was able to move in
long proud hops. The magpies kept pushing the sky higher and higher, until they reached the highest
mountain in the whole land. Then with a mighty heave, they gave the sky one last push! The sky shot up
into the air, and as it rose it split open and a huge flood of warmth and light poured through on to the land
below. The animals wondered at the light and warmth, but more at the incredible brightly painted beauty of
the Sun-Woman. The whole sky was awash with beautiful reds and yellows. It was the first sunrise.
There was one remaining problem. Aware of their dependence on the sun for light, warmth and
sustenance, the Aboriginal people feared that one day the sun would disappear. They needed the
reassurance that the same sun that set each evening would rise the following morning. The story, as it
continues, provides this reassurance.
Overjoyed with the beauty, the light and the warmth, the magpies burst into song. As their loud
warbling carried across the land, the Sun-Woman rose slowly, and began her journey towards the west.
Now, each morning when the Sun-Woman wakes in her camp in the east, she lights a fire to prepare the
bark torch that she will carry across the sky each day. It is this fire that provides the first light of dawn. As
she puts on her paint, the dust from the crushed red ochre, colours the early morning clouds a beautiful soft
red. Then she takes up her torch, and begins her daily journey across the sky. When she reaches the
western edge of the world, she extinguishes her flaming bark torch.
Then she sits down, and repaints herself in brilliant reds and yellows, ready for her journey through
a long underground passage back to her camp in the east. So that is why, to this day, every morning when
the Sun-Woman wakes and lights her early morning fire, all the magpies greet her with their beautiful song.
Understanding and Accepting the Human Condition
Life's Big Questions
Birth
Big questions about human existence and understanding the human condition were a concern for
Aboriginal people. Addressing them was necessary, if they were to draw meaning from their existence.
Many Dreaming stories are concerned with such issues and have played an important role in maintaining
stability within tribal communities by promoting acceptance of the status quo, i.e. the way things are. We
now look at some sacred stories about:
1.Arranged Marriages
2.Importance of Cooperation and Commitment
3.Not Committing Murder
4.Existence of Many Languages
5.Death.
Arranged Marriages
 In ancient times, marriage was not regarded as a love contract between two parties. It was the
single most important means of ensuring the survival of the tribe and of providing protection for it by
strengthening the bonds between families. For this reason, marriages between men and women were
regulated and arranged by the elders of a tribe.
Following is a story that describes how the sun was created. It is designed to maintain the status
quo by affirming the role of the elders in matching men and women for marriage.
How the Sun Came To Be
Early in the Dreaming before the sun had begun to shine, there was a young woman, who decided
to leave her group because the elders would not allow her to marry the lover of her choice.
She went a long way from the tribe and hid in a dry, rocky area. There was very little food and water
there and no safe place to sleep. The young woman was hungry, thirsty and tired, but she would not give
up and return to her people. Then she saw that a group of men from her tribe were coming to take her back
by force. She ran even further into the most barren part of the land.
Soon she was exhausted and bruised by branches and rock; she was near to death, but somehow
she managed to keep going. Eventually, her ancestor spirits became so concerned for the young woman
that they lifted her gently away into the sky world, where she slept peacefully for a long time.
When she awoke she found plenty of food and water and lit a camp fire. She was all alone, but not
afraid, and grateful that she was at last warm and safe. She was as determined as ever to live alone
forever, rather than return to her tribe, but as she looked down on them she saw that most of the men and
women were sad that she had gone, and her heart began to soften. After a few days she found she was
feeling very homesick, but now she belonged to the sky world and was unable to return home.
As she watched her people, she saw that they were cold. Being occupied with the chores of daily
life, they could not sit by their camp fires and keep warm as she now could.
The young woman decided to build up her camp fire and make it so big that it would warm all the
people down below as they went about their day. So all day long she built up her fire to give warmth to her
people and as night came she let her fire die down as they were then able to sit by their own camp fires.
When she saw how happy this made her people, she made up her mind to light her camp fire afresh
each day. Soon her people began to look each morning for her sky-world fire. They were very grateful for
the warmth it gave them, and they called it 'The Sun'.
Importance of Cooperation and Commitment
The next story acknowledges that the existence of violence in the world is due to quarrels among
ancestor beings. To turn this violence around, the story depicts the imagery of the creation of the sun by
cooperation and commitment from all spirit beings. Particularly apt in this context is the cooperative
creation of the sun because working together, symbolised by the beneficial warmth and light of the sun,
was essential if Aboriginal people were to survive in a harsh and difficult environment.
Commitment to continue cooperating was essential to the ongoing survival of the tribe. This is
symbolised by the willingness of the kookaburra to warn the sleeping spirits of the impending sunrise each
morning. If the kookaburra was unwilling to wake the sleeping spirits in preparation for the coming dawn,
the sun would rise no longer, and darkness would return to the world.
How the Sun Was Made
For a long time there was no sun, only a moon and stars. That was before there were men on the
earth, only birds and beasts, all of which were many sizes larger than they are now.
One day, Dinewan the emu and brolga the native companion, were on a large plain near the
Murrumbidgee. There they were, quarrelling and fighting. Brolga, in her rage, rushed to the nest of Dinewan
and seized from it one of the huge eggs, which she threw with all her force up to the sky. There it broke on
a heap of firewood which burst into flame as the yellow yolk spilled all over it and lit up the world below, to
the astonishment of every creature on it. They had been used to the semi-darkness and were dazzled by
such brightness.
A good spirit who lived in the sky saw how bright and beautiful the earth looked when lit was up by
this blaze. He thought it would be a good thing to make a fire every day, and from that time he has done so.
All night he and his attendant spirits collect wood and heap it up. When the heap is nearly big enough they
send out the morning star to warn those on earth that the fire will soon be lit.
The spirits, however, found this warning was not sufficient, for those who slept saw it not. Then the
spirits thought someone should make some noise at dawn to herald the coming of the sun and waken the
sleepers. But for a long time they could not decide to whom should be given this office.
At last, one evening they heard the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, the laughing jackass, ringing
through the air. 'That is the noise we want', they said.
Then they told Goo-goor-gaga that, as the morning star faded and the day dawned, he was to laugh
his loudest every morning so that his laughter might awaken all sleepers before sunrise. If he would not
agree to do this, then no more would they light the sun-fire, but let the earth be ever in twilight again.
But Goo-goor-gaga saved the light for the world.
He agreed to laugh his loudest at every dawn of every day, and so he has done ever since, making
the air ring with his loud cackling, 'Goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga, goo goor gaga'.

When the spirits first light the fire, it does not throw out much heat; but by the middle of the day,
when the whole heap of firewood is in a blaze, the heat is fierce. After that it begins to die away gradually
until, at sunset, only red embers are left. They quickly die out, except a few the spirits cover up with clouds
and save to light the heap of wood they get ready for the next day.
Children are not allowed to imitate the laughter of Goo-goor-gaga, lest he should hear them and
cease his morning cry. If children do laugh as he does, an extra tooth grows above their eye-tooth, so that
they carry the mark of their mockery in punishment for it. Well, the good spirits know that if ever a time
comes when the Goo-goor-gagas cease laughing to herald the sun, then no more dawns will be seen in the
land, and darkness will reign once more.
Do Not Murder
Observance of rules is essential to the survival of any society, and this also applies to Aboriginal
tribal society. A basic rule is to respect other human beings and not kill them. Murderers are banned from
Aboriginal tribes for the rest of their lives to prevent them from killing again. The next story illustrates the
importance of observing the rule, 'do not commit murder'.
How the Moon Came To Be
Japara lived in the Dreaming and was an excellent hunter. He had a wife and a little son, whom he
loved dearly. One day, when Japara was out on the plains hunting, a man called Parukapoli visited
Japara's wife. He was a lazy man, who preferred telling stories to hunting. That day he told many stories to
Japara's wife, and told them so cleverly that she forgot everything else as she listened and laughed. She
even forgot her baby son, who crawled out to a nearby stream and toppled into the water. Japara's wife
heard the splash and ran to the water, pulling the boy out, but it was too late, the child had drowned.
For many hours she sat by the stream, holding the little dead body in her arms and sobbing as she
waited for Japara to return home. When Japara at last arrived and heard the story he was at first very sad,
but then he became extremely angry with his wife, blaming her for the loss of his precious boy. He took up
his hunting weapons and in a blaze of anger, killed his wife. Then he had a fierce fight with Parukapoli.
They fought for a long time but at last Parukapoli was also killed.
Japara was left with many painful wounds from his fight and a great sadness for the death of his
child. The rest of the tribe saw that Japara was badly wounded and distressed, but they were very angry
with him. They gathered around shouting, 'You should not have killed your wife. She loved your boy very
much and did not mean for such a terrible accident to happen'.
Despite his great distress, Japara slowly began to listen to his people and realised that what they said was
true. He became very sorry for what he had done. He hurried to where he had left his poor dead wife and
son, but their bodies had disappeared. Immediately he understood that kind spirits had taken them away to
finish their lives in some better place. He called to the spirits to forgive him for being so cruel and told them
that he really loved his wife and wanted nothing more than to be with her and their little boy again.
The spirits heard his pleas and they knew he was telling the truth. They assured him that his wife
and boy were safe with them in the sky world. They would allow Japara to leave the earth world too, but as
punishment for his cruel deeds he must search the lonely sky world until he found his family.
The story tellers say that the moon is the reflection of Japara's camp fire. The lines that are visible
on the moon are the reminder of his scars. Some say the moon changes because Japara is forever
changing camp as he moves across the dark sky world, still searching for his family. Others believe that he
has now found his wife and son and that they are exploring the mysterious sky world together.
Existence of Many Languages
People from New Zealand speak English with an accent quite distinct from the English spoken by
Australians, even though both countries share a similar heritage. The reason is that, over the last two
hundred years or so, the two populations have been geographically isolated.
Australia's Aboriginal tribes were in a similar position, except that the isolation they experienced was
over a significantly greater area and time span, so far and long in fact, that the various Aboriginal groups,
even in ancient times, communicated in different languages. Of course, these factors would not have been
understood by the tribes of ancient times. As a result, they explained the different languages they observed
within a worldview that was familiar to them - violence.
It makes sense that they should choose violence as a reason! Why? Because violence is symbolic
of speaking in different languages, and arises (among other things) from misunderstanding - from not being
able or willing to understand or accept the other person's point of view! This is the essence of the next
sacred story.
Lyrebird the Mimic
 In the Dreaming, all the birds and animals spoke the same language. This meant that all the birds
and animals could talk to each other and understand each other and there were no fights. There was plenty
of food to eat and at this time no animal ever hunted another. They had nothing to fear. Even the tiny whip
snake and the kookaburra were friends. One day, all the animals and the birds decided that they would
hold a huge corroboree, with lots of singing and dancing. The corroboree was to last for several days, so a
great quantity of food was collected, and all the animals and birds in the whole land were to attend. The
brolga, being the best dancing bird in the land, was to be in charge of the dancing and the dingo and
kookaburra were going to sing. Everyone was looking forward to it.
On the day it was to start, all the animals began to gather at the waterhole near the camp of the
lyrebird. The native cat, slinking in from the bush, was the first to arrive, and then the crows, the eagles, the
galahs and the magpie geese flew in. The old wombat waddled in, the kangaroo and the wallaby hopped in
together, and the frog arrived with the platypus. It was the largest gathering anyone could remember. They
set up their camps and readied themselves for the corroboree. It was a splendid affair. Never before had
they enjoyed themselves so much. The kookaburra told some jokes, and laughed much louder than anyone
else!
The frog, who was the greatest mimic in the whole land, then copied the kookaburra's voice, and
told some more stories. All the animals, even the kookaburra, roared laughing. They all agreed that the frog
was certainly a very clever mimic. Then the brolga danced, and all the animals and birds joined in, even the
old wombat. The frog thought that the wombat looked so funny, dancing beside the graceful brolga! Then
the frog had an idea. He would really have some fun! He copied the brolga's voice, and called out to the
wombat.
You look so stupid! Fancy a fat little roly-poly like you, trying to dance!
The wombat stopped and looked at the brolga. No one had ever been rude to him before! Not even
the nasty crows. The frog, seeing how well his trick had worked, took on the voice of the brolga, and called
out to the emu.
Hey, emu, why are you trying to dance. Emus can't dance, they can't even fly!
The emu was furious. No one had ever teased her about her small wings before. The emu ran
towards the brolga. The frog, thinking that this was great fun, began calling out all sorts of rude remarks. He
imitated the kangaroo and the kookaburra, and he insulted the platypus, who thought it was the eagle being
nasty. Soon all the animals at the corroboree were hurling insults at each other. In the middle, sat the frog!
He was having great fun. There were animals and birds quarrelling and fighting all around him. Then the
frog, using the voice of the wombat, yelled:
To battle! Let's fight! come on, to battle!
A huge fight broke out, and as the animals fought, the frog hopped quietly up on to a high rock, to
view the whole fight. Only the lyrebird took no part in the fight. Fanning his beautiful tail feathers, he went
from quarrel to quarrel, pleading with the animals to stop; but stop they wouldn't! The kookaburra was
fighting with the whip snake. The crows were chasing a lizard. The lyrebird pleaded
... please, please stop! We are all friends. It is senseless to fight. Please stop!
But no one took any notice of the lyrebird. In fact the fighting grew even worse! The noise was
deafening. Shouts and groans filled the air. The frog was jumping around on his rock, yelling more insults,
urging on the fighting. Now, the noise of all this woke the spirits. Seeing what had happened, they became
so annoyed that they put an end to the battle. The animals were very embarrassed. They had never fought
before. To punish them, the spirits took away the creatures' common language and gave each animal and
bird a language of its own. The wicked frog that had the most beautiful voice was given an ugly croak as
punishment for having started the fight. The lyrebird was to be the only animal that would be able to talk to
all other animals. Even to this day, the lyrebird is the only animal that is able to imitate all other animals. To
this day Aboriginal people have a special respect for lyrebirds because of their role as peacemakers.
Today, frogs still talk in an ugly croak. Still today, no animal or bird can talk to a different animal or bird.
They can only talk with their own kind.
Death
The final sacred story presented here deals with the question of death - the reality of which has
been faced by all human beings since they came into being. Aboriginal people, like their ancient
counterparts, naturally contemplated the question of why people died and what happened to them after
they died.
It is no surprise that breaking the law, i.e. being violent, is presented as the reason for people dying.
For Aboriginal tribal people, the violence of a human ancestor is the cause of death. What is interesting
about this next story is that the violence committed was against a totem animal. Such an animal is not
allowed to be killed because its protection ensures the survival of everyone. Through selfish violence, the
spirit man killed the very source of his survival and therefore he had to die and consequently, all people will
die one day.
 Aboriginal people believed that when a person died, the spirit continued to live. It needed to be
released so that it could return to its own country and ancestral spirits, or to totemic sites where it could be
born again in a different person.

Baiame and Creation

And again like the Lord God, Baiame walked on the earth he had made, among the plants and
animals, and created man and woman to rule over them. He fashioned them from the dust of the ridges,
and said, 'These are the plants you shall eat - these and these, but not the animals I have created'.
Having set them in a good place, the All-Father departed.
To the first man and woman, children were born and to them in turn children who enjoyed the work
of the hands of Baiame. His world had begun to be populated and men and women praised Baiame for
providing for all their needs. Sun and rain brought life to the plants that provided their sustenance.
All was well in the world they had received from the bountiful provider, until a year when the rain
ceased to fall. There was little water. The flowers failed to fruit, leaves fell from the dry, withered stems, and
there was hunger in the land - a new and terrifying experience for men, women, and little children who had
never lacked for food and drink.
In desperation, a man killed some of the forbidden animals and shared the kangaroo-rats he had
caught with his wife. They offered some of the flesh to one of their friends but, remembering Baiame's
prohibition, he refused it. The man was ill with hunger. They did their best to persuade him to eat, but he
remained steadfast in his refusal. At length, wearying of their importunity, he staggered to his feet, turned
his back on the tempting food and walked away.
Shrugging their shoulders, the husband and wife went on with their meal. Once they were satisfied,
they thought again of their friend and wondered whether they could persuade him to eat. Taking the
remains of the meal with them, they followed his trail. It led across a broad plain and disappeared at the
edge of a river. They wondered how he had crossed it and, more importantly, how they themselves could
cross. In spite of the fact that it had dwindled in size, owing to the prolonged drought, it was running too
swiftly for them to wade or swim.
They could see him some little distance away on the farther side lying at the foot of a tall gum tree.
They were on the point of turning back when they saw a coal-black figure, half man half beast, dropping
from the branches of the tree and stooping over the man who was lying there. They shouted a warning, but
were too far away for him to hear, even if he were awake. The black monster picked up the inert body,
carried it up into the branches and disappeared. They could only think that the tree trunk was hollow and
that the monster had retreated to its home with his lifeless burden.
One event succeeded another with bewildering rapidity. A puff of smoke billowed from the tree. The
two frightened observers heard a rending sound as the tree lifted itself from the ground, its roots snapping
one by one, and soared across the river, rising as it took a course to the south. As it passed by they had a
momentary glimpse of two large, glaring eyes within its shadow and two white cockatoos with frantically
flapping wings, trying to catch up with the flying tree, straining to reach the shelter of its branches.
Within minutes, the tree, the cockatoos, and the glaring eyes had dwindled to a speck, far to the
south, far above their heads. For the first time since creation, death had come to one of the men whom
Baiame had created, for the monster within the tree trunk was Yowee, the Spirit of Death.
In the desolation of a drought-stricken world, all living things mourned because a man who was
alive was now as dead as the kangaroo-rats that had been killed for food.
Baiame's intention for the men and animals he loved had been thwarted. 'The swamp oak trees
sighed incessantly, the gum trees shed tears of blood, which crystalised as red gum,' wrote Roland
Robinson, in relating this legend of the Kamilroi tribe in his book Wandjina. 'To this day,' he continued, 'to
the tribes of that part is the Southern Cross known as "Yaraandoo" - the place of the White Gum tree - and
the Pointers as "Mouyi", the white cockatoos.'
It was a sad conclusion to the hopes of a world in the making, but the bright cross of the Southern
Cross is a sign to men that there is a place for them in the limitless regions of space, the home of the All-
Father himself, and that beyond death lies a new creation.
Part Three: Sacred Sites - Reminder of the Dreaming
Focus:
Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe their sacred sites were created
and shaped into their particular forms during the Dreaming and demonstrate imprints and physical
proof of the actions of ancestral beings.
Sacred sites are places for ritual and ceremony.
Aboriginal people believe that the power of ancestral spirits is present at these sites, making them
forever sacred.
Important Words
Bora Ring circle or oval marked in the ground and associated with Aboriginal rituals and
gatherings
Middens sites of previous occupation by Aboriginal people marked by food remains
Songlines tracks made by localised ancestral beings during the Dreaming
Sacred Sites
Most Australians are familiar with such important landmarks as the Three Sisters, Uluru
(Ayers Rock), and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), as well as Kata Tjuta and Kakadu National Parks.
Along with many other regional sites, these are sacred to Aboriginal people because their unique
features are believed to be:
created and shaped into their particular forms during the Dreaming
imprints and physical proof of the actions of ancestral beings.
Sacred sites have become places for ceremonies and rituals. Aboriginal people believe that
the power of ancestral spirits is present at these sites, making them forever sacred.
The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters, Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, are large rock formations found at
Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. According to mythology, the three sisters
were ancestral beings who fell in love with three brothers from a neighbouring tribe.
A major tribal war ensued when the three brothers were prohibited from marrying them,
endangering the lives of the three sisters. To protect them, the witchdoctor turned Meehni,
Wamlah and Gunnedoo into three rocks. He had every intention to reverse the spell once the
sisters were safe, but died in a fierce battle leaving behind the three rock formations we call the
Three Sisters.
Uluru
There are a number of different accounts as to how Uluru came into existence.
1.According to one story, Uluru originated from two boys who were fighting each other. They
climbed to the top of the table-top mountain, Mount Connor, where their bodies became preserved
as large boulders.
2.A second account relates that Uluru was scarred during the wars of the serpent spirits, causing
many cracks and crevasses to appear.
3.A third story tells how Uluru rose from the earth in response to bloodshed in a fierce battle
between two tribes.
Kata Tjuta
Kata Tjuta is a group of more than thirty giant dome-shaped rocks on the desert plain in
Uluru National Park. The largest of these is believed to be the home of Wanambi, a serpent
ancestor with long teeth, a mane, and a long beard. During the wet season he is curled up in a
waterhole on the summit and in the dry season he resides in the gorge below. His breath is the
wind constantly blowing through all parts of the gorge.
On the eastern side are rocks believed to be the camps of ancestors called the bird-men
with curved beaks and the mice-women. The pillar represents Malu, the kangaroo-man, who is
dying in the arms of his sister, a lizard woman by the name of Mulumara. Rocks on the south-
western side are believed to be the camps of the poisonous snake-men, Liru.
Nambung and Kakadu National Parks
The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park are a series of limestone pillars arising out of the
sand. Some believe that the area is avoided by Aboriginal people because they think the pillars
are fossilised ghosts, however, Aboriginal artefacts have been discovered dating back more than 6
000 years.
Kakadu was formed by ancestral spirits during the Dreaming along with the plants, animals
and tribes that inhabited the area. All are said to have left tracks known as Dreaming tracks.
Dreaming Tracks
Dreaming tracks mark the path followed by localised ancestral beings during the Dreaming.
Also known as songlines, these tracks are recorded in story, painting, song, and dance.
Aboriginal people could usually navigate extensive distances, often through Australia's vast
interior, by repeating the words of songlines that described the locations of water holes,
geographical features and various landmarks. The songs were extraordinary as they guided
navigators through tribal regions in which different languages were spoken. They did not rely on
the words of songlines, but on their rhythm and melodic contours.
Consequently, Dreaming tracks formed an important network of 'highways', connecting all
the Aboriginal tribes throughout Australia. Because of their spiritual significance, they also played
a central role in ceremony and ritual.
In Eurobodalla National Park on the South Coast of New South Wales, the Bingi-Congo
coastal walk follows part of the Dreaming track used by the Brinja-Yuin people some 200 years
ago. The track brings walkers near shell middens, stone quarries, flaky stone areas, camp sites
and fresh water sources. Actual sites are not accessible to the general public as they are sacred.
Bora Grounds
In addition to the well-known landmarks carved out by the ancestral beings along the
Dreaming tracks, individual tribes also created their own sacred sites in the form of bora grounds.
A bora ground consists of up to three bora rings or 'circles' with one being larger than the others,
and all linked by a path running from east to west. Images and decorations with sacred meanings
were etched into the soil, and carvings were also made on nearby trees to mark the presence of a
bora ground.
The larger bora ring was usually associated with the more public ceremonies which women
were allowed to attend as spectators. The second, smaller ring was the place where male initiation
rituals were conducted and was only accessible to initiated men and initiates. It is not clear if the
third ring was for women, or whether it was used for Aboriginal gatherings. Bora grounds remain
significant because they played a role in the expression of spiritual beliefs and celebration of
Aboriginal ceremonial life.
Traces of bora rings are still in evidence in parts of northern New South Wales and
Southern Queensland. For example, a bora ring has been located in the township of Lennox Head
in New South Wales. It is a raised ring of sand of twenty to thirty centimetres in height and oval in
shape with its largest internal diameter being 28.5 metres.
A smaller, but more spectacular bora ring has been discovered in Nudgee, Queensland.
Oval in shape with diameters of twenty-one and seventeen metres, it consists of a mound
approximately 0.5 metres high. It is unique because there is evidence in literature about its
ceremonial use by neighbouring Aboriginal groups. Men would assemble there for ritual
ceremonies, tribal dances and general gatherings.
Burial Sites
Due to Aboriginal people's beliefs about death and life after death, their burial grounds are
very sacred. To indicate this, they are usually marked with carved trees, stone markers, or by logs
or stones laid on top of the sites.
When a person died the spirit continued to live. It needed to be released so it could return
to its own country and ancestral spirits, or to totemic sites where it could be born again in a
different person.
The Walbiri people of the central desert believed that a person's spirit originated in the
Dreaming and must eventually return there. Secret caves contained hidden Dreaming stones
believed to be storehouses of disembodied spirits that could enter a woman again and be reborn.
After death the spirit returned to the cave until the same process was repeated. The placement of
bones in a cave marked the final stage in mortuary ceremonies which could continue intermittently
for a number of years. White clay was sometimes used to paint spirit figures on cave walls.
Among the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands, funeral ceremonies were very
elaborate and extended. Hardwood burial poles, called Pukumani poles, were carved and painted
in complex designs, using earth colours.They were erected in the person's tribal country where the
body was buried.
When the ceremony was over, grave posts were left to the elements.
Part Four: Symbols and Art - Expressions of the Dreaming
Focus:
Symbols and artworks played a central role in communication, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people employed a system of symbols that was at once simple and sophisticated.
Traditional art usually depicted the Aboriginal bond with the land and the activities of ancestral
beings, as well as religious beliefs and sacred stories from the Dreaming.
Australia's indigenous people were creative in terms of finding and using appropriate media and
readily available pigments.
Important Words
Engraving writing or designs carved into solid material
Pigment colour
Communication
No Written Language
Like many of their primordial counterparts, Aboriginal tribes did not have a written language.
Instead, symbols and artworks played a central role, together with story-telling and dance in
communicating:
1.when and where to find food
2.the location of waterholes
3.borders between their land and that of neighbouring tribes
4.the locations of their sacred sites and areas to avoid where there may be evil spirits
5.Dreaming stories and beliefs to future generations.
Symbol System
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people employed a system of symbols that was at
once simple and sophisticated.
1.The system was simple as symbols were generated using a number of basic principles.
a.Concentric circles generally represented camp sites, water holes or places of tribal significance.
b.Curved lines usually represented some form of water.
c.Straight lines often denoted rain, or, when linked to other symbols, indicated travelling, e.g.
concentric circles connected by straight lines often showed the path travelled by ancestor beings.
d.U-shaped figures represented human beings.
e.Human and animal tracks were usually shown as they appeared on the ground.
f.Some plants and animals, e.g. witchetty grubs, lizards, snakes and bush raisins were
represented as one would see them from above.
g.Other symbols were generated by combining basic shapes, e.g. a woman was usually
represented by a straight vertical line followed by a u-shape.
2.The system was sophisticated as symbols were used in elaborate combinations to tell complex
stories with several layers of meaning, e.g.
... a Water Dreaming painting might show a U shaped symbol for a man sitting next to a circle or
concentric circles representing a waterhole, and spiral lines showing running water. The painter is
telling the story of the power of the water man to invoke rain.
Variations occur in the symbols used by various Aboriginal tribes. Following are the most
frequently used symbols and their meanings.
Aboriginal Symbols
Layers of Meaning
By adding more symbols, a story will grow in meaning and depth. Furthermore, it will
possess several layers of meaning to different people, e.g:
1.a member of the general public may recognise a kangaroo and details about its activities
2.an initiated person may know that the story is about an ancestral being who has taken the form
of a kangaroo
3.a tribal elder may recognise significant details that are 'hidden' from others.
Traditional Art
Archaeological Evidence
Archaeological evidence indicates that art was an integral part of Aboriginal life, with sites
probably as old as Aboriginal civilisation itself. For example, in Kakadu National Park there are
around 5 000 sites containing Aboriginal art and a further 10 000 sites are thought to be awaiting
discovery. Rock art has been discovered in the Kimberley region and determined by carbon dating
to be at least 17 000 years old. More significant has been the discovery of pigments used in
Aboriginal rock paintings 2.6 metres below this find, dating back some 52 000 years.
Aboriginal art traditionally took the form of:
engravings and paintings
imprints and stencils, and
sculptures.
A variety of media was used including:
rock
bark
wood
sand, and
human beings.
Participation in the Dreaming
Art played a significant role in traditional Aboriginal life and was considered a supernatural
power given them by ancestral beings. Aboriginal people had no concept of any one particular
person being an artist and another not. Everyone was an artist according to the knowledge each
had been given by the elders.
Because it is considered a participation in the Dreaming, most art is religious in nature,
although some paintings depict everyday activities, such as hunting. Traditional art usually depicts
the activities of ancestral beings, as well as religious beliefs and sacred stories from the Dreaming.
Its purpose is to perpetuate the relationship Aboriginal people share with their ancestors by paying
respect to them and connecting with them.
Much Aboriginal art relates to the land and its inhabitants, which are inextricably connected
to the Dreaming. It focuses on the conceptual relationships of ancestral beings to the landscape,
as well as Aboriginal people's bond to the land through ancestral spirits.
Evidence suggests that art was used in various rituals and to illustrate important
ceremonies, such as initiation rites and funerals. The ritual use of art still takes place among some
Aboriginal groups living in Arnhem Land where sacred images are regularly retouched for specific
ritual purposes. Masks worn by Aboriginal people during certain rituals are rich in symbolism, often
connecting people to the Dreaming.
Images of the Dreaming
In the northern parts of Australia, rock art abounds with spirit figure paintings from the
Dreaming. It is believed that these were painted by the ancestral beings themselves and handed
down to the Aboriginal people along with the task of maintaining and repairing them.
According to tradition, the Mimi spirits drew their own portraits in the form of stick-like
human figures engaged in various human activities, such as fighting, dancing, running and
hunting. Traditional Aboriginal people believed that these Dreaming ancestors taught them how to
create, dance, compose songs, and hunt.
In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, rock art has been found of the Wandjina
ancestral beings, thought by some groups to be supreme creator beings associated with rain.
Shown in human form, they have large bodies and great dark eyes, as well as haloes of clouds
and lightning. They have no mouth because it is believed that if they opened their mouths the land
would be covered by great floods.
Near Stawell in Victoria is a rock painting of Bunjil, a supreme creator being. He is depicted
in human form with a large body, big eyes and a nose and mouth.
Aboriginal Bond to the Land
Ancestral Beings
Much Aboriginal art is concerned with the bond people have with the land though their
ancestral spirits. Images include mythical beings, humans, animals, birds, fish and reptiles, as well
as a variety of tracks, boomerangs and axes, to name a few.
Some images are highly abstract, containing coded information known only to those
initiated into this knowledge. Many images are instructive, presenting a conceptual map of the
country, and the location of food and dangerous spirit beings to be avoided.
Carnarvon Gorge in Far North Queensland contains numerous images depicting the bond
Aboriginal people had, and still have, with the land. Ken's Cave is of particular interest to
archaeologists because of the many images there. Extensive archaeological work has been
conducted at this site and produced the two reconstructions that follow.
Ken's Cave - Panel 1
 Locate the two V-shaped boomerangs in the top right hand corner of this first panel. Used
in tribal warfare, their shape enabled them to travel close to the ground to break an opponent's leg.
Kangaroos were also brought down in this way.
Cast your eyes down the lower centre of the panel and find two parallel sticks, representing
digging or clapping sticks. Notice also a human footprint to the right of these two sticks. In the
upper centre are two large leaf-shaped boomerangs used for hunting. These were not designed to
return to their owners as their flat shape prevented them from returning.
The most fascinating part of the panel is found to the left of the two boomerangs. Notice a
human footprint, a spear, three emus and a waterhole. Perhaps they tell a story about hunting for
emus drinking at a waterhole, or maybe there is a deeper meaning. Whatever the story, images
can be combined together to tell complex stories with layers of meaning.
Ken's Cave - Panel 2
The second panel is interesting in that it contains several human vulvas - engravings that
occur with great regularity in this region. A large circle and a small one represent the vagina and
the urethra respectively. Sometimes the two circles have merged into one due to erosion.
While the significance of these engravings is not known, they clearly establish the
significance fertility played in Aboriginal spirituality. Perhaps they were used in fertility rituals.
Many Images - One Story
The many images found in a region usually form an interconnected network, which
collectively reveals the Dreaming story being communicated. Each site contains a small part of
that particular story. Both the images and the location of sites relative to other sites, have a
significant bearing on the interpretation of the Dreaming story and how the people interacted with
the land.
Diversity in Traditional Aboriginal Art
Aboriginal Creativity
Traditional Aboriginal people did not have access to canvas and paint as we do today. They
had to rely on alternative media and pigmentation to express their stories and religious beliefs.
They were certainly creative in terms of finding and using appropriate media and the readily
available pigments.
Rock Engravings
Engravings were made by carving an outline into soft rock, such as sandstone, located on
exposed cliff faces and ridgelines in creek beds and rock shelters. Usually a hard stone was used
to form a series of tiny holes or pits which were joined to form the figure.
A wide variety of designs is evident, including humans, animals, fish, birds, reptiles, bird
and animal tracks and mythical beings. The previous image is a rock engraving of an echidna from
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park near Sydney.
Rock Paintings
Rock paintings were generally made in sheltered areas where they could be protected from
the forces of the weather. They depict mythical beings, people, birds, fish, reptiles, animals and
their tracks, as well as highly abstract designs with coded information.
Bark Paintings
Bark paintings were made by the application of paint to the interior of a strip of bark. They
were based on sacred designs connected to the tribe and contained aspects of the Dreaming.
Restrictions were placed on what could be painted, e.g. the uninitiated were only allowed to
paint 'outside' stories, i.e. those that could be told to children. By contrast, an initiated male could
paint an 'inside' story that contained secret information known only to those who had been initiated
into that knowledge.
Australia's indigenous people used a variety of colours, i.e. red, yellow, brown, white and
black, sourced from different minerals and clays. Paintbrushes were made by chewing twigs until
they frayed, or by sticking hair or feathers to sticks with sap.
Wooden Sculptures
Wooden sculptures were widely used to mark initiation and burial sites. Sculpted wooden
grave poles were constructed to encourage the spirit of the dead person to return to its ancestral
home. Ancient carvings on trees were also used to mark burial and initiation sites.
 Some wooden sculptures depicting ancestral beings were used in ritual dancing to connect
the people to the Dreaming. It was also common to use tribal sculpted totemic animals in ritual
ceremonies.
Stencilling
Stencilling involved the formation of an image by spraying the colour, usually with one's
mouth, around the object being stencilled. The colouring reacted with the rock surface revealing
the object stencilled. Hands and feet were the most popular stencils, but evidence exists of
stencilled reptiles, small animals, boomerangs and axes
Part Five: Connection of the Dreaming, the Land and Identity
Focus:
To understand the connection of the Dreaming, the land and identity of Aboriginal people, it is
necessary to examine how creation came into being and how it is sustained from an
anthropological point of view.
The land and all creation is an embodiment of the living presence of ancestral beings.
Birthplace, ancestor beings, totems, biological heritage and kinship connect Aboriginal people to
the Dreaming and give rise to personal and social identity.
Traditional Aboriginal people's connection to the land through the Dreaming has a profound
influence on their understanding of themselves and the land.
Important Words
Anthropological position based on the study of humankind and human societies, customs, and
beliefs
Anthropology study of humankind and human societies; body of knowledge about humankind
and human societies
Country Dreaming of a particular Aboriginal group comprising a microcosm of landscape and
organisms created by the ancestral spirits of its particular area
Kinship an individual's biological heritage, totems and connections to the land that give rise to
his or her social identity; fundamental organising system in Aboriginal society
Macrocosmic describes a large-scale world or system
Mythological describes what belongs to myths and mythology
Mythology collection of myths; study of myths; accumulated knowledge about myths
Anthropological Perspective
According to Australian Aboriginal mythology, the land and its physical features were
created by the activities of ancestral beings as they journeyed across it in the Dreaming. Human
beings, in fact all life forms we see today, came into being in a similar manner.
In order to understand the inextricable connection of the Dreaming, the land and the identity
of Aboriginal people, it is necessary to examine how creation came into being and how it is
sustained. This needs to be done from an anthropological perspective, in contrast to the
mythological approach taken so far.
From a mythological point of view, ancestral beings are presented as creating the physical
structures of the landscape, not out of empty space, but from a formless mass. When these
creation myths are examined from an anthropological perspective, two mechanisms emerge by
which this transformation of the earth was accomplished.
1.Metamorphosis: Ancestral beings are changed into some form of material object, e.g. the Sun
Mother rises in the sky to become the physical sun.
2.Imprinting: Ancestral beings leave behind some physical impression of their form and
impregnate that physical object with their own life-giving force, e.g. landscape formed by the
activities of the Rainbow Serpent.
Sacred Embodiment
Land and Living Creatures
In both cases, once creation had come to an end, ancestral beings dwelt within the
landscape they had created. Therefore, the land is an embodiment of a living presence of
ancestral beings.
The same applies to all other parts of creation - plants, animals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects,
and so on. It is precisely for this reason that every part of the landscape and every living creature,
no matter how big or small or seemingly insignificant, is regarded as sacred.
Human Beings
Human beings, who descended from ancestral beings, become hosts to ancestral spirits
present in the flora and fauna they encounter. Therefore, human beings are not merely physically
born, they are spiritually born, i.e. their very identity is shaped by ancestral spirits present before,
during and after conception. In a sense, human beings are one with these ancestral spirits,
present in and through the landscape and all it contains; they are the embodiment of them.
Dreaming and Dreamings
While Dreaming mythology presents one creation time, groups of ancestral beings were
also responsible for individual Dreamings according to the country through which they travelled.
Therefore, each Aboriginal group has its own Dreaming, a microcosm of landscape and organisms
created by the ancestral spirits of that particular area, known as 'country'.
Collectively, these individual microcosmic Dreamings become unified in a single
macrocosmic Dreaming. Every Aboriginal person finds identity both in the Dreaming linked to his
or her clan and in the macroscopic dreaming that unites all Aboriginal people.
Individual Identity
Every Aboriginal person's ancestry can be traced back to the ancestral beings to which they
are connected through the Dreaming. This connection gives rise to an Aboriginal person's unique
identity, in three ways:
1.birthplace
2.ancestral beings
3.totems.
Birthplace
To the Aboriginal people, a person's place of birth is much more than simply biological. It
determines who they are in their country, both in relation to the land and all living creatures that
are part of the land.
Through their ancestral beings, Aboriginal people are made part of their own country, which
becomes a part of who they are, a part that can never be altered or given away. Through the land,
a person is related to all others across the country who have their own land and who share in its
responsibilities and rights. As a custodian of the land, each person is obligated to carry out
increase rituals that:
maintain relationships with ancestral beings
sustain the animal and plant life in the area, and
ensure rain and sun when needed.
Source Material
For the Aboriginal people, land is a dynamic notion, something creative. Land is not bound
by geographical limitations placed on it by a surveyor who marks out an area and says, 'This is
your plot'. Land is the generation point of existence, the spirit from which Aboriginal existence
comes.',
Land is a living place made up of sky, clouds, rivers, trees, wind, sand, and the spirit has
created all these things, the spirit that planted my own spirit there, my own country.
It is something - yet it is not a thing - it is a living entity. It belongs to me, I belong to the
land. I rest in it, I come from there.
Land is a notion that is most difficult to categorise in English, but it is something that is very
clear to me and to those people who belong to my group. Land provides for my physical needs
and provides for my spiritual needs. It is a regeneration of stories.
New stories are sung from contemplation of the land, stories are handed down from spirit
men of the past who have deposited the riches at various places - the sacred places.
The sacred places are not just simply geographically beautiful. They are holy places, even
more holy than shrines but not commercialised. They are sacred. The greatest respect is shown to
them and they are used for the regeneration of history - the regeneration of Aboriginal people, the
continuation of their life. Because that is where they begin and that is where they return.
Ancestral Beings
The spirit of the ancestral being that formed the land binds the individual to the spirit's home
country and bestows its power within the person. With this power comes the commission to look
after the land and keep it healthy through prescribed songs, dances, ceremonies, rituals and
stories. In turn, the land cares for the people by providing food and shelter.
Through ancestral beings, all humans, in fact all creatures, share in a
... common mode of coming into being.
- Linn Miller, Being and Belonging,
'PhD Thesis', University of Tasmania, 2006, p.20
Human beings become part of a living and dynamic organism, the land, and each person
mirrors some aspect of that living organism as determined in the Dreaming.
Totems
A person's particular spirit ancestor, imaged as an animal, plant or natural object, becomes
his or her totem. Totems serve as links between the human world and the Eternal Dreaming. A
person usually has one major and several lesser totems. These can be acquired from:
one's father or mother
the community into which one is born
the location of one's conception or birth
one's initiation.
Conception totems, usually originate in the location where the mother was impregnated with
a 'spirit child'. Aboriginal people believe that 'spirit children' are released in certain sacred places
by ancestral spirits. For example, if a pregnant woman becomes aware of her pregnancy when
she is at or near a site of a goanna, her unborn child becomes affiliated with the goanna totem. In
some areas of Australia, it is the father who receives the 'spirit child' from the ancestral beings
rather than the mother. For example, if the father's deceased father brings the 'spirit child' to him
then the spirit of the deceased person is reincarnated as the grandchild.
Cult totems, usually acquired from one's mother or father, are generally connected with
sacred sites or particular ancestral beings. Possessors of cult totems have the obligation to
perform certain rituals that make present and release the spirit's power for the good of the earth. In
doing so, the individual embodies that totem.
Social Identity
Kinship
An individual's biological heritage, totems and connections to the land give rise to his or her
social identity. Collectively, these three ingredients of an individual's identity within a social context
are known as kinship.
The kinship system connects each person securely within the clan and, in this sense no
individual is on his or her own. Kinship acts as a regulatory framework, providing identity to the
individual and establishing stable relationships and social cohesion.
Biological Heritage
At the simplest level, an Aboriginal person's biological heritage includes his or her
immediate biological and extended family, and is determined by the mother's biological heritage.
At a tribal level, it determines a person's network of social relationships and defines how people
relate to one another.
These relationships predetermine various responsibilities and obligations to the clan and to
the family. They ensure that the individual meets his or her obligations in Aboriginal law.
Totems
Socially, totems define the relationship between people and the living organisms that are
part of country. They also govern whom a person is to marry. Totems are inherited through the
mother or the father.
Connection to the Land
Finally, social identity is embedded in connections to certain places, boundaries of which
were fixed and validated by the Dreaming stories. Every individual belongs to certain territories
within the family inherited through the father. Individuals have a spiritual connection to country,
along with particular obligations. These connections mean that all members of a group connected
to country are united because they are descendants of the same Dreaming.
All of these modes of identity are locative. That is to say, they locate individuals within
groups and locate groups in relation to each other. Where one belongs in the social landscape
determines how one's life is lived, the form and nature of one's social actions and relationships.
However, these identity classifications are also locative in the sense that they provide individuals
and groups with referents in relation to country-obligations and responsibilities commensurate with
connections to place.
They draw lines of connectedness between people and their country and between people and
each other.
Belonging
Traditional Aboriginal people's connection to the land through the Dreaming has a profound
influence on their understanding of themselves and the land.
Unlike non-indigenous people, who believe that the land belongs to them, Aboriginal people
believe they belong to the land. With this belonging to the land, comes the responsibility of caring
for its well-being and that of its inhabitants.
Aboriginal people's responsibility to the land and its inhabitants is at once moral and
spiritual. It is a moral responsibility, because to misuse the land and its creatures through selfish
exploitation is to damage the relationship that Aboriginal people share with creation, indeed with
themselves.
It is a spiritual responsibility, because such exploitation damages the very connection
Aboriginal people have to the Dreaming through ancestral beings who created them and sustain
them.
Obligations to the land and its inhabitants are assigned to the clan and the individual
belonging to that clan, according to the Dreaming mythology specific to that country.
The specific responsibilities of Aboriginal being, to land and nature, are pre-established by
connections determined by the location of their conception and birth. Individual responsibilities and
expectations are gradually and selectively revealed to children by their elders, the custodians of
Dreaming Law.
Part Six: Importance of the Dreaming in the Lives of Aboriginal People
Focus:
The Dreaming is at the heart of Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality and provides answers to
questions of existence.
Sacred sites, symbols and art provide Aboriginal people with connections to spiritual well-being.
The Dreaming provides Aboriginal people with a source of identity and belonging, as well as
explaining why things are the way they are - status quo.
Important Words
Clan sub-unit within a language group where members share a common territory and common
totems
Hierarchical social organising system based on status levels or rank
Mythologies various groups of Dreaming myths
Questions of Existence
Heart of Aboriginal Beliefs and Spirituality
At the heart of Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality is the Dreaming. It defines how traditional
Aboriginal groups understood themselves and the world in which they lived. The importance of the
Dreaming in the lives of the traditional Aboriginal peoples is manifested in numerous ways, most of
which are relevant today.
From the dawn of civilisation, Aboriginal people asked the same kinds of questions people
have asked for centuries and continue to ask today. They were questions of existence - how the
world came to be, why they existed, why there was evil, and what was the meaning and purpose
of life.
Dreaming mythologies provided the framework by which Aboriginal people of ancient times
understood their world. Creation myths explained how the world was created from a featureless
mass that had always existed. They explained how all living creatures on the land, in the sky and
in the sea were created, as well as human beings.
Creation's work was carried out by deities known as ancestral beings, who also possessed
human emotions. Traditional Aboriginal people had good hunting and plenty of food when
ancestor beings were happy with them. By contrast, natural disasters were thrust upon them in the
form of floods, storms and droughts when ancestral beings were angry.
Evil and Order Explained
 Dreaming mythologies helped ancient Aboriginal people to understand that evil existed
because ancestral beings fought with each other and broke the law. They also learnt how to deal
with evil by believing that ancestral spirits inflicted punishment and revenge on offenders.
Dreaming mythologies presented ancient Aboriginal people with laws that defined how to
interact with one another and the environment. These laws have played an important role in
ensuring the ongoing survival of Aboriginal people and may account for the fact that they are the
longest surviving civilisation in existence. Laws provided two important benefits essential to
survival.
1.Laws taught the Aboriginal people to live in harmony with one another.
2.Laws ensured the existence of an ongoing supply of food and water.
While some aspects of Dreaming mythology may not be as relevant today as in earlier
times, sacred stories communicate a message that is arguably one of the most important and
critical principles for the Aboriginal people, in fact for all Australians today. They present the world,
its physical features and all creatures it sustains, as a living organism - an organism that human
beings are part of and not 'apart from'.
Every living creature and every part of the sky, water and landscape is interconnected in a
delicate balanced relationship. Exploitation of one part of the world through selfish greed damages
the whole macrocosm of the world, even if that misuse is seemingly small and insignificant.
Today, humanity is but a few short steps away from global disaster inflicted through mass
scale exploitation of the earth's resources and destruction of its living creatures. Dreaming
mythologies present a message that is not only relevant today, but urgent: human beings are
caretakers of creation, and as caretakers they must take no more than what is needed for survival.
Connections to Spiritual Well-Being
Sacred Sites
The Dreaming plays an important role in keeping Aboriginal people connected to their
spirituality. This function has existed from the beginning of Aboriginal civilisation and continues
today.
Sacred sites are a constant reminder to Australia's indigenous people of their spiritual
heritage. Sacred sites connect the people with ancestral beings who sustain the world and all it
contains and keep alive the Dreaming mythologies and their meanings. Sacred sites are essential
to the spiritual well-being of Aboriginal people.
Symbols and Art
Aboriginal people have for thousands of years been spiritually connected to the Dreaming
through symbols and art. Not only has their art traced the journeys and activities of ancestral
beings, it has provided the information essential to the very survival of Aboriginal people, namely:
1.location of important waterholes
2.sources of food
3.location of sacred sites
4.knowledge of the boundaries of their country
5.sites to be avoided.
The many forms of art were a means of maintaining and remembering the Dreaming, and
more importantly, of unifying every person, every family and every clan with the Dreaming. Art at
particular sacred sites only contained part of the Dreaming, but the art from the many sites
expressed the Dreaming in full. As a result, individuals, families and clans saw themselves as an
interconnected network of people linked to one another by sharing in the common Dreaming.
Source of Identity and Belonging
Belonging
The Dreaming was and still is today, the source of individual and social identity and
connects a person to his or her country, family, and clan. It plays an important role in socialising
Aboriginal people by defining the relationships each person has to each of these, as well as to the
creatures sustained by the land. The Dreaming is essential in establishing cohesion within
Aboriginal society because it defines these relationships.
Social cohesion is also promoted through the sense of belonging which Aboriginal people
develop from their connection to the Dreaming. They understand themselves as a people who
belong to the land. Through the Dreaming, the land provides Aboriginal people with a sense of
who they are, where they have come from, and where they are going. Their lives are enriched by
the Dreaming and the land is the basis of their heritage and culture.
Maintaining the Status Quo
Marriage
Kinship relationships determine whom a person can marry. While this is arguably less
relevant today, it was essential to the survival of the Aboriginal groups of ancient times (in fact,
right up to the post-modern era which began around the late 1970s).
Marriage has been maintained as a stable institution over the centuries by kinship rules.
This is important because marriage was the single most important means of ensuring group
continuity through procreation. It maintained cohesion within the clan and between families and
provided physical protection for all members of the tribe. Dreaming mythology played an important
role in maintaining the status quo in relation to marriage by affirming and justifying the legitimacy
of the tradition of prearranged marriages.
Clan Structure
Due to their multi-layered meanings, Dreaming mythologies have contributed significantly to
the social structure of Aboriginal clans. Each person enjoyed a certain clearly defined status
according to their level of initiation. Dreaming mythologies maintained this hierarchy and defined
the roles and responsibilities associated with each status level.
Consequently, every member of the clan had a clearly defined role and all members, by
acting in accordance with their role, contributed to the ongoing viability and survival of the clan.
This hierarchical structure is important today, as members of the Aboriginal community continue to
look to their elders for guidance.
Part Seven: Kinship - Living the Dreaming
Focus:
Kinship is the single most important means of organising and regulating social and spiritual
relationships.
The classificatory system provides a simple and transparent framework for enforcing rules and
regulations.
The highest kinship level is that of the tribe or nation, followed by totemic groups, clans and
moieties.
Specific rules relating to marriage vary from tribe to tribe, but commonly revolve around
subdivisions within the tribe known as sections or skin-names.
Important Words
Clan important sub-units within a tribe where members share common territory and totems
Classificatory System all-encompassing and complex map of relationships between members of
biological and extended families
Lineal System family system or tree based on biological relationships
Moiety System divides Aboriginal people into two groups across a region according to their
connection with plants, animals, the physical landscape and ancestral beings
Secular non-religious
Skin Name indicates the sub-section to which a person belongs in the moiety system and is
given to him or her at birth according to parents' skin names
Totemic Group people who share the same object, plant or animal to which each is ancestrally
connected; totemic groups are the building blocks of clans
Western includes countries in Western Europe, USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Aboriginal Law
Family
At the time of the Dreaming, ancestral beings handed laws and rules to Aboriginal people
that regulated all aspects of life. The laws defined people's identity and place within Aboriginal
groups, and governed how each person was to relate to others, including the physical environment
and all it contained.
Aboriginal law is very different from Western law which is recorded on thousands of pages
in a multitude of books and enforced by a secular legal system. By contrast, Aboriginal law is not
recorded in books and is 'enforced' through a highly developed and complex religious and social
structure. At the most fundamental level, the structure operates through kinship.
Kinship
Concept of Family
Australian Aboriginal kinship is based on a highly expanded concept of family. It embraces
all the social relationships a person is born into and creates during life. Kinship is the single most
important means of organising and regulating social and spiritual relationships and acts as a
framework for establishing:
1.individual identity
2.stable relationships
3.social cohesion and harmony.
Lineal System
In Aboriginal society the immediate family is made up of a number of different groups.
Unlike the system with which non- indigenous people are familiar, which is lineal, the Aboriginal
system is classificatory. Let us examine each system separately for an idea of how the
classificatory system functions.
Consider first the lineal system which we recognise as a familiar family tree. According to
the lineal family tree:
1. Ego (centre bottom line) has one blood brother and one blood sister.
2. Ego has an aunt and an uncle on both his mother's side and father's side of the family. These
aunts and uncles are his parents' siblings.
3. The children of Ego's aunts and uncles are his cousins.
Classificatory System
While the classificatory family tree looks almost identical to the lineal family tree, a
completely different picture of relationships emerges.
1. Ego has one blood brother and one blood sister.
2. The brother of Ego's mother is an uncle to Ego, as one would expect.
3. But notice now that the sister of Ego's mother is not an aunt as one would expect from a lineal
family tree. Instead, she is also Ego's mother and is called his classificatory mother, because she
is not Ego's biological mother.
4. Similarly, the sister of Ego's father is an aunt, but the brother on Ego's father's side is not Ego's
uncle, but his classificatory father.
5. The children of Ego's classificatory father and mother are not cousins, as one would normally
expect; they are his sisters and brothers.
6. The children of Ego's aunt and uncle are his cousins.
7. Note also that the brother of Ego's grandmother is also Ego's grandfather, and his daughter is
Ego's classificatory mother, whose children are also brothers and sisters of Ego.
Kinship Rules
What They Are
The classificatory system, unlike the linear family tree, is all encompassing and becomes
increasingly complex as remote family members are added. However, it provides a simple and
transparent framework for enforcing rules and regulations, because every person is placed in one
or more kin categories and has the rights and responsibilities associated with these categories.
The workings of kinship rules become apparent from the following rules and protocols associated
with kinship groups.
1. Adolescent brothers and sisters are expected to behave in a reserved manner towards one
another, regardless of whether they are biological or classificatory siblings.
2. Children are expected to show respect for their biological and classificatory fathers and
mothers.
3. Brothers-in-law are expected to adopt a formal attitude towards one another and maintain a
certain physical distance from one another.
4. Individuals may have a close and reciprocal relationship with their cousins, but are expected to
avoid aunts and uncles.
5. Individuals are required to share material goods with aunts and uncles if they demand it, but
they can also expect a reciprocal behaviour from their cousins.
6. Men are prohibited from speaking to their mother-in-law, and mothers-in-law are required to
reciprocate in a similar manner. This rule is designed to prevent the mother from competing with
her daughter for the affection of the same man (which could become a risk is situations where the
man is about the same age as his mother-in-law). In practice, this avoidance rule is managed by
communicating through a third party.
What They Do
An initial glance at these rules may suggest they have little to do with the Dreaming.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. These rules, among many other protocols, are at
the very heart of Aboriginal spirituality which, through Dreaming mythology, places every individual
within a network of interconnected relationships with other people, the land and all it contains.
Kinship rules maintain the spirit of the Dreaming. They regulate behaviours, ensuring that
everyone respects and nurtures this interconnected and finely-balanced network of relationships.
For example, kinship rules define who will look after the children of deceased biological parents,
as well as who will care for the sick and the old.
The family unit, which includes the extended family, forms the foundation of Aboriginal
kinship. However, the kinship system is considerably more complex as there are several levels in
the classification of kinship groups, each with its own specific purpose. These levels are significant
in so far as they govern other important aspects of life, such as hunting, religion and marriage.
Kinship Levels
The Tribe
The highest kinship level is that of the tribe or nation. A tribe is made up of people who
share the same language, customs and general laws. This is the reason they are also referred to
as language groups. People from other tribes are regarded as outsiders.
All members of the tribe share the same ancestral beings and land. Therefore, the tribe
occupies a particular area of land known as the tribe's country. Members of tribes obtain food and
other resources in accordance with the laws handed down to them by their ancestral beings.
Collectively, the tribe is considered to own the land and be its custodians.
Totemic Groups
Totemic groups link individuals to the Dreaming and consist of people who share the same
object, plant or animal to which each is ancestrally connected. This ensures there is both an
individual and collective responsibility for carrying out all duties associated with the totem. Totemic
groups are the building blocks of clans.
Clans
Clans are important sub-units within a tribe where members share common territory and
totems. Consisting of groups of extended family units, the clan has its own unique name. Usually
the men born into a particular clan remain in the territory belonging to that clan. Women are given
more flexibility as the sisters and daughters of one clan may go to live on a different territory
belonging to the clan to which the husband is a member. Because clans are associated with
territory, land ownership is transmitted through the male.
Every totem has specific rituals and duties associated with it. The clan system serves as a
means of ensuring that these rituals and responsibilities are attended to within and beyond the
borders of the tribal territory. From a spiritual perspective, this division is significant as it helps to
perpetuate the Dreaming through tribes and generations.
Moieties
The moiety system divides all members of a tribe into two groups. As a classification
system, it transcends human social divisions and applies to all aspects of creation, living and non-
living, as well as ancestral beings. Essentially, the moiety system places a person into one of two
groups according to their connection with plants, animals, the physical landscape and ancestral
beings. Moieties supplement family kinship groups by setting rules for social behaviour.
Perhaps the most important aspect of moieties relates to their spiritual significance. Earlier,
we learnt that every tribe has its own Dreaming, linked to the tribe's ancestors. While individual
Dreamings have many aspects unique to a particular tribe, they also share a common theme. In a
sense, this macroscopic Dreaming links and unifies all individual Dreamings. Moieties serve as a
mechanism for this to happen, because people from different tribal groups belong to the same
moiety and share their Dreaming stories with all members of the moiety. As these individual
Dreamings are shared people become linked and united in a more global Dreaming.
 Moieties serve as one of the chief means of regulating marriage. This is done in
accordance with the rules established by ancestral beings at the time of the Dreaming.
Marriage
Rules
Rules regarding who may marry whom are highly developed and complex, but the
overarching principle is that the two marriage partners must come from opposite moieties. Specific
rules relating to marriage vary from tribe to tribe, but commonly revolve around subdivisions within
the tribe known as sections or skin-names. There are various systems, but the most common are
the four-division, six-division and eight-division section systems.
Four-Division Section System
Some tribes follow a four-division section system in which the cycle is always started by the
woman. It is formed by dividing the two moieties of the tribe into two sub-sections, making a total
of four groups, two from each moiety. This system, for example, is followed by the Ngarluma
people in Western Australia. The following example illustrates how it works.

1. A woman from 'A' (Banaga) marries a man from 'B' (Garimarda) and the children become 'C'
(Burungu).
2. A woman from 'B' (Garimarda) marries a man from 'A' and the children become 'D' (Balyirdi).
3. A woman from 'C' (Burungu) marries a man from 'D' (Balyirdi) and the children become 'A'
(Banaga).
4. A woman from 'D' (Bayirdi) marries a man from 'C' and the children become 'B' (Garimarda).

Six-Division Section System

A six-division section system exists among some tribes, such as the Ngaanyatjarra tribe in
Western Australia. Here, the two moieties are divided into three sub-sections each. One moiety
consists of the Purungu, Yiparrka and Panaka divisions; the other moiety comprises the Tjarurru,
Milangka and Karimarra divisions. Marriage partners are created in the following manner.
1. A Purungu man will marry a Milangka or Karimarra woman and have Tjarurru children.
2. A Yiparrka man will marry a Tjarurru woman and have Milangka children.
3. A Panaka man will marry a Tjarurru woman and have Karimarra children.
4. A Tjarurru man will marry a Panaka or Yiparrka woman and have Purungu children.
5. A Milangka man will marry a Purungu woman and have Yiparrka children.
6. A Karimarra man will marry a Purungu woman and have Panaka children.

Eight-Division Section System

The eight-division section system is quite complex. In essence, the two moieties of the group are
divided into four subsections each and marriage partners are selected in the following manner:
Marriage and descent are governed as follows.
1. Man '1' may marry woman '2' or woman '6'. If he marries woman '6' (the preferred order) his
children become '4'.
If he marries woman '2' his children become '8'.
2. Man '2' may marry either woman '1' or '5'. If he marries woman '5' (the preferred order) his
children become '7'.
If he marries woman '1' his children become '3'.

Part Eight: Ceremonies - Remembering the Dreaming

Focus:
Ceremonies occupy an important place in Aboriginal life by providing access to the spiritual world
and perpetuating the Dreaming.
Many types of rituals continue to be used in traditional Aboriginal language groups and are
usually associated with birth, coming of age, death, and fertility.
Sacred objects, songs, music and dance connect traditional Aboriginal people to the Dreaming.
Important Words
Ceremony formal celebration of an event
Embodied describes a spirit or spiritual force with physical or tangible form
Ritual particular way of doing things; set order of actions
Role part played
Role of Ceremony
Accessing the Dreaming
Ceremonies occupy an important place in Aboriginal life by providing access to the spiritual
world and perpetuating the Dreaming. They ensure that the sacred stories of the Dreaming are
remembered and passed on from generation to generation. Through them, Aboriginal people
come into contact with their ancestral beings who bestow on them spiritual powers.
Dreaming beliefs and sacred stories are kept by specific members of the tribe who transmit
them to others through ceremony. Some families and individuals are responsible for aspects of the
Dreaming celebrated through dance, while others protect certain knowledge through body design
and symbolism.
Some ceremonies involve people from different tribes who come together bringing gifts of
food and objects and raw materials to trade. The Bunya feast celebrated on the Sunshine Coast in
Queensland, for example, is a ceremony involving people from various tribes. This festival is still
celebrated today.
Traditionally at this feast, representatives from many different language groups from across
southern Queensland and northern New South Wales met to discuss important issues relating to
the environment, politics, social relationships and the lore of The Dreaming.
During the feast, the finest foods, bush animals, plants and berries were prepared and
eaten. As this was the nut season, many bunya or Bonyi nuts were consumed. After the feast and
shared dance ceremonies, elders and lore people of the respective language groups would meet
and discuss lore and consequences for breaches. These discussions helped to ensure the survival
of The Dreaming and ultimately the survival of Aboriginal people. Many inter-language group
conflicts were resolved at this feast and at similar ceremonies and festivals across Australia.
Rituals and Roles
Particular ceremonies usually follow a prescribed pattern each time they are performed.
Those that do are known as rituals. Some rituals are considered secret, i.e. only for the initiated,
while others are open to all members of the language group, including children.
Aboriginal men and women share different roles in the ceremonial life of the tribe. Various
practices and the forms they take vary considerably across language groups.
Some sacred rituals are performed by both men and women whose songs, dances and
stories complement each other. Men's and women's ceremonies are held separately, as it is
believed that the strength of the spiritual force embodied in these rituals could cause harm to
those of the opposite gender, or their presence could impair the ritual's success. The roles of both
men and women in Aboriginal ceremonial life are considered important, but different. Both are
respected as caretakers of the law.
Sacred Rituals
Types
Many types of rituals continue to be used in traditional Aboriginal language groups and are
usually associated with birth, coming of age, death, and fertility. Roles were performed by
individuals depending on their social position and ancestral inheritance. The following sacred
rituals will be examined.
1.Birth rituals
2.Male and Female Initiation rituals
3.Death rituals
4.Increase rituals.
All rituals will be described in the past tense as they are associated with traditional
Aboriginal practice. It should, however, be borne in mind that some groups in Australia today still
engage in these traditional ritual practices.
Birth Ritual
When a mother was ready to give birth, she would go to a special place outside the camp,
possibly a cave or a special shelter or windbreak built for the occasion. There she would be
assisted by her mother, mother-in-law or another married woman who would help with the actual
birthing process and perform the special rites and songs that helped the birth proceed smoothly.
 After the birth the placenta would be buried - a sign of the child's spiritual connection with
the land. Following that, a smoking ceremony was held. A fire was built and topped with damp
green leaves to create a lot of smoke. The mother would crouch over or lie down on the smoking
leaves as part of a cleansing process, and to assure a supply of milk. Then, the baby was held
face down over the smoking fire to make it strong and quiet. It was then rubbed with ashes so that
it would be dark skinned like its parents.
Only after these rituals took place was the father allowed to see his child.
Male Initiation
Men played an obvious role in the spiritual lives of the Aboriginal people. They were
responsible for carrying out many public and private rituals, and for passing on secret knowledge
to the next generation of young men.
The only way a young man was considered an adult, given adult responsibilities and
allowed to marry, was to go through an initiation process. This rite of passage showed the
community that the boy was no longer considered a child, but was on his way to becoming a
young man. The time of initiation varied from place to place, from the ages of six to eight up to
sixteen years. Generally it was held around the time of puberty and usually, though not always,
involved circumcision.
Initiation was a time when the male elders of the community, particularly those responsible
for the individual young men being presented for initiation, would teach them the ways of the tribe
and eventually the sacred myths and rituals.
Ceremonies were held regularly with the whole community and often several communities,
being involved. Mothers and potential mothers-in-law of the young men would be responsible for
preparing the food, while others would make the place of initiation ready.
Often the young men would be collected from different communities and, together with
those responsible for them, would journey to sacred sites as part of the ritual. The women and
girls of the community were expected to remain out of sight until the party left the camp.
At the site of the initiation there would be much dancing, body painting, and singing. Certain
parts of the ceremony would be open to the whole community, while other parts were only for
those being initiated and their adult male teachers.
Learning the myths, laws and sacred secret information was a lifelong process, carried out
in steps. As a novice, the young boy would be progressively exposed to sacred objects and rituals,
whose significance he would appreciate only in time.
Female Initiation
Women had their own sacred rituals and body of sacred and secret knowledge that they
passed on to the next generation of young women. In particular, their rituals were based on:
bringing health and healing to individuals as well as the land
resolving conflict and restoring social harmony in the community.
Girls' initiation was not as dramatic as that of boys, though in some groups there were
rituals associated with coming into puberty. At the time of her first period or when her bodily
changes showed that it would be soon, a young girl was taken away from the main camp where
older women would pass on knowledge to her and teach her songs and myths, as well as how she
was to behave as a young woman. A ritual bath, and painting and decorating the body, were often
part of the ritual.
After the ritual the young girl would be led back to camp to a public reception. This was a
sign for all that she was now ready to be married. Once married, she was no longer considered a
dependent daughter, but a relatively independent wife and mother.
Only a woman who had two or more children was considered fully initiated into
womanhood. She was then allowed access to the more secret meanings of the rituals, as well as
being allowed to perform additional secret ceremonies.
Women guardians of certain myths were the main performers and dancers in these
ceremonies, while other senior women would lead the singing. Younger women would help with
the singing or just watch.
Death Rituals
 Aboriginal people believed that when a person died, their spirit continued to live. It needed
to be released so that it could return to its own country and ancestral spirits, or to totemic sites
where it could be born again in a different person.
To encourage the spirit to leave, all traces of the dead person were removed as soon as
possible. Clothes and belongings were burnt. The person's name would not be spoken for some
time, even several years. Green branches were used to sweep away all traces and smell of the
dead person and the dwelling would be smoked to chase away the spirit. Their family would then
move camp. In some places, sticks were broken or rocks hit together near children's ears so they
would cease to think about the dead person.
Some groups would cremate the bodies of the dead, others would bury them immediately;
still others would wait a set time. Some did not bury the dead, but would expose the body in a tree
or on a platform and come back later to collect the bones. These bones then would be carried
around in containers for some time before eventually being placed in a hollow tree or cave.
During the mourning period the relatives of the deceased would cut and gash themselves
until they drew blood. They would paint themselves with white clay as a sign of their sorrow, and
refrain from eating certain foods during this time. A widow was not allowed to speak and had to
communicate by hand signals. The hair of the deceased was usually cut off and saved to be made
into hair string. Widows and other close family members would often cut their hair as well.
All deaths except those of infancy or old age were assumed to be caused by someone,
either by magic or directly in a fight. Next of kin would take revenge on the person thought
responsible for the death by spearing men in the thigh and drawing blood or beating women.
Increase Rituals
Members of certain totems were responsible for carrying out increase rituals. These were
ceremonies to ensure:
that there would always be plenty of each species of animal and plant life for the future
necessary rain or good weather for a good growing season.
In carrying out such rituals, the people would enter into the spirit world - the world of their
ancestor spirits who shaped the earth and created the animals and plants. They would identify
themselves with an ancestor spirit to the degree that they believed they were not only re-enacting
their creation myths, but also entering in and becoming one with that spirit being in the eternal act
of creation.
Some ways in which increase rituals could be carried out include:
touching up cave paintings
creating new paintings, sand pictures or bark paintings
ritual singing and dancing, displaying sacred objects, and painting bodies with particular patterns
ritual actions such as crushing and scattering pearl shells to bring rain
ritual action of striking bushes or trees to release spirits
calling out certain names
letting of blood (or red ochre as a substitute) in sacred places
Ceremonial Objects
Many sacred rituals performed by traditional Aboriginal groups were performed at sacred
sites, known as bora grounds. These sites were usually marked by scarring the trees associated
with the site.
Aboriginal people also prepared sacred objects, such as bark paintings, sand paintings,
icons of spirit beings moulded or carved in clay, as well as body ornaments, such as waist belts
and arm bands. They painted their bodies using natural pigments obtained from the earth and
created sacred designs to enable them to enter the spirit world.
Source Material
Men and boys with ceremonial body paint, prepared for a corroboree. The man at far left
wears a headband with shell pendant over his forehead, nose bone, a large pearl-shell pendant
from his neck, and a European brass buckle belt. Other men wear nose bones and hold shields,
spears, long sword-clubs and a boomerang.
Men and boys from Russell River, northern Queensland, decorated with vertical lines of
parrot feather down. The younger boys have more extensive feather decoration on their upper
bodies and heads. Two women kneel, undecorated, at the front of the group. Various designs are
painted on the large rainforest shields. The large sword-clubs are used in ritualised fighting and
ceremonies.
Ceremonial Song, Music and Dance
Song, music and dance connected traditional Aboriginal people to the Dreaming. Since
each language group possessed sacred stories specific to the ancestral beings of their own
country, there was great diversity in song, music and dance.
Each song reflected a microcosm of the larger Dreaming. Collectively, songs formed a
'map' of a tribe's country and traced the travels of ancestral beings.
Songs were about a variety of themes, such as hunting, birth, death, healing the sick,
waterholes and creation, and were usually chanted to music. Common musical instruments
included the didgeridoo, music sticks, seed rattlers, and boomerangs used as clap sticks. Not all
language groups used didgeridoos; instead, women would use ceremonial drums made from the
skins of goannas, snakes, kangaroos and emus.
Aboriginal people wore a variety of garments during rituals. Wrist and ankle bands made
from animal skins were common place. Men often wore garments made from kangaroo skins or
some other type of animal fur, while women wore skirts made from feathers.
Part Nine: Obligations to Land and People - Honouring the Dreaming
Focus:
The Dreaming proposes that all human beings, as well as the land and all it sustains, were
created by ancestral beings during the time of creation.
Each person is a custodian of the land and all it sustains, and is responsible for renewing flora
and fauna according to customary laws.
The principle of reciprocity is the fundamental principle governing one's obligations to other
people within Aboriginal society and applies to the exchange of goods, services, favours and
obligations.
Important Words
Payback negative expression of the principle of reciprocity that operates to avenge wrongdoing
Reciprocity system of kinship obligations by which, goods, services, favours and obligations are
exchanged; 'looking after one's own';
Connection with the Dreaming
The Dreaming proposes that all human beings, as well as the land and all it sustains, were
created by ancestral beings during the time of creation. Ancestral beings left their life-essence in
every part of creation when they departed, consequently all creation is sacred, a living organism
and interdependent. Everything exists in relationship.
Through the Dreaming, ancestral beings gave laws to Aboriginal people to help them live in
mutual interdependence with creation. Such interdependence is expressed in the obligations
people have towards each other, as well as their interrelationship with the land their mother.
Obligations to the Land
Rights and Duties
Every Aboriginal person possesses some essence of the ancestral beings that created his
or her country. As a consequence, each person is a custodian of the land and all it sustains, and is
responsible for renewing flora and fauna according to the laws.
This duty is organised around the clan, because clans bestow ownership of the land. In
return, the land defines Aboriginal people's identity through its relationship with the clan.
Clan members enjoy a number of rights such as access to hunting and fishing sites, as well
as gathering the resources of their territory. Often, clan members have limited rights to resources
in related clan territories.
Australia's Aboriginal people do not exploit the earth's resources. Dreaming mythology has
taught them to be caretakers of the land and custodians of its living and non-living resources.
Ancestral beings handed down laws and customs relating to the sustainable use and responsible
management of these resources.

Clan members are usually prohibited from hunting totemic animals, and restrictions are in
place regulating the preparation and consumption of certain foods. Restrictions also apply to when
and where various species of fish can be caught and how these resources are to be harvested
and used. Protocols are designed to maintain a sustainable environment and provide a secure
future for generations to come.
Sacred Sites
Clan members are responsible for maintaining sacred sites under the guidance of elders.
Believing that sacred sites are inhabited by the ancestral beings from which they are descended,
clan members perform sacred rituals to honour them, and to ensure country's ongoing identity and
fertility.
Increase rituals, or rituals of well-being, play an important role. Designed to promote life,
these rituals ensure the well-being of plants and animals. While conducted by clan members at
specific sacred sites within country, their benefits are believed to be transferred to regions where
other clans are engaged in similar ritual activity. Increase rituals, therefore, promote a sense of
interdependence among Aboriginal people and deepen their appreciation of what it means to be
custodians of the land.
Sacred sites are often protected, particularly if they are places of nesting or breeding, or
meeting places of several water sources. Such areas often function as sanctuaries where hunting
is prohibited, since they are places where animals feed. Nature is given time to regenerate and be
replenished.
Promoting the Well-Being of the Land
In addition to increase rituals and prohibitions, clan members are also obligated to take a
direct and active role in promoting the well-being of country. This role is expressed through
activities, such as:
spreading seeds in areas where they are likely to germinate and grow
leaving behind small amounts of food on which animals can feed
leaving part of plant tubers in the ground to encourage the ongoing growth of crops.
Aboriginal clans also promote the well-being of country through controlled burning. They
describe their burning activities as 'cleaning up country', and believe that country that has been
burned is clean and well-looked after country.
While burning plays an important role in promoting growth and maintaining biological
diversity, it also takes on a spiritual significance. Many Aboriginal groups believe that the spirits of
their ancestors still inhabit country where they hunt, sing and dance, and they even burn the
landscape. For these clans, burning is a way by which members establish a link with their
ancestors.
Obligations to Other People
It is widely known that Aboriginal people are very generous. They share their possessions
unselfishly and without hesitation. Children, for example, are taught to share food from an early
age and their actions are linked to kinship - 'give him some, he's your brother'.
This generosity reflects the fundamental principle governing one's obligations to other
people within Aboriginal society - the principle of reciprocity, derived from kinship obligations.
Essentially, reciprocity refers to a system between people involving the exchange of goods,
services, favours and obligations. It can be summarised by the simple rule, 'one must look after
one's own'. The principle of reciprocity governs most aspects of communal life, including rituals
and sacred stories.
Sharing is one aspect governed by the principle of reciprocity. Being regulated along
kinship lines, each person is required to share with those from whom he or she has received
benefits in the past and from whom benefits will be received in the future. Among Aboriginal
people, sharing is driven by demand and is constrained by the balance between what is
considered reasonable to demand and appropriate to refuse.
Aboriginal people are obligated to make gifts.
Upon initiation a man is expected to make gifts (such as tools or implements) to those who
initiate him; upon betrothal, he makes gifts to his future wife's family. Usually the economic value
of the gift is unimportant: the purpose of giving and receiving is to reinforce social bonds. The
requirement of reciprocity underpins most aspects of community life, including ritual, ceremony
and the protection of sacred sites.
The principle of reciprocity operates both within the tribe and between language groups to
reinforce the interrelatedness of all people and their mutual obligation to one another. There is a
negative side in that it also operates to avenge wrongdoing. This is what Aboriginal people refer to
as 'payback'.
Elders
Elders have particular obligations relating to spiritual affairs and laws. As custodians of
laws, male elders are given the responsibility of honouring and maintaining them and handing
them on to future generations. They are responsible for looking after sacred objects, managing
spiritual matters and performing sacred rituals.
The obligations of their female counterparts relate to fertility and marriage. The duties of
female elders include
... love magic, control over reproduction, the growing up of young girls, appropriate sexual
behaviour, the creation of harmony between disputing females, as well as curing and healing.
Part Ten: Effects of Dispossession on Aboriginal Spirituality
Focus:
The separation of Aboriginal people from their land, systematic disintegration of the kinship
system, and forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, have had profound and
devastating effects on Aboriginal spirituality.
Aboriginal people are connected to the land both geographically and spiritually and dispossession
is akin to the destruction of their spirituality - the very means by which they achieve social
cohesion and meaning in life.
Loss of identity, heritage, traditions and rituals have separated Aboriginal people from the
Dreaming and heart of their spirituality and forced them to search for a new place in a foreign
culture, where many are no longer able to draw on their rich spiritual heritage to provide the
stability and social cohesion needed to cope with rapid and constant change.
Important Words
British Select Committee full title is 'Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes,
(British Settlements) 1837'
Colonisation establishment of colonies by making new settlements abroad
Dispossession being stripped of ownership; expulsion or eviction from occupancy
Protectorate Policy policy recommended by the British Select Committee to address settlers'
injustices against Aboriginal people
Stolen Generations descendants of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who
were forcibly removed from their parents
Terra Nullius declaration that land is owned by no one
Unilateral one-way agreement without a reciprocal agreement from another; not a two-way or
mutual agreement
Effects of European Colonisation
Since non-indigenous settlement in 1788 and subsequent European colonisation and
transformation of Australia into the society we know today, the history of Australia's first
inhabitants has been far from peaceful and happy. In fact, most Aboriginal people regard
European colonisation as an invasion of their land and country - of which they have been
custodians for more than 50 000 years.
Sadly, the story is one of violence and injustice as Aboriginal people were systematically
stripped of their land, separated from their children, and became victims of the systematic
disintegration of the social framework that held their communities together. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the process of dispossession has had a profoundly damaging effect on Aboriginal
spirituality.
Part Ten examines three aspects of the story of dispossession and their consequent effects
on Aboriginal spirituality:
1.separation of Aboriginal people from their land
2.systematic disintegration of the kinship system
3.forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families in what has become known as the
Stolen Generations
Separation from the Land
Three Methods
 During the European expansion of the eighteenth century, it was an internationally
accepted practice for colonisation to proceed by one of three means:
1. conquest, i.e. imposition of rule by military means
2. consent, i.e. occupation on the basis of an agreement or treaty entered into with the indigenous
people
3. unilateral possession, i.e. occupation on the basis that the land was not owned by anyone.
Captain James Cook arrived in Australia in 1770 with the instruction to take possession of
the continent by unilateral possession if it was uninhabited, or by consent if it was occupied by
indigenous people. Setting foot on the continent, Cook discovered a land and a people very
different from his own.
When Lieutenant James Cook first set foot on Wangal land over at Kundul which is now
called Kurnell, he said oh let's put a flag up somewhere, because these people are illiterate,
they've got no fences. They didn't understand that we didn't need fences ... that we stayed here for
six to eight weeks, then moved somewhere else where there was plenty of tucker and bush
medicine and we kept moving and then come back in twelve months' time when the food was all
refreshed ...
- (The Late) Aunty Beryl Timbery Beller
Terra Nullius
Cook reported that Australia was a wasteland and basically unoccupied. Consequently, the
British government applied the principle of terra nullius and Australia was recognised in British law
as belonging to no-one. The land was, therefore, available for unilateral possession.
Cook's assessment was quite incorrect, as Captain Arthur Phillip later remarked.
We found the natives tolerably numerous as we advanced up the river, and even at the harbour's
mouth we had reason to conclude the country more populous than Mr Cook thought it.
However, it was too late. The doctrine of terra nullius had been applied to Australia.
Aboriginal laws had no legal status and Aboriginal entitlement to land was denied. Cook's action of
claiming Australia, without the consent of the indigenous inhabitants, began the British
government's violent and forceful separation of the Aboriginal people from their land - an action
justified on the grounds that Australia was largely an unoccupied wasteland.
Reserves
English Model
British settlement and expansion were by no means a peaceful process. During the
nineteenth century, violent battles took place over land, food and water, resulting in the most
inhumane and brutal treatment of Aboriginal people.
At one level, injustice was inflicted by moving Aboriginal people to areas set up along the
model of an English village and designed to help the 'natives' adopt the 'civilised' lifestyle of 'white'
people. They were expected to live there as 'whites', totally separated from their former lands now
occupied by colonists.
Within a short time it became apparent that the model had failed. Removed from their own
lands and source of spirituality, Aboriginal people struggled. They suffered malnutrition and
disease, were unable to find work, became increasingly dependent on government rations, and
became an embarrassment to the government. Many were forced to hunt white settlers' sheep and
cattle and 'steal' water from waterholes once their own.
Violent confrontations occurred as settlers retaliated, often massacring large numbers of
Aboriginal men, women and children. In time, reports of such violence and injustices reached the
British government. Its response was to appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the condition of
Aboriginal people.
The official British view was that Aboriginal people were British subjects and, as such,
should be well trained, taught basic literacy and converted to Christianity. It was assumed that
British civilisation was superior to any other and Aboriginal people would appreciate its
advantages and willingly abandon their former ways.
Protectorates
From the 1830s onwards, Australian states established protectorates. Land was set aside
for reserves where Aboriginal people were provided a place to build camp. These reserves were
operated under the stern control of a white manager. Aboriginal people were expected to live
collectively, be self-sufficient in raising animals and crops, and eventually take on a European way
of life.
The manager controlled the movements of people on the reserve, had the power to expel
people, handed out food and clothing and generally treated the Aboriginal people like children,
instead of adults mature enough to determine their own lives and look after themselves. It was
hoped that by establishing reserves, Aboriginal people would no longer interfere with the
pastoralists and their stock, and would be protected from any retaliation by pastoralists. A school
was often provided on reserves where it was hoped British culture and ideals would be learned.
Missions
Paternalistic but Kind
Missions established by various Christian churches including Catholic, Methodist, Anglican,
Lutheran and others, were set up along the same lines as reserves. Missionaries set the rules and
were somewhat paternalistic, but showed kindness and concern as they worked alongside
Aboriginal people in primitive conditions.
In some instances, missionaries tried to learn the local language and understand the
Aboriginal point of view by using the local culture as a starting point. Aboriginal people were
afforded self-respect and dignity. Others, however, tried to undermine Aboriginal culture by
branding traditional beliefs as evil and ruthlessly stamping out traditional rituals, ceremonies and
languages. Sacred objects were ridiculed and their secret nature disregarded.
On mission stations, Aboriginal children often lived in dormitories while they attended
school, isolating them from their families for a good part of the time. Parents had limited access to
their children and what they were being taught. Consequently, children had little means of learning
the knowledge and skills traditionally passed down from generation to generation.
Effects on Aboriginal People
'Protectors' were given power to remove Aboriginal people from their lands to reserves.
Lake Tyers Reserve in Victoria, for example, was set up in 1861 at the recommendation of the
Victorian Board for the Protection of Aboriginal people.
In 1822, traditional custodians of the Shoalhaven area in New South Wales were displaced
when Alexander Berry took up the land. They were relocated to the 'Wreck Bay Aboriginal
Reserve'.
In Queensland alone, more than 7 000 Aboriginal people were removed from their lands to
sixty-four missions and reserves between 1898 and 1939. The last of these did not close until
1987.
Problems resulting from reserves and missions were many.
1. Aboriginal people of different and not always congenial communities and language groups were
often herded together and transported to reserves far from their own country.
2. Traditional ways of living were destroyed.
3. Rather than hunting and gathering, Aboriginal people came to depend on handouts.
4. Traditional groups were scattered and communities were broken apart.
5. Their dignity was taken away from them.
6. Most devastating was the removal of Aboriginal people from traditional lands, depriving them of
their identity and robbing their lives of meaning.
Other Forms of Dispersal
Conflict and Competition
The organised removal of Aboriginal people to reserves and missions was accompanied by
other forms of dispersal. These began as settlers took over vast areas of land during the
nineteenth century.
Settlers showed little, if any, respect for the traditional owners of the territories they
acquired. They simply cleared the land and sowed crops or grazed sheep and cattle without
regard for the fact that the land was a source of livelihood for Aboriginal people. They took
possession of important waterholes to use for themselves, their stock and crops.
As a result, Aboriginal people gradually lost their sources of food and water. To survive,
they were forced to hunt white settlers' stock and 'trespass' on their land to access water. This led
to violent and bloody confrontations between settlers and Aboriginal people, from which the latter
emerged second-best. Those not killed at the hands of white settlers or by diseases introduced
from Europe, faced starvation.
Move to Farms and Cities
In order to survive, some Aboriginal people gained employment as labourers on settlers'
farms, where they were fed and accommodated. Most, however, relocated to cities in search of
accommodation and employment. For example, the number of Aboriginal people who moved to
Sydney from country New South Wales was so significant, that in time, traditional custodians of
the land in and around Sydney became relegated to the ranks of an insignificant minority among
the total Aboriginal population.
By the 1870s, all fertile areas of Australia had been appropriated and indigenous
communities were reduced to impoverished remnants living either on the fringes of Australian
communities or on lands considered unsuitable for settlement. Many indigenous people adapted to
European culture working as stock hands or labourers.
Impact on Aboriginal Spirituality
Destructive
Displacement of Aboriginal people resulted in loss of cultural knowledge for many groups
removed far distances from their traditional lands. People were unable to maintain their spiritual
relationship with sites of cultural significance within their homeland ... the foundation of their very
existence. In most missions they were also forbidden to continue cultural practices. Being taken
from their own personal 'story place' can result in ill health, and being removed from ancestral
sites has an enormous impact on emotional and spiritual well-being.
Today, a significant majority of Aboriginal people remain dispossessed from the lands that
rightly belong to them as traditional owners. While no longer confined to reserves controlled by
non-indigenous people, most Aboriginal people have adopted mainstream Australian culture, with
many assuming an urban lifestyle.
As a result, the impact of having been dispossessed of their land continues to be felt by
Aboriginal people to this day. For reasons that will become apparent, this process of
dispossession has had a profoundly destructive effect on the spiritualities of the many different
Aboriginal language groups.
Loss of Identity and Heritage
Country is multi-dimensional - it consists of people, animals, plants, Dreamings;
underground, earth, soils, minerals and waters, air ...People talk about country in the same way
that they would talk about a person: they speak to country, sing to country, visit country, worry
about country, feel sorry for country, and long for country.
Aboriginal people are connected to the land both geographically and spiritually. They
belong to the land; in fact, 'country' is the very fabric of Aboriginal people's spiritual and human
identity; it is part of who they are as a people. Country connects Aboriginal people with their past,
present and future cultural heritage, as well as to ancestral beings who created and sustain the
land.
Dispossession of land is akin to the destruction of Aboriginal people's spirituality, as well as
their loss of identity and sense of who they are. It is like waking up in a hospital bed after a deep
coma with no idea of one's name, address, family or job; one no longer has a unique identity or
cultural heritage from which to gain a sense of self-worth.
This is exactly what has happened to many Aboriginal people as a result of being uprooted
from their country. Not only did they lose their personal identity, but their past and present cultural
heritage largely vanished. Uprooted from their heritage, Aboriginal people became strangers in a
foreign country with little, if any, connection to their spiritual heritage from which to draw meaning
and strength, as well as pass on to their children. Loss of self-identity and cultural and spiritual
heritage continues to play a role in the many social problems facing Aboriginal people today.
Traditions
Many traditional laws, sacred stories and songs, dances, art and customs have been lost as
a result of separating Aboriginal people from the land to which they once belonged. Their memory
and celebration required the Aboriginal language group to be physically present in their own
country.
 Such traditions were rooted in the Dreaming and comprised one of the few constants in
traditional Aboriginal life, which being semi-nomadic, was constantly changing. They played an
important role in maintaining the stability needed to live with constant change.
While on the whole, contemporary Aboriginal people are no longer semi-nomadic, they are,
like all people, faced with constant change. Unfortunately, many are no longer able to draw on
their rich spiritual heritage to provide the stability and social cohesion needed to cope with this
rapid and constant change.
Rituals
Ritual played an important role in traditional Aboriginal language groups and maintained a
sense of constancy. Rituals, such as coming-of-age ceremonies, secret women's business and
secret men's business, regulated essential aspects of Aboriginal life.
Rituals were integral in maintaining group cohesion and socialising the young into the life of
the Aboriginal community. Together with the ceremonial objects used in their performance, sacred
rituals were closely linked to the group's country.
Dispossession of land has led to many Aboriginal communities being unable to perform
their sacred rituals. Future generations are gradually being dispossessed of important aspects of
their spirituality, as parents are unable to pass on spiritual traditions to their children. They have
become disconnected from their cultural and spiritual heritage - the very means by which the
Aboriginal community achieved social cohesion and meaning in life.
Systematic Disintegration of the Kinship System
Effect on Spirituality
Kinship is the single most important means of organising and regulating social and spiritual
relationships within and among Aboriginal language groups. In this context, the separation of
Aboriginal people from their land, whether by 'voluntary' relocation or by forced removal to
reserves, has impacted significantly on Aboriginal spirituality, because of the connection of kinship
groups to the Dreaming through the land.
Effect at Family Level
Fortunately, the separation of Aboriginal people from their land has had little impact at the
most fundamental kinship level of the immediate and extended family. Traditional family structures
are strongly maintained and the classificatory system around which the Aboriginal family is
organised generally remains intact.
Rules and responsibilities associated with the classificatory family structure also remain
largely unchanged. It is not uncommon today for several adults to assist in the rearing of children,
as extended families tend to live close to one another. This means that a person who is not a
blood relative may still be assigned the role of grandparent, mother, father, sibling, aunt or uncle,
depending on their position in the classificatory family tree.
Effect at Language Group Level
The tribe was inextricably linked to the land, which was known as the language group's
country. Each language group was connected to ancestral beings through the land and obtained
food and other resources according to laws handed down by ancestral beings.
Separation of Aboriginal people from the land that once belonged to them has had a
significant impact on their spirituality. Most Aboriginal people are no longer able to interact with
their environment according to the laws handed down by ancestral beings. This constitutes a
significant loss of spiritual heritage associated with the land.
Also significant is the disappearance of activities once central to Aboriginal life and
governed by laws from ancestral beings during the Dreaming. These were designed to maintain
harmony within creation and the ongoing sustainability of the land. Now under the control of non-
indigenous Australians not subject to the laws of the Dreaming, the land has increasingly become
exploited.
For many Aboriginal people, kinship at the tribal level has been dismantled at its core by the
removal of Aboriginal language groups from the country to which they once belonged. Many
language groups have lost the point of fixture and social cohesiveness that came from their
connection to land and the Dreaming. Consequently, numbers of Aboriginal people continue to
experience psychological and emotional distress, as they struggle to find a new identity,
disconnected from country.
Effect on Totemic Groups and Clans
Totemic groups and clans are linked to specific objects, plants or animals. When Aboriginal
people were separated from their land, they also became separated from their totemic identities.
Today, this loss is experienced as a disconnection to the Dreaming - the heart of Aboriginal
spirituality.
Clan and totemic group breakdowns have resulted from Aboriginal dispossession of land
and country, as they are essentially organised around territory. The disappearance of ritual
practices and responsibilities associated with totems makes it difficult to perpetuate the Dreaming
in language groups and hand it on to future generations.
Effect on Moieties
The moiety structure has not been significantly affected by the dispossession of traditional
Aboriginal lands, because it transcends the boundaries of language groups. This system remains
a cornerstone of Aboriginal communities in regulating social behaviour.
However, moieties are in danger of losing their spiritual significance in maintaining a
collective Dreaming. This is because a collective Dreaming is dependent upon the individual
Dreaming mythologies of language groups and their connection with totemic groups and clans. As
language groups are dismantled, parts of individual Dreaming mythologies, upon which the
collective Dreaming of the moiety depends, are lost.
The Stolen Generations
There is no doubt that the removal of Aboriginal people from their lands and the systematic
dismantling of the kinship system constitute grave injustices. However, the greatest and saddest
injustice inflicted upon them, even if done within a context of ignorance, mixed with the desire to
help, was the removal of Aboriginal children from their families.
Known as the Stolen Generations, these children were forcefully removed from their
families and many never saw their parents, families and clans again. While records are poor, it is
estimated that as many as 100 000 children were removed from their families in four distinct
phases.
1. Removal during the nineteenth century
2. Merging and absorption of Aboriginal children into non-indigenous society
3. Assimilation
4. Self-management and self-determination
Removal During the Nineteenth Century
Informal Removal
The term, Stolen Generations, usually refers to children removed from their families by the
enforcement of government policies between 1915 and 1970. It should, however, be remembered
that children were forcibly removed long before any such policies were enacted.
Many Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families by early settlers who
regarded them as cheap labour. They worked on stations and were never paid money for the work
they did. Instead, they were provided with accommodation, food and clothing.
Formal Removal
Formal removal of Aboriginal children from their families began in the second half of the
nineteenth century in response to the British Select Committee's recommendations. Key to this
was the recommendation that a protectorate system be formed which, as already indicated,
resulted in the relocation of Aboriginal communities to reserves.
Education of Aboriginal children was also a focus of the protectorate policy. However,
education was understood as enculturation into the British way of life. This was made possible by
the establishment of the Aboriginal Protection Board, and by 1911, other boards were set up in the
Northern Territory and all states, except Tasmania.
Most protection boards appointed a Chief Protector, who in some states and the Northern
Territory was made the legal guardian of Aboriginal children. Under his direction, children were
sent to schools, institutions and missions. There, they were accommodated in dormitories and had
severely limited contact with their families.
Merging and Absorption
Half-Caste Problem
 Numbers of Aboriginal people declined rapidly with European settlement. Consequently, it
was generally assumed that the Aboriginal population would eventually die out or at least, the
differences between the races would breed out over the generations. As time passed, it became
evident that this was not going to happen, so new policies were introduced in the 1900s to absorb
and merge Aboriginal people with mainstream Australian society.
In particular, these policies focused on merging the mixed-descent Aboriginal population
into non-indigenous society, as it was known that their skin colour became lighter over successive
generations. This would facilitate the acceptance of Aboriginal people into mainstream Australian
society together with the loss of their Aboriginal identity - a commonly-held belief expressed in the
Brisbane Telegraph in May 1937.
Mr Neville [the Chief Protector of Western Australia] holds the view that within one hundred
years the pure black will be extinct. But the half-caste problem was increasing every year.
Therefore their idea was to keep the pure blacks segregated and absorb the half-castes into the
white population. Sixty years ago, he said, there were over 60,000 full-blooded natives in Western
Australia. Today there are only 20,000. In time there would be none. Perhaps it would take one
hundred years, perhaps longer, but the race was dying. The pure blooded Aboriginal was not a
quick breeder. On the other hand the half-caste was.
Assimilation
Becoming European
It was believed that children would adjust to learning a new way of life more quickly and
completely than adults. To facilitate this, from 1915 a policy was instigated by which Aboriginal
and part-Aboriginal children were removed from their homes to be fostered by white families or
raised in institutions.
Children who remained with their families on reserves and missions attended schools that
taught European subjects and ways of life. They were housed in dormitories away from their
families and prohibited from speaking traditional Aboriginal languages and engaging in traditional
activities. Rather than taking their place in society alongside Europeans, girls were trained for
domestic roles as cooks and housekeepers, while boys were trained as stockmen and farm
labourers.
Many dedicated people worked in these institutions and gave their very best to these
children, but with significant exceptions. Girls, some as young as twelve, did exhausting work with
little pay. A large percentage of them became pregnant to white men on properties where they
worked. Young boys were also exploited as cheap labour on stations and forced to live under poor
conditions. For those who remained in the institutions or in foster homes, one in five is said to
have been physically abused at the hands of so-called carers.
Protectors' Powers Expanded
Government legislation expanded the powers of protectors to facilitate enforcing the
merging and absorption policy. These expanded powers were used differently from state to state.
In Queensland and Western Australia, for example, the Chief Protector removed children from
their families at the age of four and sent them away to missions and other institutions where they
remained until the age of fourteen, after which they were sent to work.
If an Aboriginal girl became pregnant she was returned to the mission or institution from
where she came, to have her child. Having given birth to the child, she was returned to non-
indigenous society to work once again.
In Victoria and New South Wales, Aboriginal children with a certain amount of European
blood were removed from their families on reserves and sent to 'white' training institutions or
missions. They stayed there until they were old enough to work.
Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference, 1937
The first Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference in 1937 became a lever for
increasing the number of children removed from their families. The conference resolved that the
... efforts of all State authorities should be directed towards the education of children of
mixed aboriginal blood at white standards, and their subsequent employment under the same
conditions as whites with a view to their taking their place in the white community on an equal
footing with the whites.
 Prior to 1937 the 'merging' of Aboriginal children was a passive process. They were simply
placed into domestic and farming roles without any expectation that they be treated the same as
their European counterparts.
A shift to a highly intensive process of assimilation occurred as a result of a resolution of
the 1937 conference. Aboriginal families were required to be closely scrutinised so that neglected,
destitute or uncontrollable children could be removed from their homes. While the law applied
equally to 'white' children, it was loosely interpreted in the case of Aboriginal children. As a result,
it did nothing more but continue the discrimination already experienced by Aboriginal people.
1950s and 1960s
By the 1950s and 1960s the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families in
the name of assimilation had grown to such an extent that schools, institutions and missions were
no longer able to accommodate them. Governments responded by placing the Aboriginal children
in foster homes or putting them up for adoption.
Many children were taken away and adopted without their parents' knowledge or full
consent. Of those fostered or adopted, many were raised with no knowledge of their Aboriginality.
In fact, their darker skin was explained as their being 'Italian or Indian'. Others who did remember
their parents were told that 'they didn't want them' or that 'they had died'.
In many cases, Aboriginal children were warned not to go near Aboriginal people or play
with their children because Aboriginal people 'were dirty'. Aboriginal parents were not allowed to
know the whereabouts of their children and if they did, were told they had died. Since children
were usually transported to homes far from where their parents lived and their names changed,
finding them became impossible.
Self-Management and Self-Determination
Aboriginal Family
In 1967, the situation finally changed when the Australian constitution was altered, making
all people in Australia subject to the same laws. The policy of assimilation was abandoned by the
Whitlam Government and replaced by a policy of Aboriginal self-determination in 1972. In 1975,
the Fraser Government passed the Racial Discrimination Act making discrimination, on the basis
of race, unlawful.
These events empowered Aboriginal people to fight removal applications in court, resulting
in a rapid decline in the number of children being removed. In the 1980s the Aboriginal Child
Placement Principle was adopted. As a matter of priority, it required that Aboriginal children
needing care outside their own families, be placed with indigenous families.
Impact of the Stolen Generations on Aboriginal Spirituality
The impact of removing Aboriginal children from their families is best illustrated by way of two true
personal stories, told by Paul and Karen.
Pauls Story - State Ward No 54321
For eighteen years the state of Victoria referred to me as State Ward No 54321.
I was born in May 1964. My mother and I lived together within an inner suburb of
Melbourne. At the age of five and a half months, both my mother and I became ill. My mother took
me to the Royal Children's Hospital, where I was admitted.
Upon my recovery, the Social Welfare Department of the Royal Children's Hospital
persuaded my mother to board me into St Gabriel's Babies' Home in Balwyn ... just until mum
regained her health. If only mum could've known the secret, deceitful agenda of the state welfare
system that was about to be put into motion - eighteen years of forced separation between a
loving mother and her son.
Early in 1965, I was made a ward of the state. The reason given ... was that, 'Mother is
unable to provide adequate care for her son'.
In February 1967, the County Court of Victoria dispensed with my mother's consent to
adoption. This decision, made under section 67(d) of the Child Welfare Act 1958, was purportedly
based on an 'inability to locate mother'. Only paltry attempts had been made to locate her. For
example, no attempt was made to find her address through the Aboriginal Welfare Board.
I was immediately transferred to Blackburn South Cottages to be assessed for 'suitable
adoptive placement'. When my mother came for one of her visits, she found an empty cot. With
the stroke of a pen, my mother's heart and spirit had been shattered. Later, she was to describe
this to me as one of the 'darkest days of her life'.
Repeated requests about my whereabouts were rejected. All her cries for help fell on deaf
ears by a government that had stolen her son, and ... decided 'they' knew what was best for this
so-called part-Aboriginal boy.

In October 1967 I was placed with a family for adoption. This placement was a dismal
failure, lasting only seven months. This family rejected me, and requested my removal, claiming in
their words that I was unresponsive, dull, and that my so-called deficiencies were unacceptable. In
the medical officer's report on my file there is a comment that Mrs A 'compared him unfavourably
with her friends' children and finds his deficiencies an embarrassment, e.g. at coffee parties'.
Upon removal, I was placed at the Gables Orphanage in Kew, where I was institutionalised
for a further two years. Within these two years, I can clearly remember being withdrawn and
frightened ... not talking to anyone for days on end.
I clearly remember being put in line-ups every fortnight, where prospective foster parents
would view all the children. I was always left behind. I remember people coming to the Gables,
and taking me to their homes on weekends, but I would always be brought back. Apparently I
wasn't quite the child they were looking for.
My dark complexion was a problem.
The Gables knew my dark complexion was a problem, constantly trying to reassure
prospective foster parents that I could be taken as southern European in origin.
In January 1970, I was again placed with a foster family, where I remained until I was 17.
This family had four natural sons of their own. I was the only fostered child.
During this placement, I was acutely aware of my colour, and I knew I was different from the
other members of their family. At no stage was I ever told of my Aboriginality, or my natural mother
or father. When I'd say to my foster family, 'why am I a different colour?' they would laugh at me,
and ... tell me to drink plenty of milk, 'and then you will look more like us'. The other sons would
call me names such as 'their little Abo', and tease me. At the time, I didn't know what this meant,
but it did really hurt, and I'd run into the bedroom crying. They would threaten to hurt me if I told
anyone they said these things.
... Their Little Abo ...
My foster family made me attend the same primary and secondary school that their other
children had all previously attended. Because of this, I was ridiculed and made fun of, by students
and teachers. Everyone knew that I was different from the other family members, and that I
couldn't be their real brother, even though I'd been given the same surname as them. Often I
would run out of class crying and ... hide in the school grounds.
The foster family would punish me severely for the slightest thing they regarded as
unacceptable or unchristian-like behaviour, even if I didn't eat my dinner or tea. Sometimes I would
be locked in my room for hours. Countless times the foster father would rain blows upon me with
his favourite leather strap. He would continue until I wept uncontrollably, pleading for him to stop.
My mother never gave up trying to locate me. Throughout all these years - from five and a
half months to eighteen years of age, my mother never gave up trying to locate me.
She wrote many letters to the state welfare authorities, pleading with them to give her son
back. Birthday and Christmas cards were sent care of the welfare department. All these letters
were shelved. The State Welfare Department treated my mother like dirt and with utter contempt,
as if she never existed. The department rejected and scoffed at all my mother's cries and pleas for
help. They inflicted a terrible pain of separation, anguish and grief upon a mother who only ever
wanted her son back.
In May 1982, I was requested to attend at the Sunshine Welfare Offices, where they
formerly discharged me from state wardship. It took the senior welfare officer a mere twenty
minutes to come clean and tell me everything that my heart had always wanted to know. He
conveyed to me in a matter-of-fact way that I was of 'Aboriginal descent', that I had a natural
mother, father, three brothers and a sister, who were alive.
Angus
 He explained that his department's position was only to protect me and, 'that is why you
were not told these things before'. He placed in front of me 368 pages of my file, together with
letters, photos and birthday cards. He informed me that my surname would change back to my
mother's maiden name of Angus.
The welfare officer scribbled on a piece of paper my mother's current address in case, in his
words, I'd 'ever want to meet her'. I cried tears of relief, guilt and anger. The official conclusion, on
the very last page of my file, reads...
'Paul is a very intelligent, likeable boy, who has made remarkable progress, given the
unfortunate treatment of his mother by the department during his childhood.'
When Paul located his mother at the age of eighteen she was working in a hostel for
Aboriginal children with twenty children under her care. She died six years later at the age of forty-
five.
Karen's Story
I am a part Aboriginal woman, who was adopted out at birth. I was adopted by a white
Australian family and came to live in New Zealand at the age of six months. I grew up not knowing
about my natural mother and father. The only information my adoptive parents had about my birth,
was the surname of my birth mother.
I guess I had quite a good relationship with my adoptive mum, dad and sisters. Though my
adopted mother said I kept to myself a lot, while I was growing up. As I got older I noticed my skin
colouring was different to that of my family. My mother told me I was adopted from Australia and
part Aboriginal. I felt quite lonely especially as I approached my teens. I got teased often about
being Aboriginal and became very withdrawn and mixed up, I really did not know where I
belonged. As a result of this I started having psychiatric problems. I seemed to cope and muddle
along.
I eventually got married to a New Zealander and we have two boys who are now teenagers.
One of our boys is dark like myself and was interested in his heritage. I was unable to tell him
anything, as I didn't know about it myself.
My husband, boys and I had the opportunity to go to Melbourne about seven years ago on
a working holiday for ten weeks. While in Melbourne I went to an Aboriginal health centre and
spoke to a social worker, as I had a copy of my birth certificate with my birth mother's name on it.
The social worker recognised my mother's surname 'Graham', and got in touch with my aunty, who
gave me my mother's phone number.
Graham
I got in touch with my birth mother and made arrangements to meet her. I have a half
brother and sister. My birth mother and father never married, though my father knew my mother
was pregnant with me. My mother did not know where my father was, as they parted before I was
born. My sister decided to call a local Melbourne paper and put our story in the paper on how I had
found them after twenty-nine years.
My father, who was in Melbourne at the time, saw the article and a photo of my mother and
myself in the paper. He recognised my mother and got in touch with her. My mother and I had
been corresponding after we returned to New Zealand. For her own reasons, she would not give
my father my address, so my father went through the social service agency and got in touch with
me two and a half years ago. I have met my birth father, as I had a family wedding in Melbourne
shortly after he made contact with me, so I made arrangements to meet him.
We kept in contact with one another, but I feel we will never be able to make up for lost
time, as my birth parents live in Australia and I am in New Zealand.
I still feel confused about where I belong, it has been very emotional and the result of this
caused me to have a complete nervous breakdown. I am on medication daily and am seeing a
counsellor to help me come to terms and accept the situation where I am at right now and to sort
out some confused feelings. My adoptive family really don't want to know too much about my birth
family, which also makes it hard.
I feel that I should be entitled to some financial compensation for travel purposes to enable us to
do this.
Studying the Impact
Emotional and Psychological Stress
 Both Paul and Karen tell of their personal anguish and suffering as a result of being forcibly
removed from their families. It could be described as:
being treated as a commodity
feeling rejected
being moved from place to place
being discriminated against and bullied
loss of self-esteem and self-identity
suffering physical abuse
feeling of not belonging anywhere.
Apparent from their stories as adults, is the emotional and psychological stress caused by
the deceit and lies that often accompanied forced removals. But an insight is also provided into the
impact on Aboriginal spirituality. As Paul explains
... during this placement, I was acutely aware of my colour, and I knew I was different from
the other members of their family. At no stage was I ever told of my Aboriginality, or my natural
mother or father.
Loss of Connection to the Dreaming
Significant also is the loss of important cultural and spiritual links with family and country.
By losing their connection to the land, these children lost their connection to the Dreaming - the
heart of Aboriginal spirituality.
Kinship ties were broken as children were removed from their immediate and extended
families. Having lost the framework that governed their relationships with their immediate and
extended family, the clan and the land, Aboriginal people searched for a new place in a 'foreign'
culture, often losing their self-identity in the process.
These kinship ties are important to Aboriginal people, because they embody the laws
handed down to them by their ancestral beings. Often these kinship ties can never be fully
restored, as the following observation suggests.
After [twenty-seven years], Lois was finally re-united with her mother. She proudly
introduced Lois to everyone in town, but carefully steered her away from the camp where she was
living, realising that Lois had been brought up differently and not wanting Lois to see the poor
conditions she was living in. Later, Lois brought her mother south to meet the other four children
she had lost, long ago.
Influence on Future Generations
Unfortunately, the spiritual impact of forced removal is passed on to families who lost their
children, as well as to future generations, i.e. children of the Stolen Generation. They too have lost
an important part of their spiritual heritage. As Karen explains
... one of our boys is dark like myself and was interested in his heritage. I was unable to tell him
anything, as I didn't know about it myself.
Separated from their elders, children like Karen missed out on traditional knowledge,
language, rituals and symbols essential to the Dreaming. As a result they are unable to pass on
their spiritual heritage to their children.
Kinship Roles and Responsibilities
Forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families created gaps in kinship structures.
Traditional parenting roles together with socialising and nurturing responsibilities were taken away
from members of the Stolen Generations. Their spirituality became diminished.
The National Apology
On February 13, 2008, a significant and defining event took place in Australia's history. The
following is part of a press release.
Australia has formally apologised to the Stolen Generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.
The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of
the forty-second Parliament of Australia.
Both Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, received a standing ovation
as they entered the Great Hall before the Prime Minister delivered the speech.
 The reading of the 361-word apology was completed by 9.30am and was watched by
hundreds of parliamentarians, former prime ministers and representatives of the indigenous
community.
Former prime ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and
Sir William Deane were all seated on the floor of the Parliament as well as seventeen people
representing the stolen generation.
Source Material
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Speech to Parliament
I move:
That today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in
human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment
of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting
the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that
have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise
especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their
communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their
descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the
brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the
indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit
in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation ...
... Mr Speaker, today the parliament has come together to right a great wrong. We have
come together to deal with the past so that we might fully embrace the future. We have had
sufficient audacity of faith to advance a pathway to that future, with arms extended rather than with
fists still clenched.
So let us seize the day. Let it not become a moment of mere sentimental reflection. Let us
take it with both hands and allow this day, this day of national reconciliation, to become one of
those rare moments in which we might just be able to transform the way in which the nation thinks
about itself, whereby the injustice administered to the stolen generations in the name of these, our
parliaments, causes all of us to reappraise, at the deepest level of our beliefs, the real possibility of
reconciliation writ large: reconciliation across all indigenous Australia; reconciliation across the
entire history of the often bloody encounter between those who emerged from the Dreamtime a
thousand generations ago and those who, like me, came across the seas only yesterday;
reconciliation which opens up whole new possibilities for the future.
It is for the nation to bring the first two centuries of our settled history to a close, as we
begin a new chapter. We embrace with pride, admiration and awe these great and ancient cultures
we are truly blessed to have among us cultures that provide a unique, uninterrupted human thread
linking our Australian continent to the most ancient prehistory of our planet.
Growing from this new respect, we see our indigenous brothers and sisters with fresh eyes,
with new eyes, and we have our minds wide open as to how we might tackle, together, the great
practical challenges that Indigenous Australia faces in the future.
Let us turn this page together: indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, government and
opposition, Commonwealth and State, and write this new chapter in our nation's story together.
First Australians, First Fleeters, and those who first took the oath of allegiance just a few
weeks ago, let's grasp this opportunity to craft a new future for this great land: Australia. I
commend the motion to the House.
Part Eleven: Land Rights - Reclaiming the Dreaming
Focus:
In Australia, the land rights movement is the struggle to reclaim the lands and Dreaming from
which Aboriginal people have been dispossessed, making the movement both political and
spiritual.
Aspects of native title have been addressed legally by the Mabo judgment, Native Title Act 1993
and Wik decision.
Considerable work remains in reclaiming Aboriginal land and sovereignty and until then the
Dreaming can never fully be reclaimed.
Important Words
Colonisers people who help found a colony
Common Law system of law in which judges' decisions are informed by decisions in cases
previously settled, i.e. by following a precedent or similar case; also called 'case law'
Mabo Judgment High Court ruling that native title exists where Aboriginal people have
maintained an ongoing connection with their country, according to their traditions and customs;
overturned terra nullius
Native Title rights and interests possessed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
under traditional laws and customs and recognised by Australian common law
Native Title Act 1993 part of the Commonwealth Government response to Mabo judgment
Right of Extinguishment use of common law provisions to extinguish native title in relation to
pastoral leases
Wik Decision High Court ruling that pastoral leases did not give pastoralists exclusive
possession of land and did not necessarily extinguish all native title rights and interests
Native Title
Context
The story of Aboriginal land rights is the history of Australia since first European settlement
in 1788, and in this context, the Land Rights movement is both political and spiritual. While neither
side declared war on one another, settlement by colonisers was by no means peaceful as they
were determined to acquire land even by force.
In this context, the Land Rights movement refers to the struggle of Aboriginal people to gain
recognition. It is the struggle to reclaim the land taken from them and be reconnected with the
Dreaming.
The Principle
Native title is a principle of Australian common law that acknowledges Aboriginal people did
not necessarily lose their land and waters at British settlement. Aboriginal right to ownership of
land was recognised by British authorities very early in the life of the colony. As early as 1837, the
report of the British Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes, (British Settlements)
affirmed that
... the native inhabitants of any land have an incontrovertible right to their own soil however,
which seems not to have been understood.
The principle of terra nullius had been applied to Australia from the very day of first
settlement in 1788 on the basis that Aboriginal people had no laws and customs in relation to the
land. While this assumption was completely untrue, as they had complex systems and laws
relating to ownership and management of the land, it was convenient to ignore this in view of the
growing demand for land by settlers. The principle of terra nullius was affirmed in law by the British
Privy Council in 1889
... which in Cooper v. Stuart, held that Australia in 1788 was, 'a tract of territory practically
unoccupied without settled inhabitants'
The Struggle
Prior to 1992, native title was not recognised at common law in Australia. Aboriginal
people's long and historical struggle to reclaim the land that once belonged to them reflects this
lack of recognition. Until 1992, native title was the basis of the land rights movement in this
country.
Although the doctrine of terra nullius was overturned by the High Court Mabo judgment in
1992, Aboriginal people continue their struggle to reclaim through the land rights movement. From
an Aboriginal perspective this is because the judgment and subsequent legal decisions and
legislation have failed to deliver fully what belongs to them.
The Mabo Case
Basis
In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Meriam people of the Murray Islands commenced legal
action in the Australian High Court, seeking recognition in law of their traditional land rights. The
basis of the claim was that the Meriam people's rights to their land had not been extinguished by
Britain's claim to sovereignty, because they have continued to enjoy their land rights after
occupation.
Finding
After ten years of litigation, the High Court finally made its ruling by a majority of six to one.
The judges conceded that the British Crown had acquired sovereignty, but stated that it did not
automatically acquire full ownership of the land, unless it asserted full ownership in such a way
that extinguished Aboriginal people's right to native title.
In other words, Aboriginal people did not lose ownership of their land, unless the Crown
acted in a way that indicated it intended to take ownership of the land. Therefore, vacant crown
land, national parks and possibly some leased land, to which Aboriginal people have traditionally
had access, can be claimed for native title.
Ruling
The High Court ruled that native title exists where Aboriginal people have maintained an
ongoing connection with their country, according to their traditions and customs.
The Meriam people asserted an exclusive right to occupy the Murray Islands and, as a
community, held an interest in the Islands. They have maintained their identity as a people and
they observe customs which are traditionally based ... Of course, in time the laws and customs of
any people will change and the rights and interests of the members of the people among
themselves will change too. But so long as the people remain as an identifiable community, the
members of whom are identified by one another as members of that community living under its
laws and customs, the communal native title survives to be enjoyed by the members according to
the rights and interests to which they are respectively entitled under the traditionally-based laws
and customs, as currently acknowledged and observed. Here, the Meriam people have maintained
their own identity and their own customs. The Murray Islands clearly remain their home country.
Their land disputes have been dealt with over the years by the Island Court in accordance with the
customs of the Meriam people.
Significance
The Mabo judgment is significant in so far as it overturned the fictional notion of terra
nullius. In effect, the High Court admitted the error of common law to fail to recognise native title
and made a ruling to ensure that the legal system could no longer refuse to recognise it.
While the Mabo judgment may be regarded by non-Aboriginal Australians as a landmark
decision, the Aboriginal perspective is very different. At best, it represents a marginal shift in the
way common law views native title.
The result of the High Court reasoning is like having your cake and eating it too. That is,
Australia was able to enjoy the accolades of being acknowledged as a champion of Aboriginal
rights in giving recognition to native title, while retaining ultimate power over native title in the form
of the right of extinguishment. The state holds power to remove a grant of native title. So under
Australian law Aboriginal peoples are guaranteed an unstable relationship to country and one that
always threatens a future homelessness.
At worst, the judgment did little, if anything, to recognise traditional ownership.
Contrary to claims by its opponents, it does not bestow any privileges on Aboriginal people
that no other Australians already enjoy. In fact, it still leaves Aboriginal people at a disadvantage
relative to other Australians as well as to the indigenous peoples in the USA, Canada, and New
Zealand. It is a matter of justice that the judgment is not weakened but strengthened by further
reforms recognising the rights of Aboriginal people to compensation for past injustice, to self
determination, to practice of their religion and to the protection of their cultural and religious
inheritance.
Regardless of the perspective taken, the Mabo judgment did achieve some measure of
justice for Aboriginal people. It opened the way for them to make claims in respect of their
traditional lands.
Native Title Act 1993
The Commonwealth Government responded to the Mabo judgment by passing the Native
Title Act 1993. It was in a difficult position, with much angst and even hysteria among some
interest groups within mainstream Australian society who feared they would or could be
dispossessed of their land.
 Developers, miners, pastoralists, tourist operators and the like, needed access to land, as
well as the certainty of maintaining title to it. The Native Title Act sought to balance the interests of
these parties with Aboriginal people's property and cultural rights in five ways.
1. It recognises and protects native title.
2. It provides for the validation of any past grants of land that may otherwise have been invalid
because of the existence of native title.
3. It provides a regime to enable future dealings in native title lands and imposes conditions on
those dealings.
4. It establishes a regime to ascertain where native title exists, who holds it and what it is, and
determine compensation for acts affecting it.
5. It creates a land acquisition fund to meet the needs of dispossessed Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples who would not be able to claim native title.
The Wik Decision
Context
The Wik sub-region is comprised of coastal flood plains and forested inland country drained
by several major westward flowing rivers on the central western side of Cape York. It contains an
Aboriginal land lease held by the Aurukun Shire Council, on which are located the township of
Aurukun itself and a number of outstations that are seasonally occupied by Wik families. The
region is occupied predominantly by the Wik-speaking peoples ... the majority of whom live in
Aurukun and the ... settlements of Pormpuraaw and Napranum, as well as the towns of Coen and
Weipa which lie just outside the region.
Most of Australia's land is under one or other type of lease, but the Mabo judgment steered
clear of addressing specific issues relating to leased land. It was, therefore, uncertain whether the
granting of a lease extinguished native title at common law. This was of particular concern to the
Wik and Thayorre people living on their traditional lands on the Cape York Peninsula, and which
were covered by past and then current pastoral leases.
Pastoral leases are a special form of land title and cover vast areas of land in outback
Australia. They bestow on leaseholders the right to graze cattle and sheep across large areas of
land without being restricted to specific pockets of land for continuous and extended periods. The
Wik and Thayorre people wanted to test in the High Court if pastoral leases extinguished what
they believed to be their native title rights.
High Court Ruling
High court judges drew on historical evidence in reaching a decision. Historical records
confirmed that early colonial legislation granting pastoral leases aimed, at least in part, to put a
stop to the violence perpetrated by settlers on Aboriginal people.
Common law records from that time indicated that pastoral licenses could be revoked if
squatters inflicted harm on Aboriginal people. On this basis, most judges concluded that the
purpose of pastoral leases had never been to exclude traditional Aboriginal hunting and gathering
rights, or to remove Aboriginal people from the land.
Therefore, the High Court ruled that pastoral leases did not give pastoralists exclusive
possession of land and so, did not necessarily extinguish all native title rights and interests. The
High Court further found that native title rights and interests survive when they coexist
harmoniously with the rights of pastoralists. However, where there was any inconsistency between
the two, the rights of the pastoralists would prevail.
Significance
The Wik decision is like a double-edged sword for Aboriginal people. On the one hand, it
conferred some protection over native title rights by ruling that pastoral leases did not extinguish
native title, and that the two can exist side by side. At least this has given Aboriginal people
access to their traditional lands, even if they coincide with pastoral leases. On the other hand, the
decision affirmed the primary rights of pastoralists in cases where native title and pastoral leases
cannot coexist harmoniously. The Wik decision, therefore, never fully restored the rights that
traditional Aboriginal people had to their lands.
Furthermore, the rights that Aboriginal people gained as a result of the Mabo judgment and
Wik decision were further eroded when the Federal Government enacted its Ten Point Plan in
1997. As far as Aboriginal people are concerned, this was a backward step, because the
legislation included provisions that either extinguished native title or significantly cut back the
statutory rights of native title holders.
The Land Rights Movement - Reclaiming the Dreaming
Two Interconnecting Issues
Britain took sovereignty over Australia without negotiating with and obtaining consent from
Aboriginal people. Historically, there have been instances of cooperative coexistence between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, but the instances are greatly outnumbered by conflicts
arising from forced removal of indigenous people from traditional lands.
These conflicts embrace two interconnected issues.
1. The first issue concerns the physical loss of traditional land and country.
2. The second issue relates to Aboriginal people being stripped of their own sovereignty and it
being replaced with British rule and laws.
Australia's Aboriginal people lost both their traditional lands and the laws and rules
governing their lives and relationships. These losses, even if partial, have significantly impacted on
their capacity to sustain and perpetuate the Dreaming - core of Aboriginal spirituality constantly
renewed in traditional rituals and stories of the Dreaming. It is equivalent to being evicted from
one's home and having to live in someone else's house, under their rules.
Land Rights Movement
In view of this, it is not surprising that European colonisation of Australia has met with fierce
resistance from Aboriginal people and been appropriately termed the land rights movement.
Although not taking on an organised form until 1966, this movement has existed since first
European settlement. In whatever form, the land rights movement in this country, has always been
about reclaiming the Aboriginal right to land and sovereignty - their right to reclaim the Dreaming.
The land rights movement became formalised in 1966 when the Gurindji people conducted
a strike in protest against poor conditions and pay. What was initially a wages and conditions issue
soon became a land rights issue. Nine years later, the Whitlam Government granted the return of
some Gurindji traditional lands.
This was a significant turning point for the land rights movement. It became a national
symbol of Aboriginal people's struggle to reclaim land and sovereignty and reclaim the Dreaming.
Aboriginal Tent Embassy
1.Control of the Northern Territory as a State within the Commonwealth of Australia; the
parliament in the Northern Territory to be predominantly Aboriginal with title and mining rights to all
land within the Territory
2. Legal title and mining rights to all other presently existing reserve lands and settlements
throughout Australia
3. Preservation of all sacred sites throughout Australia
4. Legal title and mining rights to areas in and around all Australian capital cities
5. Compensation money for lands not returnable to take the form of a down-payment of six billion
dollars and an annual percentage of the gross national income
While these demands were rejected, the Tent Embassy became an important symbol of
Aboriginal people's estrangement from the land and was added to the Australian Register of the
National Estate in 1995. Today, it is recognised nationally as a site representing the Aboriginal
struggle to reclaim land and sovereignty.
Mabo and Wik
The Mabo judgment and Wik decision were important wins for the land rights movement,
even though these gains were somewhat eroded by the Howard Government's Ten Point Plan.
Considerable work remains in reclaiming the land and sovereignty enjoyed by Aboriginal people
before European settlement. Until this happens, Aboriginal people can never fully reconnect with
the Dreaming.
Until we give back to the black man just a bit of what was his and give it back without
provisos, without strings to snatch it back, without anything but complete generosity of spirit in
concession for the evil we have done to him - until we do that, we shall remain what we have been
so far: a people without integrity, not a nation, but a community of thieves.
Summary
The Dreaming is an ever-present reality that describes the formation of the world and everything
in it. There are many Aboriginal deities; some are regarded as supreme creator beings, others are
regarded as ancestral beings. Dreaming mythologies of the many different Aboriginal tribes are
variations on a common theme.
Aboriginal sacred stories of the Dreaming often explained the origin of the universe and
everything in it - they formed the framework by which Aboriginal people made sense of the world.
Aboriginal people never used a written language to pass on Dreaming stories - individuals 'owned'
myths according to their totems, and it was their responsibility to see that the stories were kept
alive and passed on to the proper persons. Aboriginal sacred stories exhibit a common theme as
well as variations.
Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe their sacred sites were created
and shaped into their particular forms during the Dreaming and demonstrate imprints and physical
proof of the actions of ancestral beings. Sacred sites are places for ritual and ceremony.
Aboriginal people believe that the power of ancestral spirits is present at these sites, making them
forever sacred.
Symbols and artworks played a central role in communication and Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people employed a system of symbols that was at once simple and sophisticated.
Traditional art usually depicted the Aboriginal bond with the land and the activities of ancestral
beings, as well as religious beliefs and sacred stories from the Dreaming. Australia's indigenous
people were creative in terms of finding and using appropriate media and readily available
pigments.
To understand the connection of the Dreaming, the land and identity of Aboriginal people, it is
necessary to examine how creation came into being and how it is sustained from an
anthropological point of view. The land and all creation is an embodiment of the living presence of
ancestral beings. Birthplace, ancestor beings, totems, biological heritage and kinship connect
Aboriginal people to the Dreaming and give rise to personal and social identity. Traditional
Aboriginal people's connection to the land through the Dreaming has a profound influence on their
understanding of themselves and the land.
The Dreaming is at the heart of Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality and provides answers to
questions of existence. Sacred sites, symbols and art provide Aboriginal people with connections
to spiritual well-being. The Dreaming provides Aboriginal people with a source of identity and
belonging, as well as explaining why things are the way they are - status quo.
Kinship is the single most important means of organising and regulating social and spiritual
relationships. The classificatory system provides a simple and transparent framework for enforcing
rules and regulations. The highest kinship level is that of the tribe or nation, followed by totemic
groups, clans and moieties. Specific rules relating to marriage vary from tribe to tribe, but
commonly revolve around subdivisions within the tribe known as sections or skin-names.
Ceremonies occupy an important place in Aboriginal life by providing access to the spiritual world
and perpetuating the Dreaming. Many types of rituals continue to be used in traditional Aboriginal
language groups and are usually associated with birth, coming of age, death, and fertility. Sacred
objects, songs, music and dance connect traditional Aboriginal people to the Dreaming.
The Dreaming proposes that all human beings, as well as the land and all it sustains, were
created by ancestral beings during the time of creation. Each person is a custodian of the land and
all it sustains and is responsible for renewing flora and fauna according to customary laws. The
principle of reciprocity is the fundamental principle governing one's obligations to other people
within Aboriginal society and applies to the exchange of goods, services, favours and obligations.
The separation of Aboriginal people from their land, systematic disintegration of the kinship
system, and forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, have had profound and
devastating effects on Aboriginal spirituality. Aboriginal people are connected to the land both
geographically and spiritually and dispossession is akin to the destruction of their spirituality - the
very means by which they achieve social cohesion and meaning in life. Loss of identity, heritage,
traditions and rituals have separated Aboriginal people from the Dreaming and heart of their
spirituality and forced them to search for a new place in a foreign culture, where many are no
longer able to draw on their rich spiritual heritage to provide the stability and social cohesion
needed to cope with rapid and constant change.
In Australia, the land rights movement is the struggle to reclaim the lands and Dreaming from
which Aboriginal people have been dispossessed, making the movement both political and
spiritual. Aspects of native title have been addressed legally by the Mabo judgment, Native Title
Act 1993 and Wik decision. Considerable work remains in reclaiming Aboriginal land and
sovereignty and until then the Dreaming can never fully be reclaimed