The person's body was placed in a sitting position on top of the pyre before being covered by more branches and grasses. Sometimes it faced the east. The cremation pyre could be on open ground, inside a hut, in hollow logs or hollow trees. There appear to be different practices among the tribes around the island.
Many Aboriginal tribal groups share the belief that this life is only part of a longer journey. When a person passes away, the spirit leaves the body. The spirit must be sent along its journey; otherwise it will stay and disturb the family.
Ceremonies and mourning periods last days, weeks and even months depending upon the beliefs of the language group and the social status of the deceased person. But time is also essential in the healing process.
An Aboriginal person's soul or spirit is believed to "continue on after our physical form has passed through death", explains Eddie Kneebone. After the death of an Aboriginal person their spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock.
'Sorry business' is also a term you may hear if attending an Aboriginal service, it refers to the process of the funeral and mourning (although can also refer to the loss of family through other means such as imprisonment).
Eligibility Summary
To be eligible for up to $1,000 in funding for claimable funeral expenses, the Aboriginal person must be buried within NSW (regardless of if they resided in NSW or not) or be a member of the NSW local Aboriginal Land Council (regardless of if they resided in or are buried in NSW).
But as with many Aboriginal languages there's no simple way of saying goodbye in Wiradjuri. Traditionally, there was little use for such a term. The nearest word like that in Wiradjuri is guwayu – which means in a little while, later or after some time.
Aboriginal customs for honouring and disposing of the dead varied greatly across Victoria, but burial was common. Aboriginal burial places normally contain the remains of one or two people, although cemeteries that contain the remains of hundreds of people buried over thousands of years have been found.
Dreamtime is the foundation of Aboriginal religion and culture. It dates back some 65,000 years. It is the story of events that have happened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how their Creator intended for humans to function within the world as they knew it.
Aboriginal people are very religious and spiritual, but rather than praying to a single god they cannot see, each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form.
Canadian Aboriginal people lived an average of 72.8 years, Maoris 71.1 years.
Every May 26 in Australia, National Sorry Day reminds the colonist-descended people of the nation to remember the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Why?
The islands were settled by different seafaring Melanesian cultures such as the Torres Strait Islanders over 2500 years ago, and cultural interactions continued via this route with the Aboriginal people of northeast Australia.
Aboriginal Death Beliefs
When it comes to the dead, most tribes traditionally believed that the spirit needed to go to the Land of the Dead. Notions of heaven and hell though, were not a part of their beliefs. So the idea of an Aboriginal afterlife with rewards or punishment does not exist.
The leading cause of death for Indigenous males was circulatory diseases (closely followed by cancer and other neoplasms), while for Indigenous females it was cancer and other neoplasms (Table D1. 23.1, Figure 1.23. 2).
The largest speaker numbers are: Djambarrpuyngu (one of the large group of Yolŋu languages spoken in Arnhem Land - 4,264 speakers) Pitjantjatjara (one of the large group of Western Desert languages - 3,054 speakers) Warlpiri (spoken in Central Australia - 2,276 speakers)
You can find Aboriginal Muslims all over the country. Most live in urban areas and attend mosques alongside Muslims from other cultural backgrounds. Some of them are “cultural Muslims.” They identify with the cultural practices and some beliefs found in Islam, but they don't go to the mosque.
Genetic studies have revealed that Aboriginal Australians largely descended from an Eastern Eurasian population wave, and are most closely related to other Oceanians, such as Melanesians.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Baayami, Baayama or Byamee) was the creator god and sky father in the Dreaming of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Guringay, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.
Another interesting part of their mortuary rituals is that Aboriginal people in Australian avoid saying the name of the dead or depicting them in photos or films. According to ancient law, saying or depicting a dead person's name would disturb their spirit.
The Toraja of Sulawesi keep the bodies of the deceased in their homes for as long as a few years, believing “that a dead person who is still at home is not dead.” National Geographic documented the culture's sacred tradition in a video, revealing their lavish celebrations for the dead.
Like Orthodox Judaism, Islam has very strict views in opposition of cremation; of all the major faiths it is perhaps the most strongly and universally opposed to the practice. For Muslims, cremation is totally forbidden because it is viewed as sacrilegious and haram, meaning a sinful and unclean practice.
Some of the most well known Aboriginal words for hello are: Kaya, which means hello in the Noongar language. Palya is a Pintupi language word used as a greeting much in the same way that two friends would say hello in English while Yaama is a Gamilaraay language word for hello used in Northern NSW.
Gubbah, also spelt gubba, is a term used by some Aboriginal people to refer to white people or non-Aboriginal people. The Macquarie Dictionary has it as "n. Colloq. (derog.) an Aboriginal term for a white man".
Anangu culture has a set of social behaviours and customs that are considered good manners. Here are some that you should know. Anangu traditionally greet each other by saying 'palya', a word that can also mean welcome, thank you, understood, ok and goodbye.