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.
Dreamtime is the foundation of Aboriginal religion and culture. It dates back some 65,000 years.
Through systems of totemic belief, individuals and groups are linked in many different ways to both the things of nature and the all-powerful beings of the spiritual realm. Totemic beliefs are more highly elaborated among Aboriginal people than among any other people.
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.
Dreaming. A western term used to describe the Aboriginal Spirituality system. The dreaming. encompasses all the cultural values, laws and knowledge which is passed down through song, dance painting and storytelling to each generation. Each language group has their own term to describe their belief system.
The word bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as "devil" or "evil spirit".
To the Anishinaabe, Mother Earth is both the physical manifestation and embodiment of creation, and the Great Spirit Manitou who created it. Walking in harmony with the world is extremely important to the Anishinaabe culture and explains, in part, why there are so many Aboriginal people in constant distress these days.
Koori culture is characterised by a commitment to the Dreaming, an overall worldview that believes in and values interconnectedness between the land and community. Koori art and literature continue to be produced in contemporary Australia, often with reference to traditional Indigenous artistic techniques.
The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of Everywhen, during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods, as they did not control the material world and were not worshipped but only revered.
Many traditional aboriginal cultures consider death to be very natural. For many aboriginal people, a “good death” is one where they meet death with dignity and composure. Dying this way implies a further experience of an afterlife.
"Aboriginal spirituality is defined as at the core of Aboriginal being, their very identity. It gives meaning to all aspects of life including relationships with one another and the environment. All objects are living and share the same soul and spirit as Aboriginals. There is a kinship with the environment.
Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world. The word Hindu is an exonym although many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit.
Christianity has influenced Aboriginal spirituality in many ways, and many Aboriginal people are Christians. Aboriginal and Christian spirituality can sometimes peacefully coexist in the same person's belief system, and churches open up to this change.
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.
Sacred sites are places within the landscape that have a special meaning or significance under Aboriginal tradition. Hills, rocks, waterholes, trees, plains, lakes, billabongs and other natural features can be sacred sites.
Aboriginal language people terms such as 'Koori', 'Murri', 'Nyoongah' are appropriate for the areas where they apply. About 80% of the Torres Strait Island population now resides outside the Torres Strait and as such, local terminology such as Murray Island Peoples and Mer Island Peoples is also used.
Major beliefs within the Aboriginal Australian religion include oral tradition, songlines, and the Dreamtime.
Koori (or Koorie)
Koori is a term denoting an Aboriginal person of southern New South Wales or Victoria. 'Koori' is not a synonym for 'Aboriginal'. There are many other Aboriginal groups across Australia (such as Murri, Noongar, Yolngu) with which Indigenous Australians may identify themselves.
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.
“Land is very important to Aboriginal people with the common belief of 'we don't own the land, the land owns us'. Aboriginal people have always had a spiritual connection to their land, and because of this connection many Aboriginal people will not leave their country.
Many Aboriginal people believed the Earth was ultimately made by the Sun Mother upon the urging of the Father of All Spirits. These two divine beings were not thought to have children, although the Sun Mother was portrayed as one that gives life to the sleeping spirits.
Aboriginal land was taken over by British colonists on the premise that the land belonged to no-one ('terra nullius'). The history of Aboriginal dispossession is central to understanding contemporary Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relations.
She is dark-skinned, variously described as 'Kali' or 'Shyama', both meaning black. It again harks back to her origins among the indigenous people of eastern India, whose skin colour had been different from the fair-skinned north Indians.
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".