Photo: David M. Welch. Aboriginal religion, like other religions, is characterised by having a god or gods who created people and the surrounding environment during a particular creation period at the beginning of time. 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.
Who is the Aboriginal god?
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.
Do Aboriginals believe god?
Most indigenous religions believe in some sort of great spirit, a god, whether male or female, who created the world and is responsible for the way the world works. Some believe in multiple gods.
What religion do Aborigines believe?
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.
What is Australia's god?
The most popular Australian Aboriginal gods 1st: The Wandjina. 2nd: Altjira. 3rd: Lumaluma. 4th: Rainbow Snake. 5th: Yhi.
Can Aboriginals show DNA?
If you receive the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander region in your DNA results, this tells you that you probably had an ancestor who was an Indigenous Australian. If you are Indigenous Australian and do not receive this region in your DNA results, this should not subtract from your identity in any way.
Do Aboriginals believe in souls?
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.
Do Aboriginals believe in an afterlife?
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.
Are Aboriginal Muslims?
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.
What race are Australian Aboriginals?
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.
What is Dragon in Aboriginal?
Rainbow Serpents are a type of dragon across the various tribes of the Aboriginal people. (And not just in Australia, Rainbow Serpent mythology has been found throughout the world, most commonly in Australia and South America.) They are thought to be the descendants of a great entity that lives in the Milky Way galaxy.
What is the Aboriginal name for spirit?
Migaloo: Ghost or spirit.
What did the Aboriginals invent?
Aboriginal adults made rattles, dolls, spinning tops, and balls for their children to play with, as well as small-scale, harmless models of tools and weapons. Children made toy propellers out of strips of long leaves, which they launched into the air in throwing competitions.
Do Aboriginals worship gods?
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.
Did the Aboriginals have a religion?
Affiliation with a traditional Indigenous religion was highest in Very Remote areas (6%) than in all other areas (less than 1%). In 2006, 73% of the Indigenous population reported an affiliation with a Christian denomination. Of these, approximately one-third reported Anglican and one-third Catholic.
What is the rainbow snake?
The Rainbow Snake is a common feature of the mythology and art of indigenous Australian cultures. The following is a list of Australian Indigenous Australian deities and spirits .
What are the names of the snake gods?
Wollunqua, snake-deity associated with rain and fertility. Wuluwaid, rain god of Arnhem Land. Wuriupranili, solar goddess whose torch is the sun. Wurugag and Waramurungundi, first man and woman of Gunwinggu legend. YawkYawk, Aboriginal mermaids who live in waterholes, freshwater springs, and rock pools.
What is Kurdaitcha man?
Kurdaitcha (or kurdaitcha man) is a ritual "executioner" in Australian Indigenous Australian culture (specifically the term comes from the Arrernte people). Ngariman, Karadjeri quoll-man who killed the Bagadjimbiri and was drowned in revenge. Njirana, Jumu deity and father of Julana.
What is the name of the god of the Adnyamathanha people?
Akurra, great snake deity of the Adnyamathanha people. Bila, cannibal sun goddess of the Adnyamathanha people. Bunyip, mythical creature said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. Mar'rallang, mythical twin sisters. Muldjewangk, water spirit or spirits inhabiting the Murray River.
What is the name of the goddess of fertility?
Anjea, fertility goddess or spirit, in whom people's souls reside between their incarnations. Gaiya, giant devil dingo of lower Cape York Peninsula. Dhakhan, ancestral god of the Kabi. I'wai, culture hero of the Kuuku-Ya'u.
What is the name of the snake god that feeds on the dead?
Papinijuwari, a type of one-eyed giant which feeds on the bodies of the dead and the blood of the sick. Ulanji, snake-ancestor of the Binbinga. Wala, solar goddess. Wawalag, Yolngu sisters who were swallowed by a serpent, only to be regurgitated. Wollunqua, snake-deity associated with rain and fertility.
What is the name of the goddess associated with initiation, fertility, rebirth and water?
Djunkgao, group of sisters associated with floods and ocean currents. Julunggul, Yolgnu rainbow snake goddess associated with initiation, fertility, rebirth and water. Karora, creator god. Kunapipi, mother goddess and the patron deity of many heroes. Malingee, malignant nocturnal spirit.
What does Dreamtime represent?
Dreamtime represents the period of active creation of the universe. Aboriginals recognise an eternal Creator God (‘High Gods’) who initiated creation, but then retreated to a ‘ distant realm of heaven where human beings cannot reach him’. 5 It is interesting that for so many unique Aboriginal tribes that had remained isolated from each other, to all hold the concept of a single eternal creator for many millennia provides strong proof for the existence of God rather than the concept of God as being a figment of human imagination. 6
What is the Aboriginal faith?
The Aboriginal people are very spiritual, and have a close affinity with nature and the creations around them, just as the Native Americans did. Aboriginal faith is preserved as oral traditions handed down through the generations and now considered as mythology. There is truth in the myths, but the modern interpretation might make the stories seem absurd.
What are the Aboriginal people's beliefs?
They have a belief in a single eternal Creator and life after death which can be understood by monotheists. They have a respect for elders, society and nature. For millennia, their society was stable based upon generations of existence in the same lands and a stable culture, yet the last 200 years since colonisation have been ruinous for them. Although they have started to absorb more recent influences, it is their ancient traditional faith that underpins their psyche.
What is the second creation?
According to beliefs, the second creation which included life on earth was managed by a number of celestial creation beings who then severed the link between the sky and earth. These beings can travel between the earth and sky using a ladder or tree, and aboriginals feel their presence in sacred caves, rocks or trees. At this time, mountain ranges and lakes were created, plant forms emerged. For aborigines, dreams are often interpreted as the memories from that period or a transformation back to that creation period, hence it is called Dreamtime.
What is a totemic being?
Totemic Beings – the original form of an object, plant or animal from Dreamtime.
What is creation being?
Creation Beings – involved in the creation of people and the environment.
Where is Uluru located?
Uluru, more commonly known as Ayer’s Rock, is a large rocky outcrop in central Australia, and is the most sacred place for Aboriginal people to which they travel for pilgrimage. People go there to contemplate in the many caves and pools. Just as with other pilgrimage sites, Uluru is preserved for future pilgrims by the custodians from the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara peoples. 11
What did Howitt believe if they were not killed by magic?
As for Howitt, even if we accept his tall claim that all Aborigines believed that if they were not killed by magic they could have evolved into something like the Creator Himself , it offers no haven of escape to him . In no way does it support the sociologists' myth of evolution of the idea of God.
What do sociologists believe about the Creator?
The sociologists, when referring to these beliefs, very often forget to inform the reader that these and all the other five hundred or more tribes, did believe in the eternity of the Creator; whether He took human form or not is only incidental and not central to the issue. Again, what is central to their belief is the fact that the earth and whatever it contained did not eternally coexist with the Supreme Creator .
What is the issue of dreams?
The issue of dreams is radically different. Like their belief in one God, their reliance on dreams as a means of Divine instruction is shared by all invariably. The dreams very often follow their contemplation on matters of grave importance. Hence, it is not unlikely that this contemplation is just another name for prayers.
What is the system of religious hierarchy in dreams?
They have a system of religious hierarchy, comprising leaders who are well versed in the science of interpretation of dreams. Such leaders have no outside contact and access to them by the non-Aborigine is barred.
What is the theory of ultimate evolution?
The theory of ultimate evolution of belief in one God, from the primitive superstitious beliefs in many gods, has nothing whatsoever to do with the hypothetical discussion of the possible evolution of men into gods, had death not terminated their span of life.
How long has religion been around in Australia?
It is a continent whose culture, social and religious history can be traced back to at least twenty-five thousand years. Many scholars extend it to forty thousand years or beyond.
Why is Strehlow's argument irrefutable?
Strehlow's argument is irrefutable because the mythical forms referred to are described as immortal but not eternal in their relation to the past, while the High Gods, is both eternal and immortal. Moreover, no power of creation whatsoever is attributed to these mythical figures, hence they cannot be perceived as sharing Divinity with High Gods, the only Creator. Again it is quite likely that this belief may have been wrongly categorized as mythical. It may well have been a slightly changed version of the paradise concept common to all major Divinely revealed religions. The description of the Supreme Dweller of paradise being emu-footed and that of His wife and children as dog-footed are the only foreign elements to the concept of paradise found elsewhere, otherwise the same Eden-like gardens, eternally green, abounding in fruits and vegetables, with no fear of drought etc., are very close to metaphoric description of paradise presented by the Holy Quran.
Is Aboriginal mythology fragile?
Relying on memory and scratched images, Australian Aboriginal mythology is seemingly fragile, but in many instances it’s amazingly durable. Many of the dreams were trampled on by European invasion, but fortunately there has always been a strong oral tradition, and the legends of the Outback may be making a Comeback.
Who discovered Australia?
Like most ‘discovered’ countries, Australia had already been discovered by its original inhabitants — the Aboriginal peoples. Small nomadic tribes with many languages and ideas roamed the vast plains.
What is Aboriginal spirituality?
Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime ( the Dreaming ), songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature. Aboriginal spirituality often conveys descriptions of each group’s local cultural landscape, ...
How many Aboriginal people are there in Australia?
There are 900 distinct Aboriginal groups across Australia, each distinguished by unique names usually identifying particular languages, dialects, or distinctive speech mannerisms. Each language was used for original myths, from which the distinctive words and names of individual myths derive.
Why are Aboriginal myths important?
Australian anthropologists willing to generalise suggest Aboriginal myths still being performed across Australia by Aboriginal peoples serve an important social function amongst their intended audiences: justifying the received ordering of their daily lives; helping shape peoples’ ideas; and assisting to influence others’ behaviour. In addition, such performance often continuously incorporates and “mythologises” historical events in the service of these social purposes in an otherwise rapidly changing modern world.
How long ago were the crater lakes?
Dixon observed from the evidence available that Aboriginal myths regarding the origin of the Crater Lakes might be dated as accurate back to 10,000 years ago . Further investigation of the material by the Australian Heritage Commission led to the Crater Lakes myth being listed nationally on the Register of the National Estate, and included within Australia’s World Heritage nomination of the wet tropical forests, as an “unparalleled human record of events dating back to the Pleistocene era.”
What is the mythic map of Australia?
A mythic map of Australia would show thousands of characters, varying in their importance, but all in some way connected with the land. Some emerged at their specific sites and stayed spiritually in that vicinity. Others came from somewhere else and went somewhere else. Many were shape changing, transformed from or into human beings or natural species, or into natural features such as rocks but all left something of their spiritual essence at the places noted in their stories.
What is the myth of Lake Eyre?
Gregory in 1906), telling of the deserts of Central Australia as once having been fertile, well-watered plains, and the deserts around present Lake Eyre having been one continuous garden.
Where is Damarri in the Djabugay language?
The Djabugay language group’s mythical being, Damarri, transformed into a mountain range, is seen lying on his back above the Barron River Gorge, looking upwards to the skies, within north-east Australia’s wet tropical forested landscape.
What is totemic belief?
Totemism has been defined as a representation of the universe seen as a moral and social order, a worldview that regards humanity and nature as one corporate whole, or a set of symbols forming a conventional expression of the value system of a society. Such symbols provided intermediate links, both personal and social, between humans and the mythic beings. Many of the mythic beings in Australia are totemic in the sense of exemplifying in their own persons, or outward forms, the common life force pervading particular species. Others, originating in human or near-human form, at the end of their wanderings entered some physiographic feature, were metamorphosed as hills or rocks, or turned into various creatures or plants.
What was the Aboriginal way of life?
Aboriginal people saw their way of life as already ordained by the creative acts of the Dreaming beings and the blueprint that was their legacy, so their mission was simply to live in agreement with the terms of that legacy. There was thus no notion of progress and no room for competing dogmas or rebellion against the status quo.
Why is totemism important?
Totemism’s importance lies in providing individuals and groups with direct and life-sustaining links back to the very beginnings of society itself, the Dreaming, and to the enormous powers emanating from the spiritual realm. Conception totemism connects individuals to particular places and events and provides them with a unique account of their coming into being. It thus underpins individual identity while at the same time linking a person to many others who share similar associations. The plants, animals, or minerals that are selected as totems are not in themselves of religious significance, though in the case of foods a person may choose not to eat his or her totem, considering it to be of the same flesh. What is important is the connections symbolized by totems—the ties that bind people simultaneously to one another, to sites in the physical world, and to the omnipotent spiritual powers on which all worldly life depends.
How did Aboriginal people conduct their religious life?
These occasions enabled Aboriginal people to conduct their religious life in an atmosphere of heightened excitement and tension . The main ritual roles in most major religious sequences were reserved for initiated men, and much secret-sacred activity excluded all others, but women had important roles in many religious activities. Children also took part in many rituals. In some areas, such as the Great Sandy Desert, women had their own secret-sacred rites and objects. New rituals were always being composed or exchanged with other groups, and this diffusion added a vital dynamic element to religious life.
What was the law of the dreaming?
Everything that now existed was fixed for all time in the mythic past, and all that the living were asked to do, in order to guarantee the continuance of their world, was obey the law of the Dreaming and perform correctly the rituals upon which physical and social reproduction were said to depend.
What is conception totemism?
Conception totemism connects individuals to particular places and events and provides them with a unique account of their coming into being. It thus underpins individual identity while at the same time linking a person to many others who share similar associations.
What is sacred ritual?
Sacred ritual provided immense scope for aesthetic expression, especially in dramatic performances with stylized posturing and complicated dance movements. Less intense but sometimes almost as elaborate were the nonsacred ceremonies (corroborees) with dance, mime, and singing designed for entertainment and relaxation.
Overview
Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime (the Dreaming), songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature.
Aboriginal spirituality often conveys descriptions of each group's local cultural …
Antiquity
An Australian linguist, R. M. W. Dixon, recording Aboriginal myths in their original languages, encountered coincidences between some of the landscape details being told about within various myths, and scientific discoveries being made about the same landscapes. In the case of the Atherton Tableland, myths tell of the origins of Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine, and Lake Euramoo. Geological research dated the formative volcanic explosions described by Aboriginal myth teller…
Aboriginal mythology: whole of Australia
The stories enshrined in Aboriginal mythology variously "tell significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local landscape. They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and empower selected audiences with the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to time immemorial".
Pan-Australian mythology
In 1926 a British anthropologist specialising in Australian Aboriginal ethnology and ethnography, Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, noted many Aboriginal groups widely distributed across the Australian continent all appeared to share variations of a single (common) myth telling of an unusually powerful, often creative, often dangerous snake or serpent of sometimes enormous size close…
Group-specific mythology
The Murrinh-Patha people (whose country is the saltwater country immediately inland from the town of Wadeye ) describe a Dreamtime in their myths which anthropologists believe is a religious belief equivalent to, though wholly different from, most of the world's other significant religious beliefs.
In particular, scholars suggest the Murrinh-Patha have a oneness of thought, belief, and expressi…
Newer belief systems
In principle, census information could identify the extent of traditional Aboriginal beliefs compared to other belief systems such as Christianity; however the official census in Australia does not include traditional Aboriginal beliefs as a religion, and includes Torres Strait Islanders, a separate group of Indigenous Australians, in most of the counts.
In the 1991 census, almost 74 percent of Aboriginal respondents identified with Christianity, up f…
See also
• Australian Aboriginal culture
• Bush medicine
• Cultural landscape
• Indigenous Australians § Belief systems
Notes
1. ^ Dixon 1972, p. 29.
2. ^ Dixon 1996.
3. ^ NASO.
4. ^ AHD105689.
5. ^ Pannell 2006, p. 11.