This work, created in 2015, is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial 4.0 International License : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
This Guide was originally written for a workshop presented at the Recreate: Teaching RE through the Arts Conference held in Brisbane in April 2015. The conference was run by the Dialogue Australasia Network (DAN). DAN has 300 members, largely from Independent and Catholic schools and educational bodies in Australia and New Zealand, and is committed to fostering and promoting critical and creative approaches to teaching religion and philosophy in schools. That being its genesis, this Guide is created under a Creative
Commons License, which means it is not copyrighted like a book. The author really wants you to use it, in whole or in part, and adapt it for your local area, provided your purposes are educational, good-willed and not-for-profit. Check the website above for how to respect the license.
The author , Jack Egan, is not Aboriginal but has been interested in Aboriginal Australia since he was a young rouseabout and shearer in outback Qld and NSW with Aboriginal workmates and overseer. Since that time he has known that there are very distinctive things going on in Aboriginal worlds. After a dormant period, Jack has re-cultivated that interest in recent years, inspired by his partner Cath
Bowdler, who has considerable knowledge of Aboriginal art and has lived in the Northern territory for close to 20 years. In 2006, she completed a PhD on contemporary art from the Roper River region. Since that time, Cath has taught about Aboriginal art at university level and is currently the inaugural director of the Godinmayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre in Katherine. This Centre is very much a Reconciliation project. It has come to fruition due to the efforts of long-term residents of the Katherine region, of both
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures, working to create a single centre in which all groups can share and celebrate their cultures together. Its website is: http://www.gyracc.org.au
1
Since following Cath to Katherine three years ago, Jack has worked casually for the Godinmayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre including establishing its Indigenous employment program. In addition, Jack has been training Aboriginal adults in Vocational
Education and Training (VET) certificates in Katherine and in remote Top End communities. He is currently teaching senior RE at St
Joseph’s College, a K-12 Catholic school in Katherine, NT. 30% of the 300 students at St Joseph’s are Aboriginal. In an earlier stint of teaching in Canberra at Merici College, a Diocesan 7-12 girl’s school, Jack taught RE and Philosophy and was the school’s Aboriginal contact teacher/mentor for thirty Indigenous students and f acilitator of Merici’s Reconciliation Action Group.
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On the side, Jack is urging the Katherine Town Council to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan. He is also creating an education kit linking the Australian Curriculum to the Yubulyawan Dreaming Project website. This site presents the extensive knowledge of
Yidumduma Bill Harney, an elder of the Wardaman tribe whose country stretches from Katherine to the Victoria River. In May 2012,
Jack’s article on Aboriginal religion, What was God doing for 45,000 years?
was published in Dialogue Australasia .
Why are we doing this? We have reached the point in history when we need to move from cultural awareness to cultural competence.
In achieving that competence in reading Aboriginal culture, our task is to understand Aboriginal religion so we can teach about it well.
A good way to this competence is through art – it’s a rich way to illustrate the fundamentals. So, now we have two big topics – religion and art. Daunting to cover in a short time, but let’s see how we go …
Just a qualifier: This guide does not cover Torres Strait Islander spirituality. It is very much based around the author’s experience of
Aboriginal culture and contacts, most recently in the Katherine region of Australia’s Top End where he currently lives. He urges others to build on or adapt what is here with their own experience, contacts and regional focus.
I welcome you to contact me: jacktegan@gmail.com
The key ideas are explained in order and each is illustrated through hyperlinks to publicly available web pages as far as possible. There are a small number of resources which it is recommended the user of this guide purchase online, as they are not freely available on the web. See the end of the guide for details.
The superscripts at the right-hand end of each hyperlink are not footnotes. They are just a means by which facilitators taking groups through this guide in a workshop situation can identify web pages they have pre-downloaded. This guards against workshops being held up by slow internet connections.
Aboriginal art is art made by Aboriginal people – full stop!
Put any other preconceptions aside. Aboriginal art comprises a huge diversity of subjects, forms, and future possibilities. There can be rules about what a particular artist can, and cannot make art about, and particular subjects on which a particular artist will want to focus. However, the style an artist chooses is not rule bound. These are some wildly varying examples from visual art: http://nga.gov.au/COLLECTIONS/ATSI/ 2
(National Gallery of Australia ATSI collection)
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Aboriginal visual art is world-renowned. It is keenly sought by public galleries and private collectors all over the world. The art critic
Robert Hughes reckoned this form of Aboriginal art as ‘the last great art movement of the 20th century’ (Citation hard to find though it is often cited) . Others share this view as indicated by the title of this recently published anthology by academic, Ian McLean: http://www.amazon.com/How-Aborigines-Invented-Idea-Contemporary/dp/090995237X
3
http://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/303105/yalangbara-resource.pdf
(East Arnhem Land) 4 http://papunyatula.com.au/artworks/ (Central Desert)
5 http://fearns.com.au/4480/76089/work/jackie-giles-mural (Western Desert) 6 http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/8473/CC_ed_Kit.pdf
(Roper River NT) 7 http://www.mca.com.au/collection/work/200916/ (Fiona Foley)
8 http://www.christianthompson.net/#!polari-2014/crsa (Christian Thompson) 9 http://www.michaelriley.com.au/flyblown-1998/ (Michael Riley) 10 http://www.kooriweb.org/bell/art.html
(Richard Bell)
11 http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/NIAT07/Detail.cfm?MnuID=4&SubMnuID=1&BioArtistIRN=33432&IRN=149628 (Daniel Boyd Cairns) 12
This guide draws not only from contemporary visual art, but from many other art forms such as song, dance, ancient rock art, contemporary cartoons, and video; both fiction and documentary.
It is important to understand that though today much Aboriginal art is made to sell to a non-Aboriginal audience, contemporary art is rooted in deep and ancient cultural practice. The three links below show Wiradjuri tree carvings at ceremonial grounds, ceremonial ground art and body-painting respectively. The Arnhem Land Yolgnu boys painted for initiation in the third and fourth links each wear a different painted pattern which is their specific clan design and which they will own for life. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2011/carved_trees/docs/3449_carved_trees_guide.pdf
13 https://www.facebook.com/CryptikMovement/photos/a.166207279484.118344.157642574484/10152552540254485/ 14 http://www.panos.co.uk/preview/00009242.html?p=355 15 http://www.panos.co.uk/preview/00071653.html?p=6 16
Religion in the world has many faces. To understand Aboriginal religion, it is, as with Aboriginal art, best to put preconceptions aside.
Like the phantom here – you could be in for some surprises! http://www.artmonthly.org.au/backissue.asp?issueNumber=254 17
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Let us be clear. Aboriginal religion is a significant religion today. In Australia it is a major religion as argued by Catholic philosopher and public intellectual Max Charlesworth:
… W.E.H. Stanner and other anthropologists such as T.G.H. Strehlow and Ronald and Catherine Berndt have shown that indigenous religions are what one might call serious systems of belief and practice which can be compared with the great 'world religions
’, though they are profoundly different from any of the latter.
After all, they have withstood the test of time with a vengeance! http://onlinecatholics.acu.edu.au/issue53/commessay1.html
18
But what sort of religion is it? Let’s look at the idea of Professor Stephen Prothero that God is Not One . That is the provocative title of his 2010 book. http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781863954808/god-not-one-eight-rival-religions-run-world-and-why-their-differences-matter 19
His idea is that, rather than different religions being different paths up the same mountain, they are different paths up different mountains. Extending Prothero’s idea, each religion can be conceived as having a different transcendent realm at the top of its mountain. The transcendent realm for Christians is heaven, and the path practitioners must take to reach it is loving as Christ loved
(John 13:34-35). For Buddhists, the transcendent real is nirvana, and the path is the Eight-fold Path.
In contrast, the transcendent realm of Aboriginal religion is the ancestral world. In the words of leading Australian anthropologist,
Howard Morphy, the path for practitioners of this religion is ‘becoming ancestors.’
(Morphy, H. Ancestral Connections . University of Chicago. 1991, p138)
Let us explore this Aboriginal ancestral world.
These concepts are the core of Aboriginal religion. They are closely connected. The Dreaming brings the Law and Country into existence. The Law tells how to look after Country, which is the land and everything in it. The connections are so close that, in some contexts, ‘Dreaming,’ ‘Law’ and ‘Country’ are used interchangeably.
This holism in Aboriginal worldviews is really important. The very famous Emily Kame Kngwarreye of Utopia in the Central Desert, whenever asked to explain her paintings, would answer,
‘That’s whole lot ….. that’s what I paint, whole lot’. http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/emily_kame_kngwarreye 20
(this webpage further explains this holism)
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But that, though true, is not an easy way in for teachers or our students. So, to understand the connections, let us unpack one concept at a time.
Aboriginal religion is fundamentally about connections to country. These connections are deep. They are metaphysical. That is, those links go far beyond anything physical or material. They are spiritual and religious, and for Aboriginal people, deeply emotional. They are unique in the world today – very different from other cultures’ ways of understanding self and country. Aboriginal connections to country are hard, but not impossible for non-Aboriginal people to understand and honour. To understand Aboriginal connections to country, the best place to start is the idea of ‘the Dreaming.’
As the source of creation, in the Dreaming ancestral beings awoke in a formless universe. They came down from the sky, emerged from water or broke through the crust of the earth. They journeyed across the sea and earth giving both form and features. They imprinted their bodies, their tools and their actions onto the ground and encountered other ancestral beings, sometimes battling, sometimes making children together and sometimes interacting in other ways.
This is how the natural environment we know today was created. It bears the signs and criss-crossing tracks of these ancestral beings, who are still as active today as they were at the beginning of time. At the end of their journeys the ancestral beings moved back into the sky, earth or water where they live now and forever. Often, in that process, ancestral beings changed into features we see today such as stars, mountains, rocks, islands, waterholes, plants, animals, birds and insects. Landscapes, seascapes and starscapes are a result of ancestral actions and transformation. This is what Wardaman tribe elder Yidumduma Bill Harney means when he says the Dreaming is in the rock, and the rock paintings are not paintings at all, but the impressions, silhouettes and shadows of the ancestors entering the rocks where they reside today,
‘… the shadow of all the Lightning People went into the walls of rock, and they are there today. We call that
Buwarraja [the Dreaming] put them in there. The shadow went in here, these people change to become all the different animal at the same time, become birds, animals, kangaroos and... We call that Buwarraja put them in there right back from the beginning of the Creation. That's where they are now.’
( http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stories1/ 21 (3 rd video down: Creation Story 3 )
As a time, the Dreaming is a dimension of current reality. It is read through signs in the land, sea and sky. It is place-specific according to the particular routes of the ancestors and the adventures they had at particular sites. However, it is not time-specific. Past, present and future are all here now. In the words of W.E.H Stanner, the humane giant of an anthropologist and public intellectual of the mid 20 th century,
‘One cannot ‘fix’ The Dreaming in time: it was, and is, everywhen ’
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(Stanner, W.E.H. The Dreaming and Other Essays , Black Inc, Melbourne, 2010. p. 58)
The Aboriginal universe does not change with time unlike so many other things we think about – like getting older, in which change in our bodies happen irreversibly over time. Aboriginal time is cyclical, marked by birth and death or daily and seasonal cycles.
As the carrier of culture, the Dreaming holds the stories telling of the creation of the country and everything in it. These stories are very often told in songs. The songs and the country crossed in an ancestral journey make a songline.
In Aboriginal worldviews the ancestors continue to play an active role in sustaining what they created. This is analogous to the view common among Christians that God created the universe originally, and continues to play an active role in sustaining it.
As a personal responsibility, Aboriginal people are specially attached to particular Dreamings, that is, connected with certain ancestors and particular stories through the place and time of their birth. That is their totem, their identity. It is important to look after your totem.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye painted her yam dreaming, her totem, many times in many different ways. http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/yam 22
Use local language for the Dreaming. The first word in the title of this workshop is ‘Tjukurrpa.’ This is a term for the Dreaming used by the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) peoples of the Central and Western Deserts. Academic Christine Nicholls, writing for a general audience, says the same word with a different spelling is used by,
… the Warlpiri people of the Tanami Desert [who] describe their complex of religious beliefs as the
Jukurrpa. Further south-east, the Arrerntic peoples call the word-concept the Altyerrenge or Altyerr (in earlier orthography spelled Altjira and Alcheringa and in other ways, too). The Kija people of the East
Kimberley use the term Ngarrankarni (sometimes spelled Ngarrarngkarni); while the Ngarinyin people
(previously spelle d Ungarinjin, inter alia) people speak of the Ungud (or Wungud). “Dreaming” is called
Manguny in Martu Wangka, a Western Desert language spoken in the Pilbara region of Western Australia; and some North-East Arnhem Landers refer to the same core concept as Wongar – to name but a handful. http://theconversation.com/dreamtime-and-the-dreaming-an-introduction-20833 23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwuJbJaCLtc
24
(Tjukurrpa in the movie Kanyini: 13:10-13:45) http://www.artbacknt.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Education-Kit-online.pdf
25 (whitefella explanation of ‘Tjukurrpa’)
The Wardaman people’s term in my area is ‘Puwarradja’ or ‘Burrawaja’ (boor-a-wa-ja). Note that spelling is not fixed in oral cultures.
The Jawoyn people’s term in my area is ‘Buwurr’ or ‘Burr.’ http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stories1/ 26 (Buwarraja in header)
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Yidumduma Bill Harney illustrates all these Fundamentals in the Yubulyawan Dreaming Project website. Bill speaks six languages. http://ydproject.com
27
In another story Bill tells how the Peaceful Dove ancestor dug a hole called Golorog-ya way out on an open plain where there was no water before. Then Peaceful Dove, Diamond Dove and Cockatoo ancestors together ‘sang’ up water to fill the hole. The ancestors continue to sustain that waterhole. It never goes dry, ‘Old Rainbow keeps feeding it.’ Old Rainbow is the Rainbow Serpent ancestor,
Gorrondolmi , who has power over rain, wet season and water. He now resides as dark spaces in the Milky Way.
See http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/general/ (read header) 28
Their creation work finished, these ancestors then became the birds we see in the bush, and the rocks which surround Golorog-ya today.
Golorog-ya is Bill’s mother’s Dreaming, and a women’s sacred and ceremony place. It is alive with ancestral spirits. For Bill, at the same time as his mother is human, the rocks at Golorog-ya are ‘my mother, all my sisters.’
See http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/land/ (2 nd video down: Peaceful Dove Rockhole: Golorog-ya) 29
For an engaging story of Rainbow Serpent ancestor, Gorrondolmi , and his flying fox offspring’s feeding routine, to this day signaled by dawn and dusk didgeridoo, see: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stories1/httpydprojectcomindexphplowernavstories1flying/rainbow-flying-fox/ 30
For the fundamental Yolgnu creation story told in paintings, see: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yalangbara/djangkawu_ancstors
31
For the creation story for Gulaga, the large mountain which stands behind Narooma and Tilba Tilba: http://livingknowledge.anu.edu.au/learningsites/kooricoast/10_gulaga_story.htm
32
For a terrifying and monstrously evil ancestor, see: http://wedontneedamap.com.au/exhibitions/cannibal-story http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yiwarra_kuju/artworks/kumpupirntily
33
34
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Illustrating the idea of totems and particular personal Dreamings, Ernie Dingo and Bill Harney discuss these below:
Ernie: … people also have totems.
Bill: Yes, each one, everyone.
Ernie: Yeah, and that’s to protect everything within the environment.
Bill: The totem from all the different animals from the waterside right up to the tree. All the different ants, mosquitoes, flies, right up to the stars, they’re part of the totem … and all the different rock. You know another one might say, ‘Hey, that’s my dreaming, you can’t touch it.’ Another one says, ‘That’s my Dreaming, don’t bulldoze it.’ It’s part of their totem. And the white man reckon, ‘Oh, that’s only rock!’ But the blackfella says, ‘That’s our dreaming!’
Ernie: Because it sort of maintains the identity.
Bill: Yes, yes.
Ernie: And if you take away that identity, take away that rock, you take away that identity.
Bill: Yes, you take away his Dreaming he most likely get sick too.
See: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/general/ (2 nd video down: Under the Stars ) 35
For many paintings by Ginger Riley Munduwalawala of the Mara people, many featuring Garimala , the rainbow serpent ancestor, and
Riley’s totem,
Ngak-ngak , the sea eagle, see: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=My+Mother's+Country+Ginger+Riley+images&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=otkDVYf2Cs3h8AX7hoGIAw&ved=0CB0QsAQ&bi w=1500&bih=856&dpr=2 36
Art+Soul (Series 1)
– buy the video at this link
(Episode 3: 12:33
– 17:01) 37
An ancestor must be approached in a respectful way to avoid coming to harm, see:
Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link (Episode3: 19:00 – 20:42) 38
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There are continual emerging new signs of the power of the Dreaming. I recently remarked to a Wardaman woman in Katherine that it was fascinating that crows have learnt to flip cane toads over to eat their insides, thus avoiding being poisoned, as is the fate of so many other animals. The student said that crows could do this because ‘they used to be human,’ indicating that crows are Dreaming ancestors of intelligence no different to ours.
Binjari resident, NT (Personal communication 2013)
39 http://theconversation.com/stone-the-crows-could-corvids-be-australias-smartest-export-4346 40
The Dreaming:
 created the universe we see today
 is ‘everywhen’
 carries culture in story and song
 lays down Law, in part as personal Dreamings
 gives each Aboriginal person a totem – a distinct set of personal responsibilities, rights and affinities under the Law
Along with their adventures and creative activity on their journeys, the ancestors set down the Law for looking after this creation. The
Law is not a modern type of legal framework established by humans to order human interactions in limited ways. Rather, it is a larger one of much more pervasive power, meaning and obligation. The Law goes beyond its modern purview, and holds the rules for all that began in the Dreaming. It sets out the moral, social, political, economic and ecological codes of conduct, relations and responsibilities of all creation for all time. All life, the land and the Law comes from the actions, stories and songs of the ancestral beings.
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The Law applies to individuals in different ways. As we saw in the Dreaming above, individual Aboriginal people are spiritually linked to particular sites and the Ancestors who travelled through them.
It is also important to realise that the Law is not an open system of knowledge. As youth mature in Aboriginal society, their teachers reveal further detail and powerful imagery in narratives and knowledge whose outlines they already know. This is discussed in more detail below in the Outside/Inside section below.
Illustrating what is meant by the Law, Bill Harney tells how Dungdung, the Frog-Lady ancestor, and one of her husbands, Nardi, the sky-boss ancestor, make women’s and men’s Law respectively:
Everybody was singing and dancing and the old lady Dungdung took the girls out to a different place (from the boys), made all the woman's law, women's ceremony. Nardi was taking all the male out, teaching them about the male ceremony, song, the law, to understand, to pay attention, to recognize, caring for country... They showed them how to put it together. They said, "You have to have two separate laws, two strong law.'" "Women's law have to be separate, no men go there." "Men's law has to be separate, no women go there.'" They made another story with the song, all the men and women come together, that makes everybody happy. They made the song and the story where everybody has to trade... for marriages,...when the children are born, grown up. "You have to follow your totem from your father"... "You follow a little bit from your mother" That's what they said. http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stories1/ (7 th
video down: Extended Creation Story 1 )
41
For another description of distinct women’s and men’s Laws, see: http://www.artbacknt.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Education-Kit-online.pdf
42 (page 6)
It is not just people who have Law. For example, Bill Harney gives us the burial Law held by ants:
… the ants had designed the smoking and everything, the ants said, 'When anybody passed away, this is the way to go'.
The ants people are the ones that made up all the rule about the burial. They said, 'You must bury people at the top of the forks of the tree, or down under the earth. You must leave them there to a certain year, it might be 2 or 3 years, until the bone dries out. Then you go over and have a special ceremony, dancing and that, make a big smoke when they pull the bones out of the graveyard and put them inside of the paperbark (coffin). http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/law/ (6 th video down: Burial Law: Ants ) 43
A further example is the Law of the Wardaman ecological burning cycle established by the Little Bat:
You got to look after that part of your Dreaming, to every tree, everyone got Dreaming. That's what the "Caring" mean ... looking after your country, Caring for Country. The Caring for Country, what they said, you burn off early, when everything cool, no leaf burn. You need to burn up straight after rain in April and May, …
Them Little Bats, they're the two, the one that made it. Made it happen with a firestick. He made a firestick and then Yagjagula [a Lightning Brother] took over. The Yagjagula used the two flints, cracked it and lit the grass. Made a spark come up and he lit the grass Yagjagula. He's still there today … the Lightning burns you call them.
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http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/law/ (7 th video down: Burning Off: Fire Law ) 44
Bill Harney’s Law Painting is an example of Law in art. He painted two such works. One was bought by Sydney University and hangs in a prominent place in its Law Faculty. The other was bought by Bond University. The intricate detail in the paintings indicate the reach of the Law. http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/law/ (3 rd
video down: Law Painting )
45
Skin relations are the complex Law applying to human interactions. The skin system determines how closely people are related in addition to biological blood ties, how they can behave toward each other, who they can marry and the skin of their children. http://www.clc.org.au/articles/info/aboriginal-kinship 46 http://www.aams.org.au/mark_sheldon/appendix_4/appendix_4_skin_names.htm
47
The Law comes with sanctions. Keeping the Law makes life predictable, safe and good to live. For example, properly introducing strangers to your country keeps them safe.
Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link (Episode3: 19:00 – 20:42) 48
See: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/land/httpyubulyawandreamingprojectcomindexphplowernavlandchanging1/walking-gornbun-ya/ 49
For art about keeping safe, look at Gija elder, Rusty Peters’ painting of ceremony for welcoming strangers according to the Law in his painting Wurrangga (Smoke Dreaming), 2008. http://www.michaelreid.com.au/current-view?eid=84&aid=0/current-piece?eid=84&aid=0&pid=1901 50
Breaking the Law can bring sickness, calamity and death. In the link below, see the painting and read, especially from paragraph 15 on, about the connections made by the Gija people of the East Kimberley and the calamity of Cyclone Tracy. http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/june/1341900155/sophie-cunningham/knock-em-down-rain
51
Bill Harney of the Wardaman people, says that the calamity of climate change is a due to unlawful interference with the moon:
We saw the rocket going up to the moon. We said, 'Well, rocket has gone up to the moon, it'll bugger the whole world'.
That's what we said. What that means...touching the moon, you shouldn't be interfering with the moon. That's when it changed, everything now, is climate change, today and all over. We are saying, 'We don't know what's going to happen'.
There's a big pollution in the air, everything is going crazy in the country. It's the Spiritual turning everything over... http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stars/ (7 th video down: Changing Land 1 ) 52
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The Law:
 was laid down by the ancestors in the Dreaming
 is unchanging – it applies for all time
 sets out the moral, social, political, economic and ecological codes of conduct, relations and responsibilities of all creation
 is kept by obeying rules of interaction and doing ceremony
 is not an open system of knowledge
 brings calamity if it is broken
To open up this topic, let us meet Warlpiri man Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu of Lajamanu. Wanta is younger than many of the artists we have met up to now. In this video he speaks of Milpirri, a biennial cultural event, the final performance of which is open to non-Aboriginal people. http://www.nitv.org.au/fx-program.cfm?pid=B7929EB7-A68E-5EF8-29F831EDE2210ACE
53
Warlpiri people put country in the very centre. Country is many things at once. In speaking of Country, Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-
Kurlpurlurnu:
… uses two Warlpiri words: ngurra (home) and walya
(the land). ‘Home’ is a better word for country because non-Aboriginal Australians relate to it in much the same way as the Warlpiri. Mainstream
Australians can readily imagine home as being more than a house, or a block of land: it is also the family or friends who live there, the suburb or city it is located in, the activities to do there, the history, the pets, the experience of eating and relaxing together there, the celebrations, and so on.
Reimagining ‘country’ as ‘home’ has important implications for practitioners such as those in the environmental fields. For example, changing the common phrase ‘caring for country’ to ‘caring for home’ makes it easier to conceptualise, in a mainstream paradigm, that sustaining country needs to include sustaining those relationships that make it home. This means attention needs to be paid to the Law of country, the Skin of country, the Language of country, and the Ceremony of country, not simply the ecology of country. Thinking of country as home introduces another important Warlpiri concept in relation to the land: that of reciprocity between people and the environment.
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As Wanta says:
That country was meant for you to look after it and it was meant to look after you. http://www.nintione.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Report-41-Ngurra-kurlu.pdf
(p18-19) 54
Ownership of country and ceremony derives from one’s father or mother depending on the region. The same individual may be owner of one Dreaming or ceremony and manager of another one. People are given their repertoire of Dreamings by their mother and father.
Aboriginal artists can only paint a certain number of dreamings, or range of country that they inherit. There are quite strict punishments for people who depict the wrong story or country. However, there can be great variation and creativity in how that story or country is portrayed.
For some depictions of Warlpiri country, see: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lorna+fencer+napurrula+paintings&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=rrAEVfnjN4id8QWA54DAAQ&ved=0CD0QsAQ&biw=1440&b ih=822#imgdii=_
55
These paintings are by the famous Warlpiri artist, Lorna Fencer Napurrula. She was a fearsome woman who lived large. http://troublemagazine.tumblr.com/post/29381523106/chips-mackinolty-walyaji-wankarunyayirni-land-is
56
At the Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre in Katherine, the Lorna Fencer Yulyurlu exhibition was opened in 2013 by senior Warlpiri women with ceremonial, song, dance and strokes of each painting with leafy eucalypt twigs. It was a solemn occasion as
Lorna passed away in 2006. The women seen in this link are painted in their respective clan or totem designs. http://www.gyracc.org.au/events/yulyurlu-lorna-fencer-napurrurla 57
That exhibition featured Lorna Fencer’s paintings of her country. Its opening was deeply emotional for the Warlpiri women, indicating their deep attachment to Country as well as their kin. This connection is echoed across Aboriginal Australia,
When I am away from my country which I often am for travel, I very much want to get back. My country looks after me.
Ngukurr resident, NT (personal communication 2012)
58
In the bush I can hear corroboree ... even in Sydney I can hear corroboree.
Lajamanu resident, NT (personal communication 2012) 59
In the Aboriginal view, the ecological and spiritual are closely connected. As the historian, Bill Gammage succinctly points out, the
Dreaming tells why country must be cared for. Country itself tells how to do it:
Ecology explains what happens, the Dreaming why it happens.
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Biggest-Estate-Earth-Aborigines/dp/174331132X (ebook location 2521 of 10807) 60
Much of the art given as examples in this Guide is of Country at the same time that it is of Dreaming and of Law. Dreaming, Law and
Country are indivisibly connected. Revisit Ginger Riley Munduwalawala’s paintings to see this. Notice how they very often feature the same four hills; the Four Archers, and the same river; the Limmen River, running into the same part of the Gulf of Carpentaria. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=My+Mother's+Country+Ginger+Riley+images&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=otkDVYf2Cs3h8AX7hoGIAw&ved=0CB0QsAQ&bi w=1500&bih=856&dpr=2 61
Art+Soul (Series 1)
– buy the video at this link
(Episode 3: 12:33
– 17:01)
The smoking ceremony and dancing at the end of this clip is part of Ginger Riley Munduwalawal’s funeral in 2002 at Ngukurrr, NT.
Smoking a place is a traditional way of spiritually purifying it. The man in shorts and short-sleeved shirt leading the dancing is Djambu
Burra Burra, often known as Sambo Burra Burra. He has also passed away, but was a very respected senior Law man of South East
Arnhem Land and a wonderful artist in his own right. The painting on the link below tells a burial story. Traditional bodies were left out until the bones were clean. The bones were then placed in a hollow log, which in turn was put in a cave or other dry place in the specific
Country of the deceased. As we saw above, in Wardaman country, this Law is held by ants. http://natsiaadigitisation.nt.gov.au/docs/index.php?typ=artwork&p1=ABART-1165 62
The link below contains further biography and art, including the fearsome ‘Devil-Devil’, of Djambu Burra Burra. http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/8473/CC_ed_Kit.pdf
63
For completeness, and though it is difficult to isolate in art, before we finish our specific focus on Country we need to consider ecology.
The historian, Bill Gammage and the ethnobiologist, Glenn Wightman have each amassed extensive evidence indicating that Aboriginal ecological knowledge has been, and remains extensive and finessed. http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/plants-and-animals/biocultural-knowledge/publications
64 http://www.amazon.com/The-Biggest-Estate-Earth-Aborigines/dp/174331132X 65
Indicative of the importance and great extent of ecological knowledge amongst Aboriginal people, Gammage argues that before white contact, resources were:
… as predictable as [European-style] farming, and in times of drought and flood … more predictable. Mere sustainability was not enough. Abundance was normal. This was a tremendous advantage. It made plants easier to concentrate, to burn, to let fallow, to make park-like, to share. It made life comfortable. Like landowning gentry, people generally had plenty to eat, few hours of work a day, and much time for religion and recreation.
Three rules directed [pre-contact] management:

Ensure that all life flourishes.

Make plants and animals abundant, convenient and predictable.
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
Think universal, act local.
These rules imposed a strict ecological discipline on every person. http://www.amazon.com/The-Biggest-Estate-Earth-Aborigines/dp/174331132X (ebook Location 390 of 10807) 66
The Bush University and Birds & Insects tabs of the Yubulyawan Dreaming Project website show the entwining of ecological knowledge and roles with Dreaming or spiritual knowledge and roles. http://ydproject.com
67
In the video Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Landscapes, Bill Harney explains two of his paintings which illustrate much of what we have covered so far. http://youtube/yPtRGWl7eHs 68
Country is:
 local land
 home
 spiritual and ecological
 central to Aboriginal peoples’ lives
 that which looks after you, and you look after it physically and spiritually
Having finished our exploration of the three pillars of Aboriginal religion: Dreaming, Law and Country, to round out our understanding we move on to some subsidiary considerations:
 song
 outside versus inside
 dynamism within Aboriginal religion
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 Aboriginal religion’s relations with Christianity
Song is the glue. As the ancestors journeyed in the Dreaming, they sang the Law, Country, plants and animals into being. Different songs go with different creative and naming activities along the routes the ancestors took. Strung together, these songs form songlines.
A songline is, at the same time: a map of country, an account of ancestors’ creative activities, and a transmitter of Law:
This rock here, the Dreaming put it there... The Dreaming put this rock here in the Dreamtime and made a Songline with this to name it all, the rocks, the creeks, the rivers ... this is the Dreaming for it.
(Quote from Wardaman elder Yidumduma Bill Harney personally communicated to Jack Egan
by Paul Taylor, Director of the Yubulyawan Dreaming Project (http: ydproject.com))
For in-depth explanation and examples of songlines, ‘kujika’ in Yanyuwa country around Borroloola NT, see the book by John Bradley called Singing Saltwater Country . It is available as an ebook on this link. http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Saltwater-Country-Songlines-Carpentaria-ebook/dp/B005IQT1LA 69
For a review and a taste of that book from the respected Will Owen go to: https://aboriginalartandculture.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/songs-of-land-and-sea/
70
And for an interview of the author: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/singing-saltwater-country/3018106
71
For an account of ancestors singing up water see: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/land/ (2nd video down: Peaceful Dove Rockhole – Golorog-ya ) 72
For a boy’s initiation song with explained transcript see: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/stories/ (2 nd video down: Gujinnga Songline ) 73
For an explanation of songlines and peace-keeping between tribes, see: http://ydproject.com/index.php/lowernav/land/#songlines (3 rd video down: Songlines & Peace )
For a light-hearted story of the power of songmen, a man getting sick when is totem is killed, not to mention bartering religious paintings for supplies at outback stores, see the entertaining Bush Mechanics DVD, Episode 4, The Rainmakers . http://www.bushmechanics.com/home.htm
74 https://shop.abc.net.au/products/bush-mechanics-the-series-1 75
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Songlines can be broken, or torn by unwelcome economic development on a path such as a mine, tourist development or fishing camp.
More commonly, a song can be broken because old people died without passing on their knowledge, or people left their country by choice or force. But a broken song, like an ancestral spirit, stays in the country, dormant, despite there being no-one who remembers the ancestor or the song. An old Yanyuwa man from Borroloola area says:
We hold him half and half - that song (kujika). I can sing him, sing him, follow the road of that song, then I gotta stop. I have to think now, all right I gotta jump – I miss him some song because I don’t know ……. Old people all died when we were young; we didn’t get a chance to pick up that song; but that song still there in the country – you can’t pull him out.’ http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Saltwater-Country-Songlines-Carpentaria-ebook/dp/B005IQT1LA 76
Broken songs remaining in the country is consistent with the permanence of the Law. No part of the Law changes. No part of the Law will change because humans have forgotten it.
There are two important senses in which the outside/inside distinction applies in Aboriginal religion.
The first sense is that Aboriginal religions are not open systems of knowledge as are many other religions. Rather, knowledge in
Aboriginal religions is only revealed in certain ways to certain people. Some knowledge or meanings are outside , that is, public and open to all. The word for public in the language of the Yolgnu in North-East Arnhem Land is ‘garma.’ You may have noticed the
Garma Festival, a regular cultural event open to anyone.
Other knowledge is more inside . That is knowledge restricted to the initiated. Inside knowledge contains the deepest truths of the Law.
Usually a story will have many layers – like an onion. Children and non-Aboriginals are allowed to know the outside layers, but one only learns the inner layers progressively by going through the correct Aboriginal initiation Law and showing interest and maturity commensurate with the responsibility required to hold sacred, powerful and dangerous inside knowledge. Keepers of knowledge exercise considerable discretion about who will be told or what will be revealed. Often secret subjects are painted, but their secrets are safe as they cannot be unlocked from the painting without the key of inside knowledge. Outsiders cannot read the inside meanings.
This is a major difference with so-called world religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. In these religions, all knowledge is open to all practitioners of any culture who are prepared to study and practice. Moreover, these religions themselves are universal, applying to all of humanity willing to heed them. In contrast, Aboriginal religion’s purview is the tribe. Aboriginal religious knowledge is restricted on a right-to-know basis. One only has a right to know if one is of the right tribe, skin, gender and initiation status. Sometimes Aboriginal people have come by knowledge but not the right to pass it on. They will be circumspect with that knowledge. For example, one of those interviewed by Hetti Perkins in Art + Soul is Gawirrin Gurama, a ‘two-way fella’ being both a
Christian pastor and a Yolgnu elder and custodian of knowledge. In 1962, he and other Yolgnu elders painted the Yirrkala Church
Panels, which were erected on either side of the altar in the Yirrkala Church. The panels tell important Yolgnu stories, but not being custodian of all the stories, Gurama only showed the particular panel to which he himself contributed, although he would know the stories told in the other panels.
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Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link (Episode 3: 42:05-45:01) 77
An important example of custodians’ discretion in revealing inside knowledge occurred with the building of the Elcho Island Memorial in 1957 beside the Methodist Christian Church. The memorial was a public display of usually secret objects and paintings. The Elders of the community, custodians of those objects, decided that circumstances warranted the display to communicate to white people that the Yolgnu too have objects of great power. The memorial asserted the continuing identity and high value of Yolgnu culture.
The second sense of outside/inside is that, like the ancestors, Aboriginal people at birth move from inside the earth or water to live on the outside for a while and then move back inside at death (Rudder, J. (1999), Australian Aboriginal religion and the Dreaming .
Restoration House. Canberra. p.13). In this literal sense, for Aboriginal people:
The land is our mother, we are born from her.
These are the translated words of an Anangu woman Elder of the Uluru region in film-makers, Melanie Hogan’s 2006 film, Kanyini , narrated by Anangu Elder Bob Randall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwuJbJaCLtc 78
Another good example is in Art + Soul where Hetti Perkins explains Rusty Peter’s magnificent multi-panel painting Waterbrain (2002) as a journey from inside the water to the outside of the human world:
‘It’s a journey of a man from being a spirit in the water right thru to adulthood.’
Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link (Episode 3: 20:40-23:06) 79
Forget any idea that Aboriginal religion is only about ‘traditional’ ancient things. As the term ‘everywhen’ tells us, it is not. Aboriginal religion remains dynamic. It can assimilate the new. Moreover, ancestral power can cause new, important, sometimes catastrophic events in contemporary times. Newly evolving signs must be read. For example, on Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city of Darwin. The event was interpreted by Aboriginal elders in the adjacent Kimberley region as a warning from the ancestral
Rainbow Serpent incarnated as the cyclone – a warning to Aboriginal people to keep their culture strong. This event is depicted in
Rover Thomas’ painting
Cyclone Tracy (1991).
http://nga.gov.au/federation/Detail.cfm?WorkID=148012
80
A further new phenomena incorporated into the Dreaming, albeit with a sense of humour, is Australian Rules Football. Ginger Riley, whose Rainbow Serpent painting we saw earlier, painted football. His Wul Gori-y-Mai (Football for all Aboriginal people) (1996) depicts Aboriginal people playing football in their community using anthills as goalposts. Munanga (white fella way) (1996) shows an
AFL match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) watched by a huge crowd. This painting depicts the MCG as a sacred site and meeting place using the concentric circles often used to indicate such places. Ngak Ngak, the sea eagle hunter and Riley’s totem, is there as an observer.
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http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/the-afls-field-of-dreams/2006/05/05/1146335921014.html
81 http://www.classicprints.com.au/munanga-white-fella-way-afl-football-1996-ginger-riley-munduwalawala 82
Many Aboriginal people across Australia are Christian. Many hold their Christianity jointly with their Indigenous religion.
One well-known Aboriginal and Christian artist was Gertie Huddleston, who grew up at Ngukuur in a mission established by the
Anglican Church Mission Society in 1907. This mission was established to protect Aboriginal people from massacres perpetrated by white pastoralists:
… the Church Missionary Society (CMS) … set up a Mission on the Roper River as a refuge for Aboriginal people in 1907. Around 200 dispossessed Aborigines sought refuge [at the newly established Mission in the first year. The Anglican Mission was run as an industrial and agricultural institution as well as an educational and spiritual one. Almost immediately a church, school, cook-house and dispensary were established. Extensive vegetable gardens and a stock-yard followed shortly after. The discipline of the
Mission was hard for many Aboriginal people, however some, like Gertie Huddleston, look back on the
Mission times with affection. http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/8473/CC_ed_Kit.pdf
(see: History ) 83 http://acornpress.net.au/publications/refuge-on-the-roper-the-origins-of-roper-river-mission-ngukurr/ 84
Gertie, who has passed away, lived in both Aboriginal and Christian spiritual worlds. The links below contain some biography and examples of her art. A number of her paintings have Christian titles such as Garden of Eden or The Garden at Gethsemene . The
Christian cross is often featured. See if you can find the cross and empty Easter tomb in Painting the Country (second link). http://www.artnet.com/artists/gertie-huddleston/the-garden-at-gethsemene-zZAs4AyjPUuCy3LDDRkiqA2
85 http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/8473/CC_ed_Kit.pdf
86
Another familiar and very active Aboriginal and Catholic Christian leader today is Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann of Nauiyu, Daly
River region, NT. Her Stations of the Cross are very well-known, and she painted many other fine paintings including The Tree of Life hanging in St Mary’s Cathedral Darwin. It is depicted and explained in the link below. http://www.darwin.catholic.org.au/our-story/story-cathedral.htm
87 https://www.google.com.au/search?q=baumann+stations+of+the+cross&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=HUULVfSpG5aE8gWcv4GgCQ&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=837& bih=791#imgdii=_
88 http://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/whoweare/who-miriamrose 89
There are many other examples of Aboriginal Christian art available. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=aboriginal+christian+art&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=REkLVdHxFZDX8gWf2oHgCw&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=909&bih=791
90
For a description of the North Queensland Aboriginal-generated Rainbow Spirit Theology which integrates Aboriginal and Christian traditions from that region, see: http://www.atf.org.au/files/atf/Rainbow%20TOC%20and%20back.pdf
91
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Turning to Reconciliation, a central concern for aware secular and religious Australians alike, it is important to have a firm grip on the need for reconciliation. Well-informed teachers will have read or watched at least one contact history. At the very least, teachers should read a number of reviews. There are many contact histories out there. They tell a story of awful similarity in the experiences of
Aboriginal people coming in contact with Europeans across many far-apart regions of Australia. Some of these histories are: http://aso.gov.au/titles/series/first-australians/ 92 http://www.publishing.monash.edu/books/awh.html
93 http://www.amazon.com.au/Tasmanian-Aborigines-history-since-1803-ebook/dp/B007KWP0YM 94 http://www.amazon.com.au/Forgotten-War-Henry-Reynolds-ebook/dp/B00DC2ZETK
95
For a short, but powerful contact history story illustrated in art see:
Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link (Episode 3: 17:01 - 19:00) 96
There is art about Reconciliation. For example, see Rusty Peter’s Two Laws One Spirit in the link below.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/gija-artists-rusty-peters-peggy-patrick-and-phyllis-thomas-of-warmun-community-reviewed-20150303-13salw.html
97
And here are more images from the exhibition of the same name: http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/past-exhibitions/two-laws/ 98
See also this video and thoughts about Reconciliation through the Milpirri festival from the Warlpiri people of the Tanami Desert, NT: http://www.nitv.org.au/fx-program.cfm?pid=B7929EB7-A68E-5EF8-29F831EDE2210ACE 99
As with at least some other religions and denominations in Australia, Aboriginal religion has trouble enthusing its young. Frances
Daingangan, who plays first wife in the movie Ten Canoes , describes her uncle, Phillip Gudthaykudthay, who played the sorcerer in Ten
Canoes, as a ‘real magic man, a famous artist and traditional sorcerer.’ In the documentary River of No Return about Frances’ life and aspirations to become an actor, she asks her uncle:
Now that you are getting old, will you pass on your magic to your great grandsons?
Her uncle replies,
No, I will keep it to myself. The young people do not take it seriously. It is too dangerous in their hands.
( River of No Return documentary: 42:27-43:49 min) http://www.bowerbirdfilms.com/films/river-of-no-return/ 100
However, the picture varies, and there are initiations and other ceremonies, which are all fundamentally religious in character, going on across Australia today. One does not usually hear about them as they are not public events. However, whether certain ceremonies are known to be conducted in a particular area is not any sort of definitive test for the aliveness of Aboriginal spirituality. This is because, irrespective of ceremony, Aboriginal spirituality is very much active in the hearts and minds of Aboriginal people right across Australia.
It is a good exercise for students to establish the truth of this in their own region. I can give you instances from the Katherine region.
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Lastly, religion and religions are important to religious people. However, it is important to avoid the trap of thinking that the most important things about Aboriginal religion concern its dialogues or points of connection with other religions. In Australia, Aboriginal religion is a major religion in its own right and should be engaged on its own terms. Professor Max Charlesworth reminds us that in engaging with Aboriginal religion:
It is not a matter of merely remarking affinities between Christian and Aboriginal religious concepts, but of entering imaginatively into the totally unfamiliar Aboriginal life-world and seeing how it all hangs together, and above all learning something from this for one's own spiritual life. http://onlinecatholics.acu.edu.au/issue53/commessay1.html
101
Aboriginal Art & Culture: An American Eye : In About the blog on this link Will Stubbs, its author, describes it as ‘readings, reviews, and reflections by an American observer of Australian Indigenous art, culture, politics, anthropology, music, and literature.’ Formally an American criminal lawyer, Will Stubbs is well-regarded in Australian art and academic circles. He is a 2015 recipient of an Australia
Council Visual Arts Award (Advocate).
https://aboriginalartandculture.wordpress.com/ 102
Art + Soul (Series 1): Written and presented by Hetti Perkins, directed by Warwick Thornton ( Samson & Delilah ), this is a premier resource for art, religion and contact history. Series 2 also promises be good, though the author has not yet watched it. For a description of Series 1 see: http://www.hibiscusfilms.com.au/artandsoul-series1/about.php
Art+Soul (Series 1) – buy the video at this link 103
Australian Museum: A rich site. A link to information on Indigenous spirituality is below. It is good to book their travelling museumsin-a-box. A link for the one focused on art and performance is also below.
http://australianmuseum.net.au/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-collections
104 httphttp:// australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-spirituality 105 http://australianmuseum.net.au/museum-in-a-box-aboriginal-art-and-performance 106
Bakuieria: A 30 minute, must-see, must-show-to-students, 1986 film exploring through parody how contact history would have unfolded if the original Indigenous people of Australia had been white, BBQ-cooking, Holden-driving, nuclear families whose country was claimed and invaded by well-armed, imperialist Aborigines from across the oceans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUMpPgMGCe8 107
The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia, by Bill Gammage, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2011. It is available as an ebook on the link below. Chapters 4 & 5 will especially help your understanding of Aboriginal religion. The entire book is a persuasive, evidence-based case, written by Bill Gammage, a respected ANU historian, for the existence in 1788 of continent-wide, deep and finessed Aboriginal ecological knowledge and environmental management techniques, which were very largely gained and applied through careful use of fire.
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Bush Mechanics: This popular TV series made by the Warlpiri people of Yuendemu, NT, is a hit with all ages. Each of the four episodes carries some religious information, humorously and artfully conveyed. http://www.bushmechanics.com/home.htm
109 https://shop.abc.net.au/products/bush-mechanics-the-series-1 110
Indigenous Language Map : http://www.amazon.com/The-Biggest-Estate-Earth-Aborigines/dp/174331132X 108 http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
111
Kanyini : This is a 53 minute documentary directed by Melanie Hogan and presented by Tjilpi Bob Randall, stolen child, elder and traditional owner of Uluru and the surrounding country. The 2006 film is an engaging narrative of contact history and its negative impact on the connections of Aboriginal peoples of Central Australia have with their spirituality, country, culture and families. It is reviewed at: https://aboriginalartandculture.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/kanyini-connections/ (Read the whole review which is at first not entirely favourable, but changes in tone later on)
See it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwuJbJaCLtc
112
Punuku Tjukurpa: Exhibition of beautiful and culturally rich wood art from the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara
(NPY) Lands. It is travelling around some capitols and regional cities from March 27 2015. It has a good education kit with activities.
http://www.artbacknt.com.au/index.php/visual-arts/punuku-tjukurpa/
113 http://www.artbacknt.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Education-Kit-online.pdf
114 (for Education Kit)
River of No Return directed by Darlene Johnson and produce by Pat Fiske, 2008. This 52 minute film follows the life of Frances
Daingangan who plays first wife in Ten Canoes, including her admiration of Marlyn Monroe and future acting aspirations. http://www.bowerbirdfilms.com/films/river-of-no-return/
115
Singing Saltwater Country by John Bradley, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2010. For in-depth explanation and examples of songlines,
‘kujika’ in Yanyuwa country around Borroloola, NT. It is available as an ebook on the link below. http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Saltwater-Country-Songlines-Carpentaria-ebook/dp/B005IQT1LA
116
For a review and taste of that book from the respected Will Owen (see below) go to: https://aboriginalartandculture.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/songs-of-land-and-sea/ 117
For Phillip Adams interview with the John Bradley: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/singing-saltwater-country/3018106 118
119
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Yubulyawan Dreaming Project: This website contains close to 60 short videos, transcripts and explanations presenting extensive religious, cultural and ecological knowledge of the Wardman people whose country lies between Katherine and the Victoria River, NT.
The stories on this website provide entry into an Aboriginal world in which a single comprehensive set of stories can be seen to bear, with the holism characteristic of many Aboriginal worldviews, on religion, culture, law, history, art, politics, astronomy and ecology.
An education kit for this site, structured in line with the Australian Curriculum, will be coming in the next six months. http://ydproject.com/
120
Lesson planning is a difficult area to workshop as there are infinite possibilities. However, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Histories and Cultures Cross Curriculum Priority of the F-10 Australian Curriculum give direction. The Organising Ideas of this priority are listed below:
Table 1: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures Cross Curriculum Priority in the F-10 Australian Curriculum
Code
Country/Place
Organising Idea
OI.1
OI.2
OI.3
Culture
Australia has two distinct Indigenous groups, Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country/Place throughout all of Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have unique belief systems and are spiritually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
OI.4
OI.5
OI.6
People
OI.7
OI.8
OI.9
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies have many Language Groups.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years and experiences can be viewed through historical, social and political lenses.
The broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies encompass a diversity of nations across Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have sophisticated family and kinship structures.
Australia acknowledges the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people locally and globally.
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From the list above, the following learning objectives can be extracted (noting that this guide is just to Aboriginal religion through art, as the author has no knowledge of Torres Strait Islander religion).
Leaving aside appreciation of Aboriginal art as worthwhile in itself, teaching about Aboriginal religion through art aims for students across school years:
- to understand:
1.
what the Dreaming is;
2.
what the Law is;
3.
what Country means to Aboriginal peoples;
4.
the role of story and song in Aboriginal cultures; and
5.
the effects on Aboriginal religion of contact history between Indigenous Australians and white settlers.
- and to be able to:
1.
give examples of a specific Aboriginal tribe’s Dreaming;
2.
give examples of a specific Aboriginal tribe’s Law;
3.
explain the meaning of a specific Aboriginal religious song;
4.
give examples of Aboriginal ecological knowledge;
5.
give examples of connections between the geography, animals, birds, insects or plants of a specific Aboriginal country and the stories in which those feature;
6.
describe the spiritual world from a specific Aboriginal viewpoint; (how did the world come about and what is it made of?)
7.
give examples of the effects of contact history on Aboriginal religion.
In addition to knowing the points in The least you need to know sections above, all of these learning objectives can be well-achieved through art, broadly interpreted. Students can demonstrate their achievement of the learning objectives by describing visual artworks and particular events they encounter in video and in oral or written stories. Once they have some familiarity with the subject matter,
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students can also demonstrate their learning by retelling Aboriginal Dreaming, ecological and contact history stories in words and in their own art. A sample lesson plan for this is below:
After three lessons middle school students will:
- understand:
1.
what the Dreaming is in Aboriginal culture
2.
that the Wardaman Aboriginal tribe have their own Dreaming - ‘Buwarraja’
- and be able to:
1.
give examples of Wardaman Buwarraja
2.
tell the Wardaman creation story
3.
describe the spiritual world from a Wardaman viewpoint (how did the world come about and what is it made of?)
Note: the deeper the class goes, the more lessons will be needed, but three lessons should cover the Core Activity and some Reflection .
Watch the Creation Story 1, 2 & 3 in the Yubulyuwan Dreaming Project (http://ydproject.com – Story tab)
Also watch Extended Creation Story 1 & 2 and Creation Story and Flood
Print out Who did What?
worksheets on A3 (it is attached below).
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1.
Students work in pairs to fill in a Who did What?
worksheet (red text is suggested entries to check against student responses – erase red text to make student handout). Hint: Look at
Bill’s Birds 1-3
videos on the Birds and Insects tab for the Wardaman names of the birds involved. Also, if you have it, look at the book Wardaman Plants and Animals for Wardaman names of the birds and animals. Also look at Wardaman Land/Laglan in the Land tab.
2.
Each student is allocated a character from their Who did What worksheet
3.
Each student draws a picture showing what their character’s role in the story.
4.
The class arranges their drawings into a story (cartoon strip or poster style). Tell the story to someone who does not know it.
1.
Collage/paint a class mural of the story on a long strip of canvas.
2.
Think of a meaningful name for your picture.
3.
Make a crossword out of Wardaman words. Ask a classmate to complete it.
1.
What does the story tell you about the Wardaman people and how they see the world?
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CHARACTER
Gorrondolmi
‘Old Rainbow’
Dungdung
Nardi
Mardborronggo
Marnden
Jerrjerrman
Milirri and Gumu
Bunnugaya
Buwarraja
TYPE OF BEING
Rainbow Snake
Frog Lady
Sky-boss and Mimi
Kangaroo
Diver Duck the Shag
Willy Wagtail
Black-headed python
Water-python
Grasshopper
Grey falcon
COMES FROM/LIVES IN
Water
Under the earth
ACTION 1
Had water people children with Dungdung – they became all the different sea creatures
Has land children with Nardi then water children with
Gorrondolmi
Action 2
Was offended by Dungdung having land children (with Nardi).
Said that all children should live in the water
Made women’s Law
Action 3
Made a great flood to bring all the land children into the water
Invented all stone tools – axes, scrapers, knives, spear points
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There could be a hundred different guides such as this, each using different examples. To add your own power to what is here, look for examples and local nuances from your region of Australia. Connect with Aboriginal stories and voices in your area. However, be diligent in checking the authenticity of stories you come across. Seek the Aboriginal ‘voice.’ It is important that stories are endorsed by their traditional owners. There is some low quality material out there put together by munanga (‘whitefellas’ in Katherine Kriol), which lacks connection to specific country and its people.
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25
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27
28
29
21
22
23
24
15
16
17
18
11
12
13
14
19
20
30
5
6
7
8
1
2
3
4
9
10
53
54
55
56
49
50
51
52
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
43
44
45
46
39
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48
35
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38
31
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33
34
86
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82
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94
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96
76
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72
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81
68
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71
64
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66
67
115
116
117
118
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120
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
97
98
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100
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102
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104
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