STUDIES OF RELIGION II
PRELIMINARY
Australian Aboriginal Beliefs and Spiritualities - The
Dreaming
ABORIGINAL HISTORY
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In Australia for at least 40 000 years – some say up to 100
000 years
Origins uncertain
Isolated for long period of time – developed culture and
ways of living in isolation
Some contact with Muslim people to north in what we now
call Indonesia
Before arrival of white people Aboriginal life was
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Nomadic or semi-nomadic
Hunting and gathering
Use of stone tools and wooden implements
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ABORIGINES
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Apparently simple lifestyle of Aborigines led to
misconceptions:
 That
they were culturally uniform
 That they had little attachment to the land and
made little use of it
James Cook in his exploration of Australian
coast described the land as terra nullius (Latin
for ‘empty land’)
 This was despite opposition he received from
Aborigines at places where he landed, e.g.
Botany Bay
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DIVERSITY AMONG ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
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Diversity always part of Aboriginal society
At time of white settlement there were 700
languages or dialects – now less than 250
Also diversity in songs, stories, dances,
ceremonies, paintings – but also common features
among Aboriginal society especially related to the
highly developed, religious and complex
associations with nature and land
Archaeological evidence shows Aboriginal culture
has altered and developed over long period of time
WHO IS AN ABORIGINE?
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Two separate groups make up original
Australians
 Aborigines
 Torres
Strait Islanders
Between these two groups and within the
groups there are distinct differences in culture
 Indigenous Australia is sometimes used to refer
to all these groups of Australians
 This is reflected in national body called ATSIC
(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission)
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SOME STATISTICS
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in 2001
Census is 460 140
Most live in New South Wales and most Aborigines live in
urban centres
Population before white settlement was in range of
315,000 – 1,000,000
Aboriginal population declined dramatically after European
settlement as result of disease, brutal treatment,
dispossession and social and cultural disruption and
disintegration
More recent times have seen large increase in Aboriginal
population in Australia
Distribution of Aboriginal Population 2001- ABS
DREAMING
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Aboriginal spirituality takes many forms including many
Aboriginal forms, the form of the Torres Strait Islands
and European religious culture
But most Aboriginal spirituality comes from a sense of
belonging to the land or sea or to other people or to a
person’s culture
Although there are differences the common thread
through all Aboriginal spirituality is ‘dreaming’
Dreaming is centre of Aboriginal religion and life
explaining how the world works
DREAMING – A DEFINITION
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Dreaming: A complex concept of fundamental
importance to Aboriginal culture, embracing the
creative era long past (when ancestral beings
roamed and instituted Aboriginal society) as
well as the present and the future
DREAMING
“Dreaming is the beginning of all things. It is
when all the things we know in the world today
were formed. More correctly, Dreaming refers
to events and places rather than what
Westerners would call time. The Aboriginal
sacred stories are stories about events of the
Dreaming and how Ancestor (Spirit) Beings
formed the land, and founded life on the
land.” W.H. Stanner
DREAMING
Dreaming is experienced in stories, songs,
dances, art, symbols and rituals and
ceremonies
 Dreaming is intimately related to the land
- not just soil but the whole environment
including people
 Humans are not seen to be separate from
the land - Aborigines are part of the land
and the land is part of them
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‘THE’ DREAMING
‘The’ Dreaming is the whole complex of
ideas, stories, ceremonies which is linked
to the beginning of all things
 ‘The’ Dreaming tells the story of the
creation but it is not limited to the past
 ‘The’ Dreaming is past, present and future
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‘MY’ DREAMING
‘My’ dreaming may include the stories
associated with the form of life with which
‘I’ am connected - e.g. the black swan, the
eagle, the dolphin.
 ‘My’ Dreaming connects me back to ‘the’
Dreaming
 ‘My’ dreaming would be depicted for me
in art and objects and in ceremonies
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DREAMING – PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
Leads to following beliefs of Aboriginal religion:
 Ancestral beings eternally leave the world full of signs of their
goodwill towards the people they have also brought into being.
 If these people, with the wisdom about living given to them, can
interpret outward signs to say that they have to follow a
continuing pattern, then they will live always under the
assurance of good fortune
 Humans, made up of material and spiritual elements, have value
for self and others, and there are spirits who care for them
 Main religious rituals are to renew and conserve life, including
life-force that keeps inspiring word in which humans live are
bonded in soul and spirit
DREAMING – PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
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Material part of life, including humans, under a discipline that
requires people to understand sacred tradition of the group and
to conform to the pattern of the tradition
Life is a mixture of good and bad, joy and suffering, but all is to
be celebrated
Major rituals convey a sense of mystery by symbols points to
ultimate or metaphysical realities that show themselves by
signs
Metaphysical: Those things that relate to the origin and
structure of the universe and beyond the physical nature, e.g.
time, space, cause, identity, essence
World order comes from events where ancestral beings travel
and transform themselves into sites – the ancestors have
always existed – no question of who made them
The Rainbow Serpent
The Aboriginal people
believe the Rainbow
Serpent is the creator of all
things. During the
Dreamtime the Rainbow
Serpent created the
Aboriginal people, birds,
trees, hills and mountains.
During sacred ceremonies
the Aboriginal Elders would
tell stories to the tribe about
the Rainbow Serpent and
its power. The Rainbow
Serpent was also called
upon in times of need to
protect the Aboriginal
people from predators.
A Rainbow Serpent Story
The Rainbow serpent came from Northern Australia in an era when
this country was in its dreaming origins. As it travelled throughout
the length and breadth of this country, it created as it writhed over
this land the mountainous geographic locations by pushing the land
into many ranges and isolated areas. The Great Dividing Range is
said to be a creation of the Rainbow Serpent’s movements.
Throughout its journey over and under the land it created rivers,
valleys, lakes, and was also careful to leave many areas flat, while
shaping various land gradients for future water run-off. After it was
satisfied with what it did, it came to a point in Central Australia
where it ceased to create any more geographical land forms. From its
inside, spirit people came out and began to move all over this
country to create many different lifestyles, speak many languages
and thus to evolve as different but similar entities in own allotted
Dreamtime homelands.
Mother Earth
My young and beautiful mother who brought me into the world has
guided and given me incentive – which path to take on my way.
My elder and beautiful mother who holds my feet to her breast shows me
all parts of nature which alone she knows best.
My young mother with the beauty of the bright golden sunray showed
me the feeling and love of nature when I was young at play.
My elder and beautiful mother with her ochre colour of red that flows,
one day she will make body, when? No one knows.
My young and beautiful mother will pine and cry for me.
My elder and beautiful mother will take my body to her breast with thee.
But she knows she can’t hold my spirit, for in the Dreamtime
It will for ever be!
(From a Land Rights Poster, c. 1973, author unknown)
THE LAND
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For Aborigines the land is sacred
Places on earth share in the sacredness of the Dreaming since
these places were formed by the journeys of the Ancestor
Beings
Mountains are seen as places where the Ancestor Being looked
over the land and dry claypans are places where they camped
Some Ancestor Beings are said to have gone up to the stars as
final resting place
For Aborigines the land is not dead but alive with power and the
Ancestors who live in it
The land belongs to ancestors and while land lives so do the
ancestors
The land is the centre of Aboriginal spirituality
Uluru
A sacred site to the
Anangu people of
Central Australia
Aborigines believe that Uluru is hollow
below ground, and that there is an
energy source which they call
'Tjukurpa' or the Dreamtime. The
Anangu know that the area around
Uluru is inhabited by dozens of
ancestral beings whose activities are
recorded at many separate sites. At each
site, the events that took place can be
recounted, whether those events were of
significance or whether the ancestral
being just rested at a certain place
before going on.
“To understand our law, our culture
and our relationship to the physical
and spiritual world, you must begin
with land. Everything about
aboriginal society is inextricably
woven with, and connected to, land.
Culture is the land, the land and
spirituality of aboriginal people,
our cultural beliefs or reason for
existence is the land. You take that
away and you take away our reason
for existence. We have grown that
land up. We are dancing, singing,
and painting for the land. We are
celebrating the land. Removed from
our lands, we are literally removed
from ourselves.”
Mick Dodson
Mick Dodson
Mick Dodson is one of Australia's most vocal
and well-known advocates for Aboriginal rights,
and has been appointed to the first Indigenous
Chair at the Australian National University. He
was Australia's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Now a
professor, his job will be to develop and
coordinate indigenous scholarship and research.
One of his challenges will be to try and break
down what he regards as snobbish attitudes at
universities. In January 2009 he was named
Australian of the Year.
Aboriginal people, when speaking in
English of the connection with land,
often refer to land as "country".
Anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose
has described 'country' in this way:
Deborah Bird Rose is
an anthropologist who
works at the Australian
National University in
Canberra. She has
commented on
Aboriginal people and
the land
"People talk about country in the
same way that they would talk about a
person: they speak to country, sing to
country, visit country, worry about
country, feel sorry for country, and
long for country. People say that
country knows, hears, smells, takes
notice, takes care, is sorry or happy.
…country is a living entity with a
yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a
consciousness, and a will toward life.
Because of this richness, country is
home, and peace; nourishment for
body, mind, and spirit; heart's ease."
Deborah Bird Rose
LAND USE AND OWNERSHIP
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Ownership of land means responsibility to care for it and
nurture it as a sacred trust to be preserved and passed on in a
timeless cycle
Land not only has an economic use (food, water and work) but
also a ritual or spiritual use
Aborigines therefore have a ‘ritual estate’ or a heartland of a
local group – ‘My country’
My country contain sites of spiritual significance or sacred sites
and it is a lifetime’s work to know the stories of ‘my country’
together with the rights and responsibilities an individual has for
it
Sometimes people have to travel over or use other people’s
ritual estate (searching for food or water) and great care is
needed not to break the Law of these people
LAND USE AND OWNERSHIP
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Other people’s sacred sites must not be approached
The stories of another country must not be talked
about by someone travelling through or using it
Punishments were traditionally very severe if the Law of
a country was broken
A person is safest in their own country where the rights
and responsibilities are known by everyone and
respected
Ownership of land is based on division and distribution
of ritual responsibility for land and sacred sites and not
on the Western notion of owning, using or occupying
land
Traditionally Aborigines are very familiar with their
country and are rarely lost in it
Mervyn Rubuntja - Water Snake
Dreaming
This painting is by Mervyn Rubuntja,
the son of the well known Arrernte artist
Wenten Rubuntja. This is an older work
by Mervyn, from 1989, and was painted
in the Larapinta Valley south of
Hermannsburg. It tells of the rainbow
snake (Gunina) which came from Palm
Valley to Boggy Hole (places near
Hermannsburg). The snake still lives in
Boggy Hole and "if you go swimming in
Boggy Hole now, policeman find you
dead". This large work has been
beautifully painted, with fine dots and
careful use of traditional symbols.
Acrylic on canvas 1989
Bessie Nakamarra Sims
Born: c.1932
Location: Yuendumu, Tanami Desert
Language: Warlpiri
Medium: acrylic paint on canvas and linen
Bessie Sims is one of the strongest supporters
of Warlukurlangu Artists. She has painted
since the mid 1980s and has consistently
exhibited nationally and internationally in
group shows. Her husband is Paddy Japaljarri
Sims with whom she occasionally collaborates
on larger works. The main dreamings in her
work are Ngarlajiyi (Small Yam), Janganpa
(Possum), Pamapardu (Flying Ant),
Karntajarra (Two Women), Yarla (Bush
Potato) and Mukaki (Bush Plum).
Darby Ross - Yankirri Jukurrpa
Born c. 1910
This is the most recent work that
Darby has done (2001). It depicts
Ngarlikurlangu (north of
Yuendumu). As a Jampijinpa man,
Darby is kirda (owner) of this
Yankirri (Emu) Jukurrpa. He has
depicted the sacred place of
Ngarlikirlangu and the woliya
(footprints) of the emu as it travels
the Jukurrpa.
Paddy Japaljarri Sims
Paddy is a Warlpiri speaker who was
born some time around 1917 at
Kunajarrayi (Mt Nicker) west of
Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory.
He is one of the truly outstanding
artists of Yuendumu who has been an
influential figure in the development
of art in the region.
He has a distinctive style and paints a number of dreamings (Jukurrpa) connected with his
country: Witi (Ceremonial Pole), Yanjirlypiri (Star), Yiwarra (Milky Way), Munga (Night),
Ngarlkirdi (Witchetty Grub), Liwirringki (Burrowing Skink), Jungunypa (Marsupial
Mouse), Mala (Rufous Hare Wallaby), Wakulyarri (Rock Wallaby), Warlu (Fire), Wanakiji
(Bush Tomato), Ngalyipi (Snake Vine) and Jurlpu (Bird).
Art of the Western Desert
Aborigines of the Western Desert
traditionally made sand paintings
using coloured soils. The most
characteristic quality of these works
was the use of dots and cirlces.
Today Aborigines use acrylic paint
to construct these works.
ART, STORIES, SONGS, SACRED OBJECTS AND
CEREMONIES
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All have important place in Aboriginal life and Dreaming - not
separate from or additional to beliefs
Art important aspect of religion and expression of belief in
creation and working of universe – art connects Aboriginal
people with Dreaming
Rock paintings for example are thought to have been left
behind by Ancestor Beings
Art connects people with ‘my country’ and is often in form of a
map
Some Aboriginal art (e.g. desert regions) is: abstract, full of
mythological symbolism such as circles and lines which contain
meanings
Other art (e.g. Kimberley, Arnhem Land, Cape York) is more
representational
Modern example of desert art
Symbols used in desert art
Traditional - 1912
ART, STORIES, SONGS, SACRED OBJECTS AND
CEREMONIES
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Despite regional differences all Aboriginal art has
strong design and harmonic features
Some art was very secret while other art was less
secret – difference between sacred/secret & public
What appears to be abstract is really symbolic
No written literature in tradition Aboriginal society but
large amount of oral stories/tradition passed on from
generation to generation
Stories have many versions and layers, e.g. children’s,
women’s & male versions
Secret/sacred stories associated with particular sites
and ceremonies, e.g. initiation
ART, STORIES, SONGS, SACRED OBJECTS AND
CEREMONIES
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Stories record travels/activities of Dreaming Ancestors – closely
related to shape of land
As living people move over land stories give them knowledge of
land, e.g. waterholes
Song-cycles are used to recall tracks of Ancestral Beings – each
song recalls activities of a Being at a site and become part of
ritual at sites
Songs often accompanied by dancing
People who know and perform songs gain status and respect
Groups are responsible for their songs
An Uluru Story
In the creation period, Tatji, the small Red
Lizard, who lived on the mulgi flats, came to
Uluru. He threw his kali, a curved throwing
stick, and it became embedded in the surface.
He used his hands to scoop it out in his efforts
to retrieve his kali, leaving a series of bowlshaped hollows.
Unable to recover his kali, he finally
died in this cave. His implements and
bodily remains survive as large
boulders on the cave floor.
The Bell-Bird brothers, were stalking
an emu. The disturbed animal ran
northward toward Uluru. Two bluetongued lizard men, Mita and
Lungkata, killed it, and butchered it
with a stone axe. Large joints of meat
survive as a fractured slab of
sandstone.
When the Bell-Bird brothers arrived, the
lizards handed them a skinny portion of emu,
claiming there was nothing else. In revenge,
the Bell-Bird brothers set fire to the Lizard's
shelter. The men tried to escape by climbing
the rock face, but fell and were burned to
death. The gray lichen on the rock face is the
smoke from the fire and the lizard men are
two half-buried boulders.
In several caves in Uluru, rock represents many stories of the
Dreamtime. The paintings are regularly renewed, with layer
upon layer of paint, dating back many thousands of years.
SACRED OBJECTS
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Sacred objects are used to give
knowledge and power
These include: stones with
markings, carved boards and
poles
Some marked rocks are only
brought out on special
occasions and are thought to
have been left by the Ancestral
Beings
Here is a picture of a sacred
pole from Arnhem Land
ART, STORIES, SONGS, SACRED OBJECTS AND
CEREMONIES
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Ceremonies in two groups:
 Rites
of passage where people move life stages
 Periodic ceremonies performed at various times for
a variety of reasons
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Reasons for ceremonies include:
 Enjoyment
 Promoting
health and well-being of whole group
Ceremonies can be combination of public and
sacred/secret rituals
 Sacred/secret are restricted to initiated – noninitiated and non-Aboriginals cannot attend
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CEREMONIES - INITIATION
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Initiation for boys and girls is most important event in traditional
Aboriginal life
Initiation is part of the perpetuation and celebration of the
Dreaming
Initiation can symbolise death of child and birth of adult where
new roles in tribe are given
Initiation admits boy/girl to sacred/secret life
Preceded by period of seclusion away from larger group where
sacred/secret rituals take place and knowledge given
On return new status is celebrated as man or woman and
education continues under supervision of elders
Education continues throughout life as further knowledge of
land, people and Law
Initiation often includes
face or body painting,
piercing or cutting as well
as music and dancing
CEREMONIES – DEATH AND BURIAL
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Aborigines see death not as end of life but last ceremony in
present life
Spirit of dead return to Dreaming Places they came from as part
of eternal transition of life-force of Dreaming
Burial grounds and spirits of dead are greatly feared – names of
dead cannot be spoken (this has been acknowledged by media in
recent times and permission must be sought to say names)
Dead must be buried in own country and spirits properly sung to
rest (or in caves, rock platforms, trees, hollow logs, special
houses for the dead – sometimes cremated)
Burial ceremonies vary widely from place to place and in
accordance with status of person
Ceremonies can continue for months or even years
Pukumani Poles
Mortuary Ceremony
Tiwi Islands
This ceremony ensures that the spirit of the dead person goes from the living world
into the spirit world. The Pukumani is a public ceremony and provides a forum for
artistic expression through song, dance, sculpture and body painting. It occurs
approximately six months after the deceased has been buried.
The Tiwi believe that the dead person's existence in the living world is not finished
until the completion of the ceremony. The final Pukumani is the climax of a series
of ceremonies that traditionally continued for many months after the burial of the
dead.
There is usually one iliana (minor ceremony) at the time of death and then many
months later the final Pukumani. The ceremony culminates in the erection of
monumental carved and decorated Pukumani poles which take many months to
prepare and are impressive gifts to placate the spirit of the dead.
These poles are placed around the burial site during the ceremony. They symbolise
the status and prestige of the deceased. Participants in the ceremony are painted
with natural ochres in many different designs, transforming the dancers and
providing protection against recognition by the spirit of the deceased. A series of
dances (yoi) is performed.
Aside from creative and illustrative performances there are those that certain kin such as the mother, father, sibling and widow - must dance.
When all is concluded and the last wailing notes of the amburu (death song) have
died away, the grave is deserted and the burial poles allowed to decay.
THE LAW
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Aboriginal Law encoded in each group’s Dreaming
Ancestor Being decided rights and responsibilities
and the behaviour of all things they made
Human organisation – relationships, ritual
responsibilities to land and rights over it – are
encoded in Dreamtime stories and handed on from
generation to generation in dance, music, art and
ceremonies
Gatherings of Aborigines were to settle disputes
Today Aboriginal outstations still use what is called
‘Aboriginal customary law’ to settle disputes and
punish offences and this is recognised by the
Australian legal system
SETTLEMENT
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White settlement usually resulted in death of Aborigines or
disruption to lifestyle and economy
Settler wanted water, good land, shelter and access to food like
fish – all of which were important to Aborigines as well
White settler altered landscape by clearing trees and building
fences – this caused conflict
As settlement continued Aboriginal numbers decreased and way
of life destroyed
Survivors lived within or on fringes of European communities
Some Aborigines came freely because whites gave them food
and tobacco but others were rounded up by police and forced in
missions or government settlements
Aborigines were often rounded up like animals and driven off their
land to settlements by the police. This picture of a round up was
painted in Western Australia in the 1840s.
Aborigines rounded up and placed in chains are paraded for
the camera in early 20th century
Chained
Aborgines
Victoria
Late 19th
Century
SETTLEMENT
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Some Aborigines became attached to cattle and sheep
stations and worked for rations/clothing
Aborigines became at mercy of missions, government
settlements or pastoralists
Some had active policy of destroying Aboriginal culture
such as language, art and ceremonies and they would
not allow relatives to visit
Children were often separated from parents
Some tried to work within Aboriginal culture adapting
their teachings to local conditions
Some pastoralist allowed big gatherings of Aborigines
at sacred sites but most did not
In all states the movement of Aboriginal people was
harshly controlled
SETTLEMENT
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In other places contact with non-Aboriginal
communities had significant impact:
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Gold rush areas – violence and drunkenness
Sealers stole women and killed men and children
Pearlers stole young boys
Missions and settlement compacted Aborigines
together not allowing them to spread out – this meant
ceremonies could not be carried out
Extinction or near extinction undermined whole culture
– lack of numbers meant complex religious and
cultural practices were not maintained
Aboriginal Law and authority and relationship with land
was undermined or destroyed
Land was lost to more powerful white settlers
LAND RIGHTS
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Driving Aborigines off land did more than deprive them of
property
Also deprived them of independence, culture, spiritual world
1970s – ‘land rights’ was termed used for what had been a
source of protest for many years – that is, protest against loss of
Aboriginal land
1888 Australian centenary celebrations were boycotted by
Aborigines – no one noticed
1938 sesquicentenary was declared a Day of Mourning for
Aboriginal people and protests were held in Sydney
5 days later delegation met with PM to protest about treatment
of Aborigines – esp. housing, education, working conditions,
welfare and land purchases
Aboriginal Day of Mourning declared by Aboriginal
protest groups on Australia Day, 1938
Australia Day Protest, 1988
LAND RIGHTS
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But not until 1967 that referendum overwhelmingly voted YES
that:
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Aboriginals counted in national census
Commonwealth have power to make laws for them
1963 – Yirrkala people of NT presented bark petition for land to
Commonwealth Govt.
Gained momentum – Gurindji people living and working on Wave
Hill Station went on strike to press their claim about adequate
wages for work
1970 – bicentenary of Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay – Aboriginal
protest for land rights
1972 – tent embassy appeared on lawns of Parliament House
Canberra – Aboriginal Embassy or Tent Embassy
Aboriginal flag flown for the first time here
Yirrkala Bark Petitions - 1963
View text of Yirrkala and read background at:
http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/places/cth/cth15.htm
Wave Hill Strike - 1966
In August 1966 Gurindji people
led by Vincent Lingiari at Wave
Hill cattle station went on a nine
year strike demanding better
wages and conditions and a
return of some of their
traditional lands. Wave Hill
Station was owned by an
Englishman, Lord Vestey. The
demand was rejected but the
Gurindji continued to camp on
their traditional country
establishing a settlement at
Daguragu - they broke the white
man's law but obeyed their own.
The campaign was taken up by
supporters in Australia's cities
and eventually the Gurindji won
title to part of their land.
The Ration
Wave Hill
Vincent Lingiari
1966
The Aboriginal Tent
Embassy in Canberra has
maintained a constant
presence since 1972. It
aims to keep Aboriginal
issues like Land Rights
alive and to embarrass the
Government.
A fire burns continuously at
the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
in Canberra to show that this
is a meeting place for all
Aborigines on what was once
Aboriginal land.
Site of Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra in its early days following
1972. Media reporters and visitors from all over the world saw the protest
just across the road from Parliament House. Despite attempts to evict the
protestors it has always been rebuilt. Many Aborigines from around
Australia support the protest by working at the Embassy. In 1995 the
Australian Heritage Commission recognised the Tent Embassy as a site of
special cultural significance and it was entered on the Register of the
National Estate – list of natural and cultural heritage places.
LAND RIGHTS
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Land Rights: claims by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples to repossession and compensation
for White use of their lands and sacred sites
Native Title: Name given by High Court of Australia to
indigenous property rights recognised by the courts as
handed down in the Mabo Decision (3 June, 1992)
Land Rights Acts in most Australian states: NT in 1976;
SA in 1981; NSW in 1983; Qld in 1991
Limited land rights in WA but in NT 42% of land is
Aboriginal land under inalienable freehold title
Aboriginal Elder
Vincent Lingiari and
Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam at
the hand over of
Daguragu to the
Gurindji in NT,
1975. This was one
of the first successful
land rights claims to
be settled. Whitlam
symbolically places
the earth in Lingiari’s
hand to show
Aboriginal
ownership of the
Land.
NATIVE TITLE
1992 – High Court of Australia ruled in what was called ‘The
Mabo Decision’ that native title to land existed in 1788
 Justice Brennan in 1992 overthrew terra nullius arguing:
“The fiction by which the rights and interests of indigenous
inhabitants in land were treated as non-existent was justified by
a policy which has no place in the contemporary laws in this
country .. The common law of this country would perpetuate
injustice if it were to continue to embrace the enlarged notion of
terra nullius and to persists in characterising the indigenous
inhabitants of the Australian colonies as people too low in the
scale of social organisation to be acknowledged as possessing
rights and interests in land”

NATIVE TITLE
Terra nullius meant that Australia was ‘empty
(or nothing) earth’ – land without ordered
society that could be called civilisation
 Terra nullius had allowed Europeans to occupy
land and ignore Aboriginal claims and culture
because they said nothing existed here
 The High Court of Australia overturned this
argument and said that native title existed
where traditional customs and laws applied
 Freehold land (private ownership) was not part
of the land where native title existed

Eddie Mabo
1936-1992
A Torres Strait Islander who believed that
white laws about land ownership were
wrong and who fought to change them.
He fought a ten year battle through the
courts which culminated in the Mabo
Decision of 1992 by the High Court of
Australia. Eddie Mabo was able to prove
in court that he and his family had
ownership of their land on Murray Island
in the Torres Strait. This implication of
this decision was that terra nullius was
overthrown and the argument that there
was no native title was defeated. This
had implications for all Australians.
NATIVE TITLE ACT, 1993

1993 – Native Title Act passed through
Commonwealth Parliament. This Act:
 Set
up a National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) to
help mediate claims - http://www.nntt.gov.au
 Provided for Indigenous Land Fund to assist those
whose native title had been extinguished
 Protected native title by requiring that traditional
owners be consulted in advance if government were
considering granting leases to mining companies or
others

Since 1993 Native Title and agreements on
land use have been reached
THE WIK DECISION, 1996




The Howard Government, elected in March, 1996, had policy of
amending the Native Title Act to make it more ‘workable’
In December, 1996, the High Court of Australia handed down
the Wik Decision which said that native title could co-exist with
other rights on land held under a pastoral lease – court said
each lease must be determined on its own merits
PM John Howard introduced his ‘Ten Point Plan’ to put the Wik
Decision into action – among these points was severe reduction
of right of Aborigines to negotiate
1998 – Native Title Amendment Act passed Commonwealth
Parliament – empowered states and territories to legislate their
own native title methods
WHAT DOES WIK DECISION MEAN?


The Wik Decision is a decision of the High Court of Australia in
December 1996, following a case brought by the Wik people of
Cape York in North Queensland. It concerns only their right of
access to the land held under pastoral leases (ie Crown land
used - but not owned - by pastoralists for cattle grazing). The
court decided (4 judges to 3) that indigenous people who can
prove a connection to the land may have rights to hold
ceremonies and perform other traditional activities - as long as
they don't interfere with the pastoralists' legitimate activities.
In other words, pastoral leases do not automatically give
exclusive possession to the pastoralist, and therefore do not
necessarily extinguish native title. This had been a major
assumption upon which the Commonwealth Native Title Act had
first been drafted. The Wik Decision holds that native title might
co-exist on pastoral leases, but the rights of pastoral
leaseholders prevail over any inconsistent rights that native title
holders might have.
FRANCES BELLE PARKER
Frances (born 1982) is a young
Aboriginal artist who tries to
Integrate her aboriginality and
Christian spirituality
 In 2000 Frances won the prestigious Blake
Prize for Religious Art with her painting ‘The
Journey’

The Journey
A painting by
Frances Belle
Parker won the
Blake Prize for
Religious Art in
2000.
What is the
message of the
painting?
Reconcile
Sacred Soul
Share with me
Unity
A Case Study
Balgo Catholic Parish
Western Australia
Band at Catholic Church at
Balgo in Western Australia
Madonna and Child by
Aboriginal artist
Christ in the Desert
A series of Aboriginal
art works showing the
combination of
Christian and Aboriginal
spirituality
Artist unknown. This banner,
hanging in the
Jesuits' Kutjungka Catholic
Church in Wirramanu,
Western Australia, is an
example of Aboriginal
artists' combination of
Christian elements and
Aboriginal design.
Artist unknown. In this depiction of Pentecost, twelve
tongues of flame hover above the crescent shapes that
represent the apostles sitting.
Artist unknown. The Church at Wirramanu is steward of a
number of paintings that reflect meldings of Aboriginal
design and Christian elements.
“Nativity” The central figure represents the infant Jesus;
crescents represent the seated figures of Mary and Joseph.
Artist unknown. This infant
Jesus lies in a coolomon, a
hollowed-out wooden
vessel used as a crib by
Aborigines. Crescent
shapes represent figures,
more accurately, the
impression seated figures
would leave on the ground.