Land is considered mother earth to Indigenous Australians, the source of all creation, yielding all the necessities of life- food, clothing and shelter dated back since over 40,000 years ago when Aborigines first came to Australia. In present period, Indigenous still are spiritually linked to the land rights of this country, which will be further discussed and analysed throughout this ethnographic report. 2. Aboriginal Spirituality Indigenous Spirituality is recognized and defined as the core of Aboriginal being, it is the general notion of the interconnecting elements of creation.
It is the relationship between every human, every flora and every fauna. The relationship between the land and the person. The interconnectedness of every aspect of life. Indigenous spirituality is expressed through the Dreaming with includes song lines, art, music, dance and the individual’s totem. 2. 1 The Dreaming The Dreaming to the Indigenous people is the centre of their religion and culture. It is the shaping and developing of the world as people know and experience it through the activities of powerful creator ancestors.
The Dreaming is known in the past, present and future as the rituals and practices have been inherited through generations and will continue to be pass along the line. It is not considered at a certain time period because to indigenous the Dreaming is not an object it is a spiritual connection, it is timeless. It is can be expressed through art, stories, songs, sacred objects and rituals. Art is a primary part of Indigenous life. Many artworks tell the story of the interconnectedness between indigenous and the land. There seen as conceptual relationship maps influencing the relatedness display of landscape.
Similarly, dreamtime stories who are closely related to the land and how it came to be, historically. For instance, the great Rainbow Serpent symbolises water that came from the sky to give life to the land. Indigenous Australians who are linked to the Dreaming are inextricably connected to the land rights through their spirituality. 2. 2 Kinship to the land Across Australia there are over 500 reference Aboriginal nations full of thousands of family groups, also known as clans who share common language knowledge and kinship systems, based on either male or female lines of descent.
The kinship system involves three levels, Moiety, Totem and Skin Names. In summary, the first level, Moiety is the involvement of everything which is split into two halves, which are a mirror image of the other. To empathize the whole earth, the two halves must link. The second level. Totem commiserates eat person has a minimum of four Totems representing their clan, nation, family group and personal Totems. Personal Totems define strengths and weaknesses, linking them to the universe-to the land, air, water and topographical landscapes.
Totems are a responsibility ensuring they are protected and imminently distributed to the subsequent generation. A balance of use and protection is created by Totems which are split between Moieties. For example, while members of one Moiety protect and conserve the animal, members of the other Moiety may eat and use the animal. Level three is the Skin Name indicating a person’s blood line and conveying generational information and how they are linked and interacted. The 3 stage kinship structure organises the spiritual connectedness to the land rights that Aboriginal people are linked to.
3. Indigenous Land Rights Aboriginal land rights refers to the struggle to gain recognition of ownership of land they called home, prior to the invasion in 1788. The laws, customs and ways of knowing and being are interconnected through the spirit of the land. Therefore continuing the connection is required for the survival of Indigenous Australians. To gain recognition of custodianship requires land claiming, which is often the last remaining form of compensation for dispossession after the white settlement. To prove ownership of their land, proof must be provided that there native relationship and formal land boundaries by anthropologists.
A total of 1% represents the total land mass in New South Wales that Indigenous people have successfully claimed such as national parks. Many parks are jointly owned not affecting visitor protocols. The first park returned was the Mutawintji National Park, followed by the first native title determination recognition, the Witjira National Park. Mutawintji was returned to original owners on the fourth of September 1998, which claims to have a collection of Aboriginal art, including rock engravings, murals and paintings. The Witjira National Park was recognised in September of 2008.
These parks being returned to the original custodians does not come easy. Indigenous Australians must prove their continuous kinship with the specific land they are inadequate to claim, which devours to be vacant government-owned. Returning land to Indigenous custodians will continue to be a problematic process as the interests of Aboriginals compete with the marketable interests. Globally, minerals, freshwater and potential energy sources are the worlds remaining natural resources although endure a constant threat to the kinship of the land to Indigenous as the minerals industry require these substances to continue economically. ttp:// www. creativespirits. info/aboriginalculture/land/aboriginal-landclaims#axzz4Aeixhqjz 3. 1 The criticisms that have been made of the demands for the land rights Criticisms of the demands for land rights from spiritual Indigenous Australians have past and presently occurred. Although most in the end resulted in positive outcomes motivating the continuation of returning the custodianship to the Aborigines. Past criticism involved the governments objecting through many indigenous events for instance the Yirrkala bark petitions and the Australian minerals industry.
Waita Telfer’s perspective reveals she has ill feelings towards the government still today as they do not recognise the original people of the land nor give correct compensation for the invasion. The Yirrkala bark petitions began in 1963 protesting about indigenous land rights, which was rejected by the Northern Territory Supreme Court in 1971. History of criticisms against the demands for land rights dates back over centuries of ridicule and hierarchy management. Finally, “every day you choose not to act on something, the next generation pays” reference.
Peter Mulcahy promulgates the effects of not solving the current problem, leaving the following people to deal with it. Describing, the minerals industry on sacred indigenous sites propagates the fondness of the connections to the land. It collides with Aboriginal land interests, who although Peter Mulcahy affirms “one person cannot say the opinion of everyone” Mulcahy, P. (2016). He believes that if mining is a system of progression which means to move forward, then where are we forwarding to, since all the sacred land which was engulfed in thousands of years of knowledge is being demolished.
As Australian soil is so much more special then we’ve been taught. ” The only people that will pay for the devastating extinguish will be the generations of the future, slowly recognising we have destroyed any live existence of Australian history. Left with only limited spiritual linking to what is left of the sacred and sacrosanct land. 3. 2 The motivations for the struggle of land rights 4. The issue of land rights The issues of Indigenous land rights crosses into many differing factors, each factor is independent and also relevant to each other.
Indigenous Australians culture believes that the land is to be worshipped – to live off the land – not to mine the land for profit. Political Indigenous Australians prefer not to mine the land to create money and rely upon the government for welfare, but would want to use the land to create a society based on their culture and beliefs. They would build an infrastructure that is inextricably linked to their spirituality. Health and education issues will escalate
