Wakirlpirri Jukurrpa ( Snake Vine Dreaming ) By Liddy Walker Napanagka

For the Aborigines their spiritually involves everyday objects such as plants and animals which are connected to their ancestors. Their spirituality and beliefs are kept alive by passing on their knowledge through ceremonies and “Dreamtime” stories. The “Dreamtime” stories are how the Aborigines explain the beginning of the Earth and the foundation of their core beliefs. In most of the stories, ancestral spirits came to the Earth and as they moved along they created the plants, animals and even rocks. One the spirits did their job, they morphed into stars, watering holes and other objects. An example of these “Dreamtime” stories is the “Rainbow serpent” which is about a serpent who “pushed out the land to make mountains, she spilled water over the land to make rivers, lakes and billabongs. She also made the sun and fire, and all colours of the rainbow.”

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

Each group of indigenous peoples have their own culture, lifestyles and beliefs. In Avatar the Na’vi believe that every living thing is connected while the aboriginals believed that if you took care of the land then the land would take care of you. Also the Na’vi worship Eywa, their goddess made up of all living things while the aboriginals worship the land. The Aboriginals are nomadic and

Dreams are also a guide in Ojibway culture, " 'one of the things that elders tell you nowadays to try real hard to remember, write them down even to help you. '" (Wagamese 252). It is believe that through dreams one receives visions that are " 'sent to them by the spirit world. That vision could be just about anything and was meant to be a sacred and private thing for the seeker. Gave a direction for their life. '" (252). Dreams are believed to be important messages that provide one with " 'direction and strength '"(252).

Indigenous traditions represent the oldest cultures which associate the quest archetype with a search for real knowledge of the external world, which was otherwise unavailable to people with little technology to search the external environment empirically. Indigenous quest characteristics come through an active need to learn about a harsh world in order to survive adulthood. With such cultures having limited methods of acquiring knowledge of the external world, the quest then serves as a function to show the development of knowledge needed in order to survive in indigenous society

This indirectly implies the significant role of culture in improving educational outcomes of Aboriginal population. Which role does the acknowledgement of culture play in education of Aboriginal students? Meyer (1998, as cited in Hanlen, 2010) argues that the Aboriginal communities consider the knowledge to come through other people’s knowledge and that a person exists through interaction with other people. Education is considered to be a process which never stops and which is taking place inside the family and daily activities (Hanlen, as cited in Hanlen, 2010). Furthermore, Hanlen argues that the Aboriginal people think about goals of the community as more important than individual goals and all aspects of life are

Certain Aboriginal tribes at this time believed in reincarnation and the respect of the hunted animal. They also believed in the idea that animals that were shown were able to be killed as they were not under-populated. Although this method was not very scientific it still proves that idea that FN at this time were aware of the idea of over-hunting and aids in the idea of a harmony with their environment. Tribes such as “The Rupert House Cree hunted different sections of their land, leaving such to recruit two or even three years.” Which shows their ability to understand the environment and the animals that reside within it.

spirituality. Aboriginal spirituality is passed on orally by elders through myths and rituals. Without knowledge of their traditional languages, young people could not learn about the spiritual beliefs of their people. This spirituality was all encompassing, affecting not only their thoughts about the spirit world but also their knowledge of places, plants and animals and traditional skills such as fishing, trapping, and tanning (Blair et al., 2002, p. 96). As Steckley and Cummins have pointed out, without access to the elders’ knowledge of nature, young people lost access to the beliefs and practices their people had developed over thousands of years (2001, p. 17). Therefore, the loss of language led to the loss of traditional spiritual beliefs and

For many Indigenous people, spirituality is more than simply a belief in a higher being. Spirituality is the holistic belief that all living and nonliving things are interconnected and deserving of the highest respect.  In accordance with Medicine Wheel teachings, the East portion of the medicine wheel is synonymous with spirituality. By recognizing the importance of spirituality and how it helps shape cultural identity, one has the potential to be able to better understand how

Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions evolved to match the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether by hunting wild animals or by agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that each thing, plant and animal has a spirit. The Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between the spirituality and the culture. One cannot exist without the other.

Spirituality often can be classified to an ultimate or immaterial reality or inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the deepest values and meanings by which people live. This can be true for the aboriginal people, whose concept of spirituality is derived from the concept of the Dreaming, where the roots lie in a variety of stories, ceremonies, values and structures. In the beginning many people held on to what ever they could, holding on to their idea of themselves a connection to the families that they left behind. However, in order to wipe away any thought or lingering feelings “many masks, regalia. And ritual artifacts were confiscated and burned as pagan works of the devil- or simply held and later sold for profit.”[7] This was devastating as many lost whatever connection they had to the outside world, their families and their spirituality. While in residential schools “Children were taught that the beliefs of their

Before the European invasion in the 1700’s, Indigenous Australians lived in tribes all over the country, with an estimated population of 750,000 people (Australian Museum, 2013). By 1901, less than 100,000 remained. Their deeply rooted belief and spiritual system, known as the Dreaming, was a

For Aboriginal Australians, the land has a special significance that is rarely understood by those of European descent. The land, or country, does not only sustain Aborigines in material ways, such as providing food and shelter, it also plays a major role in their spiritual lives. As Rose put it, "Land provides for my physical needs and spiritual needs." (1992, p.106). To use Rose 's own term, to Aboriginals the land is a 'nourishing terrain '. (1996, p.7).

When the ancestral spirits had created life, law and food it believed that they will returned to the land. And people say that they made themselves into creeks, water, mud and pools which it remain today. And all the traditional indigenous people believed that are being formed during the dreamtime, and the way that they hunt food, and they this is how dreamtime helped

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?