Aboriginals and the Land

ABORIGINALS AND THE LAND

For a non aboriginal person, it is very hard for me to understand how vital the land is to the survival of the aboriginal culture. The Aboriginal people have a very close relationship with the land. They believe that he land was created by their ancestors for them and is very sacred. They also believe that the land is equal to them and hat everything comes from the same spirit world. The Aboriginal people passed down stories of the land through Dreamtime stories and artworks painted on rocks. The Aboriginals believed that the land was a part of them and that it was their identity. Most things that they did revolved around the land and using the land to effectively survive without harming it.

#PHYSICAL WORLD

" OUR LAND OUR LIFE "

'We don't own the land, the land owns us'

'The Land is my mother, my mother is the land'

'Land is the starting point to where it all began. It is like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I will go'

'The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity'

'We don't have boundaries like fences, as farmers do. We have spiritual connections'

This poem was written by and Aboriginal person and it very effectively portrays haw the Aboriginal people feel about the land. This poem shows us that there was no ownership of land in the aboriginal culture and that they depended on the land. Its also shows us how they are spiritually connected to the land and how their land is their identity. This poem also helps us to understand that the land is everything to the aboriginal people “The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity” and that they need the land to continue to practice their faith and traditions.

# The Aboriginal people believe that all things are part of a large network of relationships .These relationships are said to have been started by the spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.

This diagram represents the relationship between all parts of the Aboriginal culture. It shows that they are all linked and they are also all equal. There is no circle bigger or line longer to suggest that one is better or on is further away from the others.

#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

This paragraph tell us about how the aboriginals culture and spirituality are very closely connected to the land. They live with and for the land. Without their land there isn’t much point in their existence. They also mention that the land is a part of them and by taking it away from them you are taking away a piece of them as well. This paragraph is a very good description of how the aboriginals need the land and how they are nothing without the land that their ancestors provided for them.

"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."

This paragraph comes from the same source as the last paragraph and it show us another way in which the aboriginal people are connected to the land. This paragraph describes the land as a living person and the aboriginal people used to treat the land like a person and neither the land or the people was superior. They do many things to the land, including singing and speaking to it which shows their great respect for the land. They also believe that the land responds to them and is alive. It once again enforces the fact that