Hello Charlie!
Today I was reflecting on my trimestrial blog contribution, and while I was brainstorming my ideas of subjects related to the english-speaking world and I thought of something that upsets me a little bit.
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We often talk of countries such as the USA or Australia, but we rarely mention the native people of these lands, who have been living there for thousands and thousands years, and who yet are the forgotten ones.
A concrete example that I could give you is the time I visited Alcatraz (on which I wrote an article last year), which is -indeed- a famous prison, but which is originally a sacred place for a Native American tribe! -and no one ever mentioned it during the whole visit, it was only written on a little sign hidden somewhere-. I was quite surprised.
Even though I gave you an example with Native Americans -whom I have a lot of respect-, today I wanted to focus on other people who are even less known : Aboriginal Australians.
I must say that I am quite sensitive to Aboriginal Culture, which is unfairly put aside while it is absolutely beautiful, and that is why I am going to give them a bit of light.
Who are they ?
Aboriginal Australians could be the oldest population of humans living outside of Africa, where one theory says they migrated from in boats 70,000 years ago.
More than 200 different Aboriginal languages were spoken (and hundreds of dialects), and most Aboriginal people were bilingual or multilingual.
The transmission of their culture is mainly oral.
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Only in 1967 did Australians vote that federal laws also would apply to Aboriginal Australians. Most Aboriginal Australians did not have full citizenship or voting rights until 1965.
Today, about three percent of Australia’s population has Aboriginal heritage. Aboriginal Australians still struggle to retain their ancient culture and fight for recognition—and restitution—from the Australian government. They are also suffering too often from unemployment and diseases.
“Tjukurrpa”
The Dreamtime
This is the name given to the very beginning of the world. At the Dreamtime, The land and the people were created by the Spirits. They made the rivers, streams, water holes, the land, hills, rocks, plants and animals. It is believed that the Spirits gave them their hunting tools and each tribe its land and their totems. Humans, animals and landscapes are linked together.
The Dreamtime is also a whole life philosophy, and an extremely complexe perception of things, which I strongly recommend you to make your own research!
An important Aboriginal Myth : The Rainbow Serpent
A long time ago, at the beginning of Earth, there was nothing.
Until one day, when a huge snake slumbered beneath the Earth’s surface until it emerged from the ground to awaken different groups of animals and to travel through the landscape forging hills, lakes, valleys and rivers in previously featureless terrain. It is a symbol of fertility, often related to women.
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There are many ancient rituals associated with the Rainbow Serpent that are still practiced today. The myth of the Wawalag sisters marks the importance of the female menstruation process and led to the establishment of the Kunapipi blood ritual of the goddess, in which the indigenous Australians allegorically recreate the Rainbow Serpent eating the Wawalag sisters through dance and pantomime, and can be regarded as a fertility ritual. (Unlike The Handmaid’s Tale’s universe, Women are celebrated and I think this is great)
https://dreamtime.net.au/rainbow-serpent-story/
Finally, a little bit of Art…
I am sure you have noticed the traditional pieces of art I selected since the beginning of this article. But what is Aboriginal Art more precisely ?
Traditional Aboriginal Art is more than 50,000 years old (which is absolutely amazing), and it is meant to illustrate all the Dreams (the sacred legends that explain the creation of the world), so it has an important spiritual dimension.
Aboriginal art is traditionally practised using natural elements: engraving on walls, painting on the ground, on sand or bark, carvings in wood, natural fibres, stone or feathers, and jewellery made from bones, shells and seeds. This is I think coherent and extremely meaningful, knowing that Humans and Nature are linked together, and that Aboriginal tribes have an unconditional respect for their lands.
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That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed discovering Aboriginal Culture, which deserves to be known. Let’s keep celebrating diversity!
CORALIE. CORALIE. CORALIE. Don't tell me you dared using Comic Sans MS. You sinned. Please confess asap
ReplyDeleteI find this idea of identity spirituality and connection with the land very interesting ! It's very sweet how these aboriginal people have the need to share and care about their community :) thx for introducing me to something as inspirational as this
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any knowledge of aboriginal culture, and I haven’t even been to Australia for that matter, but it is a country that always interested me. I never understood why we never talk about aboriginal Australians! I actually worked on native Americans and legends concerning places that were sacred for them. I loved your article because learning about all of these myths and legends from a culture that I don’t really know much was awesome! The aboriginal art is amazing, so as your idea of talking about their culture.
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