Aboriginal Cosmologies Essay

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The term “cosmology” can be used to refer to the body of concepts and doctrines about the origins and properties of the world and its inhabitants (Keen, 2004). For Indigenous Australians, cosmological beliefs connect them to their country through a complex cosmological experience that is present in all aspects of their daily life and it is instrumental in shaping their world view. By exploring some of the cosmological beliefs of the Bardi people of Western Australia, the Kunai people in Southern Victoria, the Pitjantjatjara people of the Western Desert, and the Yolngu people from Arnhem Land, it is possible to see how the landscape is a vital link to their connection with their ancestral past; conceptions of life and death; while also providing a structural framework for their morality or ‘law’. For Australians whose origins lie elsewhere, including settler Australians and New Age believers, the ability to gain a sense of connectedness and belonging to the land, is limited by lack of understanding and appreciation of the importance of Indigenous cosmologies and their role in defining the Australian landscape. Throughout Australia, the Dreaming is the central feature of Aboriginal cosmology, forming an integral link between humans, the land and all living creatures. The Dreaming is “the sacred knowledge, wisdom, and moral truth permeating the entire beingness of Aboriginal life, derived collectively from Dreaming events” (Hume, 2004, p. 237). For the Kunai people of southwest Victoria, myths about their ancestors are to do with origins, such as the frog who drank all the water, which was released only when an eel made him laugh by dancing on his tail, thus causing a great flood. For the Pitjantjatjara people of the Western Desert, the landscape includes rock carvings, paintings and stone arrangements that were said to have been made by ancestors; waterholes

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