The Significance of Land to the Dreaming for Aboriginal People and the Impact of the Land Rights Movement

In Aboriginal culture, the land is life and culture cannot be separated from the land.

After many years of European settlement in Australia, many Aboriginal people had been removed from their families and placed into schools with white Australians. This was due to the ‘protection policy’ laws that encouraged the removal of Indigenous children. Because fewer indigenous children were able to learn about their own culture, there was a slow decline in the culture of the indigenous people. As a result of this, there were continued tensions between the free settlers and Indigenous people as they had no roles in the government and couldn’t vote. This made them feel as if they were excluded from greater society and had long term negative impacts upon their sense of belonging to the new

Only in recent years have we seen the recognition that the stolen generation deserves and the essential part it has play in the struggle of Aboriginal rights. Since the end of the stolen generation, numerous organisations and government agency has come out and said sorry for what happened for seventy years and as a result Aboriginal rights are becoming more apparent. The famous “I’m sorry” speech said by Kevin Rudd was the first Parliament apology to the Stolen Generation and was seen as a huge leap forward in the recognition of the Stolen Generation. The Bringing Them Home Report in 1997 was a strong campaign for The

The Stolen Generation has left devastating impacts upon the Aboriginal culture and heritage, Australian history and the presence of equality experienced today. The ‘Stolen Generation’ refers to the children of Aboriginal descent being forcefully abducted by government officials of Australia and placed within institutions and catholic orphanages, being forced to assimilate into ‘white society’. These dehumanising acts placed these stolen children to experience desecration of culture, loss of identity and the extinction of their race. The destructive consequences that followed were effects of corruption including attempted suicide, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. The indigenous peoples affected by this have endured solitude for many

Imagine for a moment, if everything you owned was taken away from you. The Indigenous people of Australia have unfairly been robbed of their land, culture and people. They were among the first people to inhabit this country, and sadly their land and culture are under threat of being lost forever. To the indigenous people, land is an important part of their life, their substance needs and spiritual belief all come from the land. However, we owe the Indigenous people a lack of compensation but then again not giving any back. Therefore, it’s time for us to treat them fairly and give respect to their land.

Firstly, Aboriginals have been run out of their native lands and what little they have left is constantly being fought over by the Natives, the government and major corporations. Mr. Norman Slotkin, a lawyer for the Union of Ontario Indians, had this to say:

Aboriginal spirituality is directly linked to dreaming. The dreaming is the term which refers to the past, future and present of Aboriginal spirituality. The dreaming grasps the Aboriginal ideas of creation. It is the foundation on which the Aboriginal religion is built upon. The impacts of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualties concerning separation from the land, the stolen generation and separation from kinship group is discussed. Departure from the land started with the European settlement. It removed the sense of belonging and sense of spiritual identity. One of the first forms of dispossession even date back to when the first fleet arrived in 1778. The removal of Aboriginal people from their land had a detrimental effect on their spirituality

Government policies authorising the removal of Aboriginal children have caused extensive and unrepairable damage to every aspect of Indigenous culture. It could be argued that the emotional turmoil which occurred as a result of this policy, is greater than any physical abused ever faced by the Australian Aboriginal people. The act of child removal would be a scarring experience for parents and children of any race or culture. This policy had a particularly damaging impact on the Indigenous people as their identity is based within a set of strong traditional guides and teachings. These lessons are not recorded, but can only be taught through speaking with elders and learning through a connection to others within the mob, connection to art forms

I would like to begin this speech by recognising the owners of this land, the true ancestors of the country we call ‘ours’. To the Indigenous peoples of Australia, I acknowledge you, I thank you and most of all I apologise to you for the deep suffering and remorse you are put through. I am ashamed of this country’s treatment towards you. Past and Present.

Contentious debate continues to rage in present society opening a floodgate of ethical issues which can have detrimental effects on all parties involved. Ethics vary from each individual and tend to stem from their own belief systems external to that person (Dosen, Harris, Brock, Imariso and Smith 2007:336). These ethics give rise to conflicting arguments in present society. 50 years ago, Indigenous Australians were not entitled to enter a bar, cafe, swimming pool, or a cinema, if that deprivation of basic rights wasn’t enough; they then took children from their mothers later on known as the ‘stolen generation’ (www.creativespirits.2008). The stolen generation, estimated at over 100,000 children were taken from their homes and placed in missions, reserves or dormitories (www.creativespirits.2008). “I feel our childhood has been taken away from us and it has left a big hole in our lives” an Indigenous Australian part of the stolen generation (www.creativespirtis.2008). The loss of ones culture and identity was deemed worse then being poor and living in sub standard living with their families.

Dockery (2010), points out that the effects of dispossession on the Aboriginal people have been overwhelmingly detrimental. The loss of land has destroyed cultural significance and the ability to fulfill their spiritual responsibilities has been lost.

Displacement can be defined as forcible removal of people from their home environment and community. For Aboriginal Australian’s displacement began in the 1880’s, after the European settlement, and a number of Government Acts were introduced to assert power onto Aboriginal Australia’s and educate them on a Western culture (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). As a result, the displacement of Aboriginal Australian’s from their land increased diseases, and “destruction of culture and languages” (Hampton & Toombs, 2013, p. 37) which continues into the new century. The 1905 Act gave the Government and Police power to remove any Aboriginal Australian’s to a reserve which were established to house all Indigenous Australian people in one location. The Government thought they were providing Indigenous Australian people with “special treatment” (Craven, 2011), however,

They were separated from their family, their community and their culture. The range of problems encountered by the Stolen Generation included feelings of loneliness, loss of identity, and difficulties finding their religious beliefs. Victims of the Stolen Generation often have trouble applying for legal documents as their birth date and place is not always known, or documented. They feel like they do not belong with any particular group or religion; Aboriginal or European. These feelings often lead to a variety of psychological problems, such as such metal illness and substance and alcohol abuse. Even when the opportunity to become reunited with their family does arise, it is incredibly difficult to shift the deep sense of resentment that is felt by many Aboriginal

The main effects of separation from kinship group was the loss of language and it is through the language that Aboriginal people represent their concepts, and their ideas and definition of themselves.o

Numerous Indigenous groups were already present on the Australian continent and established in the form of societies thousands of years prior to the arrival of settlers. Although these groups were geographically, culturally and linguistically diverse they are bound by shared social systems and a common cosmology known as the Dreaming. For the Aboriginal peoples, the Dreaming is the Law of the lands or the web of ancestral paths travelled by the supernatural beings on their epic journey of creation. The lands created by these ancestral forces are infused with their powers. From the Dreaming, Aboriginal peoples inherit a knowledge of country along with the rights and responsibilities to look after it. These connections to country, an essential part of Aboriginal identity, were disrupted by colonial incursions: conflict, massacres, disease, intervention by government agencies.