Chapter 1- Aboriginals

Question 0

Primal religions provide two of the basic elements of many religions. What are they?

Answer 0

Myth and ritual

Question 1

Why use the word “primal”?

Answer 1

These religions came first in relation to other religious traditions

Question 2

How has culture been passed down?

Answer 2

Through paintings, story-telling, artifacts, traditions

Question 3

What major events happened about 150 years ago?

Answer 3

Europeans cane, took control, brought illnesses and introduced horses

Question 4

How do the Gagadju myths explain the landscape of Kakadu?

Answer 4

• crocodile (creates mountains)
• kangaroo (creates valleys)
• snake (creates water)

Question 5

What modern images are painted on the rock walls of Kakadu?

Answer 5

Animals, spirits, stories, blood, men holding guns

Question 6

What does the use of red ochre pigment in the paintings symbolize?

Answer 6

It symbolizes blood (blood is the symbol of life)

Question 7

What happens to a persons spirit when they die?

Answer 7

Its snatched away by Maruutis’ (eagle) huge claws, then it flies away

Question 8

What beliefs are associated with the species of bat called flying fox?

Answer 8

Forces of darkness and evil

Question 9

What is the importance of a hand stencil?

Answer 9

Makes your mark, signature

Question 10

Why are the Gagadju elders worried about their peoples future?

Answer 10

They are scared the when the elders pass away that the Gagadju will die out, few young people will return to learn about their traditions and customs

Question 11

What do non-literal people depend on?

Answer 11

They depend on oral material (myths, stories passed down from generations)

Question 12

What is empathy?

Answer 12

Being able to see something from anothers perspective

Question 13

What is the dreaming?

Answer 13

Spiritual essence of the Ancestors remain in various symbols left behind. Sights are sacred-charged with spiritual powers. Certain individuals are allowed to approach sacred sights, but must take an original path.

Question 14

What is a totem?

Answer 14

A natural form in which the ancestor appears in the dreaming. May be an animal or rock formation

Question 15

What is a taboo?

Answer 15

Dictates that certain things or activities are set aside for specific members

Question 16

What are initiation rituals?

Answer 16

Each Aboriginal possesses at birth a spiritual essence that serves to awaken young people to their spiritual identity

Question 17

What is mythology?

Answer 17

Stories of creation of the earth, Biblical myths

Question 18

What four elements makes up a dream catcher?

Answer 18

Earth- hoop and beads (metal, sand, rock, clay)
Air- feathers
Fire- represented by all
Water- symbolized by the materials

Question 19

How does a dream catcher work?

Answer 19

The charm has a hole in the middle, which allows good dreams to pass through and the web catches the bad dreams

Question 20

What 4 parts does the medicine wheel represent?

Answer 20

A) colours
B) medicines
C) directions
D) stages of life

Question 21

What do the 4 colours in the medicine wheel each represent?

Answer 21

White (N)- white race (wisdom, maturity, elders, respect)
Red (S)- red race (natives, warm+love, compassion, family)
Black (W)- black race (peaceful, visions (dreams))
Yellow (E)- asian race (sun comes up=new day/thoughts/friends)

Question 22

What is the sweetgrass ceremony?

Answer 22

A rite involving the burning of sweetgrass as a sign of cleansing or purification

Question 23

What is the pipe?

Answer 23

The sharing of the pipe is considered a very sacred act, regarded with the same respect as communion

Question 24

What is the prayer in the 4 directions?

Answer 24

A form of prayer where the person prays alternately facing each of the four directions (north, east, south, west)

Question 25

What is the eagle feather?

Answer 25

The eagle flies higher than other birds. The feather therefore represents Gods power, transcendence and strength

Question 26

Who are the elders?

Answer 26

• men and women who are recognized by their community to be a wise person full of knowledge and experience
• passes on knowledge, traditions, and stories
• highly valued

Question 27

What is stewardship?

Answer 27

The idea that we must all take care of the environment and take only from the earth what us needed

Question 28

What is the sun dance?

Answer 28

• a sacred leader guides the dance
• the sun dance features long periods of dancing while facing the direction of the sun
• music and drum beats accompany the dancing
• some dancers skewer flesh of their chest and attach themselves to a tree with a leather thong

Question 29

What is the vision quest?

Answer 29

• when an individual gains access to the spiritual power
• done under the supervision of the medicine man
• before beginning, the individual undergoes a ritual of purification in the sweat lodge
• once purified the individual goes off alone to endure the elements for a set number of days
• eventually a vision comes in the form of an animal, object or force of nature
• the vision influences the individual for the rest of their life

Question 30

What is animism?

Answer 30

Spiritual belief that everything in the world is alive. All living things, humans and non-humans, have a soul or spirit and they live on after death

Question 31

What are creation stories?

Answer 31

Stories that are told orally. They respond to questions of existence, where we come from, where they go when they die. Each cultural group has their own stories

Question 32

What is death and the afterlife?

Answer 32

The basic element of most religion is the belief in the afterlife. Many aboriginal legends tell stories of reincarnation and rebirth

Question 33

What do the sioux believe in death and the afterlife?

Answer 33

• 4 souls depart person at death and travel along a spirit path where it us judged by an old woman
• she determines whether spirit should carry on to reconnect with ancestors or return to earth as a ghost
• other souls enter fetuses and are reborn into new bodies