Aboriginal Peoples' Relationship to Country Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is Country?
Country is used to describe family origins and associations with different parts of Australia relating to Indigenous Peoples. Country describes the land’s waterway and seas to which they are connected. It contains complex ideas about law, place, custom, language, spiritual beliefs, material sustenance, family and identity.
What is Culture?
The accepted and traditionally patterned way of behaving in a set of common understanding shared by members of a group or community. Culture generally divides into two sectors; cultural expression and cultural practices that convey the ways of living, working, artistic expression, relationship and identity.
What is meant by relationship to Country?
- the land to which someone belongs
- Land includes spiritual and cultural associations, knowledge and ceremonial practices, flora, fauna, languages, air, water,
waterways,geographical features - Family origins might dictate country, as well as language, geographical features.
- Country has a lot of resources - shelter, ceremonial objects, farming and food, medicine, weapons, clothes/dress, tools, artmaking materials.
What is Cultural Expression?
Culture can express spiritual beliefs, laws and customs through dance, song and art. This was central to the transmission of
traditional knowledge for Aboriginal Peoples and is integral to Dreaming.
What are Cultural Practices?
Cultural practices also include the processes of land use, the creation of tools and weaponry, hunting and fishing practises,
cultural burning, resource management etc.
What is the Dreaming?
The Dreaming is a link between past and present containing the concepts of the origins of land and connection between people, ancestors and country that Aboriginals extensively trust. Without Country Dreaming cannot thrive.
There are many different dreaming stories because all Aboriginal Tribes have their own long, complex stories which explain the link between past and present.
How is the Dreaming expressed?
The Dreaming can be expressed through oral storytelling, art, ceremonies, dance law and ethics.
What is the importance of Country to Aboriginal Peoples?
Country holds profound importance to Aboriginal Peoples as it encompasses more than just land—it is the foundation of culture, spirituality, and identity. It provides essential resources and sustains life, while also serving as a living archive of history and heritage passed down through generations. Deep connections to Country shape personal and collective identity, reinforcing a sense of belonging, responsibility, and continuity.
What is the impact of dispossession?
Dispossession has had a negative impact on Aboriginal Peoples, removing their deep connection to Country and land. It disrupted cultural practices, language, and spiritual traditions, leading to a loss of identity and belonging. The forced removal from land also fractured family and community structures, causing lasting trauma and disconnection across generations.
What is Firestick Farming? (land management strategies)
Firestick farming, also known as cultural burning is an Aboriginal strategies to create low-intensity fire to burn vegetation especially in dry season to enhance biodiversity. As vegetation has already been burned, when bushfires occur it reduces the expansion for large, destructive wildfires. The burning of vegetation can help regenerate native plants which positively impacts wildlife through providing food resources and habitats. Furthermore, firestick farming can create clear pathways to access Country. Additionally, the regular burning of leaf litter enriched soils ensuring the best possible outcome for providing feed for the animals and plants that Aboriginal People sources.
What are Fish Traps in Aquaculture? (land management strategies)
There were many fish traps used in Agriculture. One type of fishtrap was haul nets with reed floats and baked clay weights to keep the nets open. Another method of fish traps was to place rocks, stakes and stone in a zig-zag pattern to confuse and trap the fish. Particularly, in the Murray River, clay dykes were placed to prevent flood rain from receding and ensuring the retention of fish.
What is Seasonal Migration and how does it impact Aboriginal Peoples? (land management strategies)
Aboriginals were guided across Country through their knowledge of the land, climate and ecological patterns. Aboriginal Peoples did this so they could manage an ecological balance with the environment. When Aboriginal People inhabited Country they used its resources to maintain life there. So, they moved each season to a different region so the resources they had used could regenerate, enhancing biodiversity. Aboriginal People also followed areas where resources were abundant and where there was access to fresh water. Another reason for this migration was to avoid extreme weather conditions and to visit regions for ceremonies, trade and social gatherings.
What are Channel Systems and Water Manipulation? (land management strategies)
Aboriginal Clans constructed intricate systems of channels, weirs and stone arrangement to divert water and manage its flow across the land. The systems helped irrigate areas where crops and important plants could thrive, demonstrating intentional and water management.
What is Sustainable Game Harvesting? (land management strategies)
Rather than overhunting, Aboriginals only took what they needed and ensured animal population would not deplete, conserving ecological variety within environments.
What is Kinship? (traditonal lifestyle and cultural practice)
Kinship is based on the Patrilineal or Matrilineal lines of descent where those from Patrilineal will be affiliates with their moiety totem and those from matrilineal will be allocated with their specific totems. A kinship system in Aboriginal culture is a complex social structure that defines relationships, roles, and responsibilities within a community. It goes beyond biological family, encompassing a wide network of relatives and determining how people interact, who they can marry, and their obligations to others.
What is Moiety? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practice)
Moiety is defined as dividing society in half determining their relation to land and who they can work with, which is what Aboriginal follow in terms of kinship.
What are totems? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practice)
A totem is a natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a clan to represent their spiritual emblem. Totems are established before birth as family/clan totems, whereas individual totems which encompass talents and skills are founded at coming of age ceremonies. Totems dictate the responsibility some have in conserving the environment, their role within their clan, spiritual responsibilities, what they can and can’t eat, who they can and can’t marry. These totems create a social system so Aboriginal culture can flourish in a smooth way. An example of how totems balanced the environment was by half of the clan eating an animal whereas the other half does not eat that species to sustainable balance the population of that animal, ensuring it did not become extinct.
What encompasses Burial practices? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practices)
These may involve placing the body in the earth, in trees, or caves, often accompanied by ceremonial rites. Some communities practiced secondary burial, where bones were later collected and placed in special locations.
What is Sorry Business? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practices)
Mourning rituals involving the whole community, with restrictions on naming the deceased and expressions of grief through song, dance, and silence.
What are the Spiritual Beliefs concerning death? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practices)
Death is not seen as an end but a return to the ancestral world or the Dreaming. The spirit of the deceased is believed to return to their Country or continue on to the spiritual realm, maintaining a connection with the living.
What are Corroborees in relation to ceremonies? (traditional lifestyle and cultural practices)
Public ceremonies involving dance, music, and storytelling to celebrate important events, share Dreaming stories, and strengthen community bonds.
What are smoking ceremonies (traditional ceremonies and cultural ceremonies)
Use smoke from native plants for spiritual cleansing, healing, and protection.
What is the relationship of Country to culture? (5 mark structure)
Country is the core of Aboriginal Peoples’ culture, both shaping and in turn being shaped by cultural expression and practices. Cultural knowledge differed between communities based on what was essential to thrive in a specific Country. For example, natural landforms and physical elements of Country determined the cultural practices which communities adopted. This is evident in the differences that exist between communities in agricultural, hunting and fishing practices, including Malgun. Cultural identity was also shaped by an individual’s kinship totems, which were often physical elements of Country such as landforms, flora or fauna. As a result of this system Individuals also had cultural responsibilities to care for their totems to protect Country. Dreaming stories and the expression of these stories through art, dance and song, often sought to explain natural phenomena which occurred on Country, for example, the cultural practices and expression which surrounded mourning and the Morning star for the Yolngu People in Arnhem Land.
What is the relationship of Country to spirituality?
The relationship between Country and Aboriginal spirituality is deeply interconnected. Country is a living, sentient entity that holds spiritual significance, shaping beliefs, traditions, and ways of knowing:
- Dreaming & Ancestral Spirits: Country is home to ancestral spirits and Dreaming stories, which explain creation and guide cultural laws.
- Sacred Sites & Ceremony: Certain places hold spiritual power, where ceremonies, rituals, and initiations take place.
- Reciprocity & Stewardship: Aboriginal spirituality teaches that people must care for Country, and in return, Country sustains them.
- Connection to Past, Present & Future: Spirituality is timeless, linking ancestors, current generations, and future custodians of the land.
