SOR YEAR 12 CONTENT

• Aboriginal Dreaming


  The spiritual aspect of Aboriginal life that encapsulates both the physical and spiritual world, to provide meaning and connection to all aspects of Aboriginal life. It allows a connection
• Kinship


  • Highly sophisticated network of relationships
  • Land, dancing, ceremonies, hunting parties, raising children
  • Passed down cultural knowledge and practices, Dreaming stories
  • Totems can be a plant and animal and represent ancestral beings and connect them to the land
  • Allows belonging and responsibility
• Bon Randell, a community leader: 'completeness of oneness'
• Ceremonial Life


  • Rite of passage and allows for personal and spiritual connections
  • Acknowledges a creation event and passes down practices/beliefs
  • Emphasises metaphysical connection that, Aboriginal traditions are perpetual and are evident in the past, present and future
• Obligations to land and People

  • Land is the physical medium in which Dreaming is communicated
  • Land is where rituals are performed
  • Land is where ancestors reside, and their meeting point, how the Aboriiginal's identity form as part of the land
  • Custodians of the land need to care for the land, as it was created by the ancestral beings
• Dispossession


  Process of Aboriginals being deprived off their land
• Assimilation


  Integration of Aboriginals into the white society and impelling the adoption of the white culture
• Protectionism


  Segregation of Aboriginal families tp Missions
• Self Determination


  People are able to make their own decisions and express their own spirituality
• Separation from Land


  • Removes spirituality identity
  • Loses connection to land
  • Unable to look ancestral being that reside in their sacred land
  • Deprived off independence, culture and spiritual world
  • Ritual responsibilities and ceremonial life cannot be fulfilled, and traditions and cultures cannot be passed down
• Stolen Generations


  • Forcible removal of children from their Aboriginal culture and integrated into Government or church-run institutions
  • Adapting kids into white families
  • Loss of identity, being called by numbers
  • Loss of culture
  • Separation of kinship groups
  • Lack of education, no jobs, no money
  • Experienced trauma and violence, mental health issues
  • Isolation and loneliness
• Bringing Home Report: 'This report is a tribute to the strength and struggles of many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by forcible removal.'
• The Bringing Home Report in 1977 highlighted that Stolen Generations were labelled as a genocide
• Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: 'We reflect on their past mistreatment...nation to turn a new page in Australia's history...we apologise for the removal of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.'
• The Land Rights Movement: Aboriginal people protest to reclaim their land and regain their connection to their land and culture. To regain native title.
• 1967 Referendum: Section 127 'Aboriginal native shall not be counted' and Section 51 'the people of any race other than the Aboriginal race in any state' were overturned with more than 90% of Australians in each state and territory voting yes.
• Native Title


  The name provided by the high court to Indigenous property rights and land ownership
• Terra nullius, 'no one's land,' was adopted by Captain Cook
• Protests


  • 1972, Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside parliament house
  • Wave Hill Station Strike from 1966 to 1975
• Mabo Case: Eddie Mabo overturned Terra Nullius. The Native Title Act of 1993, was stated and Aboriginals were traditional owners of the land.
• The Wik decision of 1996 argued that native title could coexist along with rights of leaseholders. The Native Title Amendment Act 1998 states that leasehold rights could co exist with aboriginals, but in any conflict the rights of the leaseholders would come first.