aboriginal spirtiuality

• The Dreaming


  refers to an indvidual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. It is meta-temporal (exsists in the past, present and future) and geocentric (connected to land)
• Kinship


  complex networks of relationships that govern interactions between members of language groups
• Moiety


  Kinship systems are divided in half (moieties)
• Totem


  any object such as an animal, plant or landmark that a person is connected to
• Dispossession


  the removal of land, sacred sites, kinship groups or parents/children from an Aboriginal person
• Protectionism


  government policy aimed at protecting Aboriginal communities through a series of homes and reserves
• Native Title Act (1993)

  rights to live on the land, access area for traditional purposes, visit and protect important sites, right to hunt fish and gather and the right to teach law and custom on country for Indigenous people who could prove continual contact with their traditional land - passed because of Mabo Decision (1992)
• Mabo Decision (1992)


  A high court ruling that upheld the claims of the Meriam people from the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait. Ruling recognised Australia was not terra nullius. The decision specified if land had been continually lived on by Indigenous people and if it was not legally owned by someone else that the Indigenous people are the legal owners
• Wik Decision (1996)


  Wik people from the Cape York Peninsula vs Queenslad in a high court ruling that found that pastoral leases did not necessarily extinguish native title. The owner did not have exclusive possession but must co-exist with the Indigenous owners
• Native Title Amendment Bill (1997)


  '10 point plan' - one of the amendments stated if there was a conflict of interests, the rights of the lease holder would come first