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Funeral Ceremonies

Songs and ceremonies ensure that the spirit of the deceased is carried back to a specific ancestral being’s land and that its responsibilities are being passed on. Ceremony allows the spirit to go back to proper place and reaffirm the place of the living in the unity of nature.

Burial grounds are feared. Possessions and shelter of the dead are destroyed, and the whole camp moves away. (name of the dead cannot be spoken)

Dead must be buried in their own country and their spirits properly sung to rest.

Burial customs vary.

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Due to totemism, the adherents have an obligation protect their natural totem and collectively has a responsibility to all of nature

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a complex system of family relations, where each person knows their kin and their land. Extended family relationships -> core of indigenous kinship systems which are central to the way culture is passed on and society is organised.

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Aboriginal communities have two major purposes: 

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Aboriginal communities have two major purposes: 

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relationship of Aboriginal peoples to the spirit world and the Ancestral Beings (including humans)

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- The link between human beings and creation is made through totemism.
- A totem can represent an animal, plant or landmark. This ties the individual to the creative force responsible for their existence.
- The land, through the totem owns the individual.

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the Dreaming, the land and an individual or group of people are inexorably (impossible to stop or prevent) linked

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Kinship is at the heart of Aboriginal culture and controls the facts of social behaviour.

Complex network of relationships defining identity, rights, obligations and responsibilities.

A persons position in the kinship system establishes their relationship to others and to the universe, thus, prescribing their responsibilities towards people, land and natural resources. (Explained through Dreaming stories).

The way individual experiences the Dreaming (through ceremonies, sacred sites etc.) is determined by the connection of the kinship group.

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Important part for the education of the young.

E.g. Initiation: Some ceremonies were a rite of passage for young people between 10 and 16 years, representing a point of transition from childhood to adulthood and also responsibilities (kinship) and obligations in both spiritual and social life.

Males are submission to a lot more pain then compared to females. This due to the obligations and responsibilities passed on to the next generation through the totems and kinship.

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Aboriginal religion is a living religion