Post-1945

Multiple Choice and Short Answer 1:

Dreaming - refers to all that is known and understood by Aboriginal people. It is the central spiritual concept because it determines not only beliefs and values but also relationships with other people and the overall environment. Aborigines are able to understand creation in a continuing and living sense by virtue of the Dreaming. It explains how the world was created by their ancestors and is passed on orally. E.g. dreaming stories such as the rainbow serpent. Dreaming links Aboriginals to the land, they are interdependent: “Aboriginals live their lives being at one with the land, and without land their Dreaming, tradition and culture are sure to die” (Anne Gray).

Kinship – refers to the network of relationships that hold a clan together central to Aboriginal communities. Through kinship, they are instructed about particular obligations, rights and appropriate forms of behavior. It defines where a person fits into the community. Land is important to kinship and is often referred to as “my mother” so it is shared by many people.

Disopession- Dispossession resulted in Aboriginals being separated from their physical land, kinship groups and the removal of their children from their families through the “Stolen Generation”. Dispossession first occurred in 1778 when the First Fleet recognised Australia as “terra nullius”. They implemented policies of protectionism where Aboriginals were removed from their rightful land and tribes and placed in missions. This affected aboriginal people in 2008 with many being permanently separated from their kinship groups and losing their distinct spiritual identity which was destroyed through the process of assimilation. As many Aboriginal beliefs are centred upon their connection to the land which is inhabited by their “ancestral beings” and created through the “dreaming”, many