Aboriginals of Australia and their Religion

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Introduction

During the promotion of the country globally, it has been common and significant to actually hear the Australians stressing the racism aspect that was suffered by the Aboriginals in the past. It has been stated by Lonely Planet Guide that in the colonization period, the communities of the Aboriginals were actually forced to a retreat into a given drier interior (Marten, 2002). Further, some literatures have indicated that the Aboriginals were annihilated systematically and subsequently became extinct as a result of the famous Black line of genocides. Moreover, in the past up to the year 1967, the Aboriginals in Australia were actually not allowed to votes during elections. The Aboriginals are reported to have suffered gross violation of human rights during the colonization period. However, the suffering should be taken positively in order to ensure that the Aborigines in the contemporary society do not undergo the same treatment as it was in the past during colonization (Marten, 2002). This paper will simply be focused on comparing and explaining stories that have been read in the context of the religious believes of the Aboriginals. However, the paper will focus on three aspects of the stories such as what issues of human life do these stories deal with, how do they account for the origin of the issue as well as what are the roles of men and women in the stories.

Aboriginals of Australia and their Religion The current literatures that have indicated that the Aborigines and the colonist were actually at war with each other is a clear reflection of the actually continuing divide that actually existed between the various sections of the Australian society. As it is with various conflicts, the colonization period produced heroes such as Kevin Rudd who have continuously been celebrated due to the fact that they portrayed themselves as the champions of the Aborigines who were being victimized by the colonists. However, some scholars have argued that the harsh treatments that have been portrayed in the contemporary literatures about the treatments of the Aboriginals in the past are actually a myth and that none of theses happened. Nonetheless, despite the increased debate on the atrocities committed during the colonization period, the most significant aspect is moving forward and forgetting the past (Read, 1981) while looking at some of the traditional aspects of the lives of the Aboriginals. One of the literatures that was titled The Sacred in Nature: Indigenous Peoples and Religion was simply focused on the understanding the historical significance of the indigenous people like the Aboriginals.

The indigenous people were seen as very primitive and there was a school of thought that the religion they practiced was in the past. They were also stereotyped on their physical appearances that include the clothes they wore during the religious functions. A critical look at the religious believes of the indigenous people shows that they had some funny religious believes that always made them be considered backward and none civilized. For instance, the Sioux are reported to have believed that there were four souls where three die with an individual and the fourth one remaining in the midst of the people in a type of bundle that contains hair that is wrapped in the animal skin. The religion of the indigenous people finds and consequently expresses the sacred in different aspects of the human life and nature. The earth, the celestial sky, the sacred trees and rocks, the seasons, the life passages from the birth and death, the community or tribe are all a live with the spirit and meaning.

The two stories deals with the issues of religion in the context of the indigenous traditions and how the believes made them to be considered backward. It is this consideration of the indigenous people such as the Aboriginals that led to the historical issues such as the stolen generation where the government forcefully removed children from their traditional homes in an attempt to modernize them. There has been an issue of the stolen generation when it comes to the Aboriginals during the colonization period. The Australian stolen generation was simply the stolen children who were removed from their various families through the agencies of the state and the federal government as well as the churches through the acts created through the legislature. The removal of the children from their families actually took place during the period of the year 1869 and 1969. The action of removing these children from their respective communities during colonization has been correlated to their problems within the education and employment sectors (Bates, 1938). This removal of the Australian children from their families is what is reported to have contributed to the problems faced by the Aboriginals in their employment and education. The church missions also considered the religious believes of the indigenous people as archaic and therefore were bent on concerting them.

It is their weird religious believes that led to the issue of stolen generation and some of the human rights violations that have been reported. The Australian stolen generation has been a matter of public debate, as matter of fact the issue has been a contested as differing opinions are given on the issue. The stolen generation was not accorded equal opportunity of accessing education and employment as the rest of the Australians. Moreover, the Aboriginals were actually treated like slaves in several accessions and were consequently not employed in any professional careers (Bates, 1938). Indeed, the Australian government has been accused of having discriminated the Aboriginals and consequently discriminating them and in the long run marginalizing them completely. Nevertheless, there have been increased efforts made in improving the education and employment opportunities of the Aboriginals. In the stories, men are portrayed as the superior being and are the heads of the religious groups while women are simply seen as the objects that are meant to serve men and accompany them to the religious functions. The major religious activities such as giving sacrifices to the gods were carried out by men while women watched from a far.

Conclusion

The indigenous people had their religious believes that they practiced and this gave they guidance in the context of values. However, the Australian Aboriginal children as well as the Torres Strait Islander descent were removed completely from their various families by the State and Federal government agencies and the church missions through the acts that were created in the respective parliaments. This action that occurred mainly during the colonization period has been considered to have been a major violation of the fundamental rights of the Aboriginals and some historians have even described it as genocide. Indeed, this paper is from the school of thought that the indigenous religions were not that archaic, but some form of modernization was inevitable.

References

Bates, D. (1938). “The Passing of the Aborigines: A Lifetime spent among the Natives of Australia.” Project Gutenberg of Australia, p. 243

Marten, J.A., (2002), Children and War, NYU Press, New York, p. 229

Read, P (1981), The Stolen Generations 🙁 bringing them home) The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969. Department of Aboriginal Affairs, New South Wales government.