SST+activites+'Contemporary+Aboriginal+Spirtualities'


 * SST TERMS || My Definition/ ||
 * Elders || The elders are like the leaders of the clan of aborigines. They are also the jury of the courtroom when ever theres a problem. They are not elected by a group of people but by age, like a family style whereby the parents are "elders". Except aborigines elders are leaders of a clan or group of families. ||
 * Kinship || Family, the relationship between members of the clan who knows each other responsibilities like the mens would go hunting big animals like kangaroo while the womens would be scavenging small turtles, nuts and fruits. ||
 * Dreamings || The beginning of time where the spirits rose from the earth to create the lands and all living organism. They also then created the laws and obligation of the people. These include stories on how certain landforms were created like Uluru, the three sisters and the holes near Lake Macdonald. ||
 * Totems || When an aborigine is born he/she is linked to usually an animal, That animal is then called his/her totem. ||
 * Ancestral beings || the spirits that cannot be seen but the aborigines believe look after them and so many ceremonies are celebrated to please them so that the cycle of living is not interrupted. ||
 * paintings || The aboriginies have many paintings on rocks that depicts animals and over time it's significants amplifies as it becames evidence of the culture that's been existing for thousands of years. Aborigines also paint themselves during ceremonies, rites and rituals to show ||
 * corroborees || Corroborees are ceremonies the aboriginal people perform to ask the gods for continual supply of food or even a gathering might start a corroboree. In corroboree the aboriginal people paint themselves and dance usually around a fire. ||
 * storytelling || In the language of the aborigines of Australia they dont have any form of writing down into words to be perserved for generations later and so the only way they hand down their knowledge from generation to generation is through the word of mouth. Knowledge told usually in the form of a story like how Uluru was formed. ||
 * ritual || A ritual is what an aborigine perform to show respect before they do something like travelling the land. An example would be putting ochre onto your forehead, top of the plams and chests. ||
 * Land (country) || The land of the aborigines is very important to them as they consider it their responsibility to care for it,not to damage it and so that why the indigenous people are always moving around so that not one area is exhausted too much of resources like animals and plants. ||
 * Death and burial rituals || the afterlife aborigine is very much similar to a christian's view where by they become spirits and move on to a place of happiness. Burial rituals vary from clan to clan whereby they can be cremated, buried or left to the elements on marked land. ||
 * Initiation Ceremony || When a aboriginal boy becomes an adolescent, the elders take them away from their parents for a few days to hand down the knowledge of adulthood and then they are circumcised which marks they are now a young adult. After a few days of the circumcision healing they are returned where a corroboree is performed. ||
 * Wik Peoples v The State of Queensland || The High court decision on the 23rd of December 1996 which found that statutory pastoral leases could co-exist with native title. This means that aborigines could gather food, medicine and perform ceremonies on these lands ||
 * //Mabo v Queensland// || The High court decision on the 3rd of June 1992 in which the the term "Terra nullius" which means land to belonging to no one was extinguished. this was a historic moment for the aboriginal people whose life were made miserable in the nearly 200 years existence of this word. ||
 * Native Title || Native title is term for aborigines' land that has been theirs for many generations. Claims are made to NNTT who determines whether the native titles exists or invalid. ||