Aboriginal%20Spirituality

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Aboriginal Spirituality
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Learning Goals

• Understand the Origins of Aboriginal Spirituality
  
• Understand the importance of creation stories and
  storytellers to the Aboriginal people
• Know where Aboriginals of today reside

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Origins

• No single founder.
• Two theories of Aboriginal origin/history in the
  Americas
• They came out of this ground, meaning they were
  here before any record.
• They migrated from Asia to North and South
  America by crossing a land bridge over the Bering
  Strait (between Alaska and Russia) 35000 years
  ago.

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Origins

• Archaeologists have found Aboriginal artefacts
  dating
• back beyond 10 000 years.
• Including wampum (beaded belts), animal paintings
  on rocks, bones representing burial rites, and
  wooden carvings.

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Creation Stories

• Creation stories are important
• vehicles for conveying Aboriginal beliefs
• Often oral.
• Offers a response to questions
• of existence
• Why certain things in the environment are the way
  they are
• Where do we come from?
• Where do we go when we die?

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Storytelling

• Traditional Aboriginal storytellers had to earn
  the right to be a storyteller.
• They were important in teaching and in preserving
  the history of the group.

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Creation Stories

• Australian Creation Story
• Ojibway Creation Story

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Aboriginal Spirituality Around the World

• Huge diversity of Aboriginal spirituality.
• Indigenous peoples live in every area of the
  globe.
• 80 of worlds 300 million Aboriginal peoples
  live in Asia.
• 13 in North and South America.