Indigenous Australians suffered a lot socially, environmentally but also spiritually, however nothing was 'more devastating than the pervasive doctrine of Aboriginal worthlessness' (Stanner 2009, p. 84). Although Indigenous Australians were regarded as sub-human and heathens, upon study of their spirituality it was found that their faith was something 'inseparable from the pattern of everyday life and thought. The connection was so intimate that there is no sharp demarcation between secular and sacred life' (Stanner 2009, p. 84).
For instance, it is common in Indigenous Australian milieus to discover that great guardian spirits exist to look after the living peoples (Stanner 2009). However not all spirits were thought of as ancestors or as human-like, some where thought to be quasi-animalistic, ethereal, formless or indescribable in form.
Even though Indigenous Australian spirituality is often referred to as one of the least materially minded faiths, the ordering of the cosmos through nature and spirituality helped construct the socialization of the 'body, mentality and social personality' though stages of life (Stanner 2009, p. 88).
Reference
Stanner, W. E. H. 2009. 'Religion, Totenism and Symbolism'. In A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. Ed., Michael Lambeck. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford and Victoria.
Traditional Owners do get mentioned in the media negatively, or from within a paternalistic white privilge rhetoric. The media tends to negatively report only on issues of alcaholism, domestic and sexual violence or poverty. The issues being faced by the Indigenous Australian community is important to be voiced, however the paternalistic way in which these reports are made and discussed echoes feelings of 'white mummy and daddy talking about their black children', so to speak.
Although it is important to report on and address the issues and possible strategies for Indigenous Australians, it should not be wholly done within the white frameworks, without Indigenous prescence. The media tends to take the attitude of reporting on the issues faced by the 'mischevious black children' and the prices that 'white mummy and daddy' will have to pay for the acts. The fallacy in this discourse is that the issues Traditional Owners face are all a direct result of colonisation, genocide, ethnocentricsm and racism caused by our caucasian ancestors.
The cultural memory of white supremacy and Indigenous Australians and other non-caucasians as threatening or below us still continues. These historical prejudices or cultural memories are now more passively implemented though, through media portrayal, governmental attitudes and filter down through the ranks to the civilian. It is no coincidence that some of the less desirable members of our society use offensive slang terms to refer to the Traditional Owners. Below I have posted a video from Australia Day 2012 Aboriginal tent Embassy, where some Traditional Owners were peacefully protesting and the police officer exhibits quite egregious aggression.
In keeping with this weeks supernatural theme, I found a discourse which interests me; Traditional Owners "ghostology" in comparison to popular culture's portrayal of ghosts. In Indigenous Australia, ghosts or spirits make frequent appearances in the stories and lore. The numinous is integrated into stories and the cosmology as a way of constructing and interacting with the outlying world. In Indigenous Australian ghost milieu spirits or ghosts 'protect the country and uphold its protocols, ...[and]... watch human activities closely' (McDonald 2010, p.52). Ghosts are known to exhibit aggressive or disaffected behaviour towards new people or people who do not behave in the right way.
In autochthonic ghost stories, ghosts and spirits are terms sometimes used interchangeably to describe the dead or ancestors via allegories. This is an important part of the tradition, as Ancestors are seen to watch over their mortal counterparts. After a loved one's death ghosts 'live normal human lives, traveling through the bush, devising song ceremonies...' (McDonald 2010, p.57).
Popular culture's relationship towards ghosts is very different, despite some commonalities. Ghosts are often romanticised through humanisation. For instance, in any of the popular ghost hunting television shows like Ghost Hunters or Paranormal Detectives, the typical fear element is cogently portrayed on initial investigation. As the episode unfolds, the cast members often discover some story of a wife who died in childbirth, a man who lost his children or some such similar humanisation. It is like these shows build and encourage the fear up into a rising crescendo, then reintegrate the ghost back into the mortal world, where we humans can make sense of it once again.
Traditional Owners vernacular also uses stories and tales to make sense of death and ghosts, however popular culture's portrayal is much more distanced as we lack kinship connections to the featured ghost to connect as wholly as Indigenous Australians. In Indigenous Australian milieu 'ghosts and spirits...help them to make sense of events occurring in their environment' (Clarke 2007, p.141). Meanwhile in popular culture, although the ghost stories evoke emotional responses in the audience, there is a core goal of detached entertainment.
Below is a music video by Indigenous Australian artists-Makaratta Mob. The song is aptly named 'Ghost Trees'.Avant-garde and quite moving.
References
Clarke, P 2007, 'Indigenous Spirit and Ghost Folklore of "Settled" Australia', Folklore, Routledge, London and New York, pp.141-161.
McDonald, H 2010, 'Universalising the particular? God and Indigenous spirit beings in East Kimberley', The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Australian Anthropological Society, pp.51-70.
