Language

         The Aboriginals of Australia have been known to have mastered roughly 250 different dialects, even though a small number of them are still spoken today, and there is no formally recorded written language. Instead, most of these languages also had a parallel sign language connected to them, just as English has a sign language. Early settlers believed that they were "deaf and dumb", but really these sign languages were a way for them to connect physically and spiritually when speaking wasn't allowed or necessary. Some of these times are when they are hunting, they are too far away to speak, or during initiations where speaking is considered a taboo. Aboriginals also believed that evil spirits could not hear them while they were signing, but the evil spirits could hear them if they spoke out loud. 
         The sign language that the Aboriginals use is extremely similar between different languages around Australia. If one understood one sign language, he can quickly grasp another because they are all just different dialects among one common sign language. The same is not true for their spoken dialects. The spoken languages that they use are very different and complex. There are twenty seven different language families that are known today, and they are all connected to a geographic area of Australia. Many of these languages consider signing, or hand-talk, to be a completely valid use of communication, even in casual settings. Others require spoken language when appropriate according to their culture and traditions, and signing when spoken language is not appropriate.
       The number of languages that Aboriginals speak has dropped significantly from an outstanding 250 to a mere 20 today. This is primarily due to the colonization of their territories by European settlers. Their culture has been looked at as primitive from the European perspective, however it is far from primitive and extremely complex. The Language that they speak is the symbolic capital that gives them social capital.
      Over-all, language is extremely important to the Aboriginals of Australia because it not only connects them together in the physical realm of reality, but it connects them to their spiritual and religious world.

Social Organization

The social organization of aboriginal Australians is more complex than most, if not all, tribes. The tribes of indigenous Australians are more commonly called “language groups.” The natives are in these groups based on mainly the language they speak, but also their customs and beliefs. Because there is such differences in the languages and customs these groups like to think of themselves as being their own individual nations.

Within these individual groups, family is extremely extended even beyond blood lines; everyone within the tribe is considered related. The women, young and old, are expected to perform motherly duties to all children within their tribe. Friends and even cousins, can be considered brothers or sisters because of the closeness the individuals feel. But as friendly as the Aborigines are, there is a mother-in-law rule that all aborigines have to follow. The rule is that an individual, male or female, is forbidden to talk directly to their mother-in-law. This rule is said to have been generated to keep the peace between families and is still effective today.

The tribes are separated by the different moieties associated with each group. Moieties are titles for tribes based on certain plants, animals, or environmental properties. People are born into their moieties and only woman can leave them only after they marry; they furthermore have to marry someone of the opposite moiety to their own. Aborigines also identify themselves by totemic groups. These are plants and animals as well, but are thought to be ancestrally related to an individual person.

Different tribes’ will sometimes band together to hunt; this group is called to a horde. A horde consist of many different individuals from different families, moieties, and totemic groups that come together to hunt for their group. After the hunt, however, the individuals separate back into their groups and eat with their own kind. 

Brief Religious Overview

The Aboriginal religion varies amongst the different tribes residing in Australia. The Aboriginal people are spiritual and religious, the different groups or tribes of the people generally believe in a different gods whom can be categorized as one or all of the following types of deity, Creation Being, Ancestral Being, or Totemic Being.
The Creation Being pertains to the gods that developed the creation of people and the environment.
Ancestral Beings pertains to the gods that helped teach the first Aboriginal people to make tools, to hunt for food, as well as creating laws and conducting ceremonies. Each Ancestral Being has their own story during the creation period. The stories of the Ancestral gods are different form tribe to tribe, but all the tribes describe the stories through song, dance and ceremony.
Totemic Beings pertains to the gods that represent the original form of animals, plants and other objects as they were during the Creation Period. There are multiple of these relationships, for instance a tribe may share a special relationship with a landscape that represents their land.
The Creation Period is also referred to the Dreamtime. This is the time period that the Aborigines believe the gods created landforms, animals and plants. The stories are similar to many other religions seem to contain a moral lesson within the stories, but the aborignies represent their stories through art and dance, as they do not have a written language. The Aborigines interpret their dreams as being a memory of the Creation period. This concept that dreams connect the people with the time of creation has created the alternative name of the Creation Period, "Dreamtime".

Art and Dance

            Ceremonial performances make up the fundamental parts of the culture including art, song, dance, body decoration, sculpting and painting. At large ceremonial gatherings, people congregate together and exchange goods, dance, and make music. This is an essential part of Aboriginal life.

Dance specifically is a custom that has been passed down for generations. In each dance there are stories about ancestral heroes, and each story is learned at a very young age. The culture relies much on using art and dance in order to tell the history of the culture. Dance also allows people to display their clan rights in front of an audience or it is used purely for entertainment. In some communities, dance is used as an end of the day ritual where in order to show their family love, they dance to express how they feel.

Although dance is learned at a very young age, skills such as painting and sculpting are not learned until a later age. Much like dancing, art is used as a way to express a wide variety of feelings and tales. Different Aboriginal tribes will have distinct ways in which they create art which all reflect the differences between the tribes, languages, dialects and geographic landscapes. Artwork can range many forms of medium including glass, fibre, paper and canvas where historical or personal stories may be told using paint or craft.

Many Indigenous works are not found in art galleries around the world. Rather, many universities use these pieces of art found by anthropologists to better understand the stories told by tribes. 

Dance performance, Garma Festival 2005. 

Post by: Ashley Redington