Australian alternative spiritualities and a feeling for land

Abstract

For many Australian practitioners of alternative spiritualities, ‘nature’ and the non‐human environment are alive with significance: they embody a universal divine ‘spirit’ that is both independent of, and continuous with, individual subjects. Particular locations within nature also have special value as a font of powerful personal feelings and as a kind of natural resource of spiritual energy. Moreover, the effect of specifically Australian landscapes is frequently understood by reference to a place’s Aboriginal history or ‘spirit’, with recognition of such places both celebrating and laying claim to the land. However, having a feeling for land is not straightforward. Although Aboriginal people often served as a synonym for the land itself and thus were considered intrinsic to much of the land’s spiritual and personal value, their prior claims to its ownership also sometimes upset non‐Aboriginal feelings of love for the land.

To be or not to be Indigenous? Understanding the rise of Australia’s Indigenous population since 1971

“…"Once a source of shame for some", Mulcock notes, Indigenous ancestry " … is now a source of pride for many of those who can claim it, a sign of resilience and embeddedness, a sign of deep belonging, desired more than discouraged, proclaimed more than disguised" (2007,63). Her ethnographic research with settler Australians, along with Muir's (2011), suggests that many long to be part of the 60,000year Indigenous history of Australia. This yearning is exacerbated by the tendency of their interviewees, who could be described as holistic or "eco-spiritualists" (Jacobs 1994), to see Indigenous people through a Rousseauian lens: as representatives of the pan-human, pre-industrial societies presumed to exist before people became alienated from nature (Deloria 1998;Kehoe 1990;Torgovnick 1997).…”

“…By believing the "land, nature and Aboriginality are rendered as an inextricable whole", Muir notes, White Australians of a certain inclination can embark on "solo-dreaming" (Grossman and Cuthbert 1998)engaging with the land and evoking the spirits seen to lie within it (2011). Yet this process is complicated for "White anti-racists" (Kowal 2015), because of their sensitivity to claims of appropriation and abuse of Indigenous culture (Kowal 2011;Muir 2011;Mulcock 2007). This tension has prompted many to search for Indigenous ancestors in their family tree, Mulcock observes, hoping this discovery would explain and validate their existing feelings of connection to Indigenous people and their culture (2007).…”

Shaping Sustainable Employment and Social Consequences of Indigenous Australians in a Remote Region

“…often find ways to maintain their links to families, communities, and homelands by going "home" for ceremonies and/or practicing their ceremonial life in the cities" [29] (p. 152). In contrast, Indigenous Australians residing in remote areas, particularly the Yolngu people, are likely to be engaged in a fundamentally different lifestyle that endorses hunter-gatherer pursuits and actively practicing traditional ceremonial obligations [3,30,31]. Indeed, it is not uncommon to observe a single family or small group of adults, children, and dogs practicing a nomadic lifestyle (referred to as long grassing), in which they seldom emerge from the bush into precincts of a town or remote community.…”

Female Indigenous entrepreneurship in remote communities in northern Australia

“…The earliest Australians were Indigenous entrepreneurs, who laboured for the survival of the clan. Anthropologists and historians contend the northern regions of the Australian continent were inhabited some 50,000 years ago via a land bridge (Muir, 2011;Suter, 2003), and in spite of basic technology and limited innovation with social involvement groups were able to argument a permanent community with security from other clans (Johns, 2011). Worsley (1955) claims the forebears of the contemporary east Arnhem Land Yolngupeople established some form of subsistence activity, mainly hunting and fishing, "… long before any other Australian aboriginal group. "…”