Aboriginal Sense of the Sacred, continued

I will never forget Eddie Kneebone diving into the first duffel bag and bringing up several boomerangs. 

An indigenous Luritja tribesman with headdress and body paint demonstrates method of attack with a boomerang in his hand raised behind his head, with a shield and two additional boomerangs held in front of him. 1920 photo from Central Australia, in the National Museum of Australia. Wikimedia Commons.

“This boomerang,” he said, holding up one of them, is for killing a duck when it is flying out of the water.”  “This one”, he said, holding up a second one, “is for killing a duck when it is landing on the water.”  Reaching into his bag and bringing up a third, he said, “This boomerang is for tripping a kangaroo.  They actually have no knees so first you trip them, then you stab them with a spear.”

Each of these boomerangs had incredibly sophisticated edges—they reminded me of the edges of a wing on a jet plane—each designed for a specific purpose.  What intelligence!  What precision of craftsmanship!  What sophistication for creating an object with a specific purpose in mind. 

Imagine how much we have to learn from tribal peoples about life and survival and interacting with our environment.

When he dug into his bag full of paintings and brought several out for us to consider, he told us the following story.  We do not put paintings on walls like you people do.  We put them on the floor.  Then we all sit around the painting and everyone has a different story to tell about it because we are all seeing it from a different angle. What a marvelous way of building community and learning to listen and observe from one another!

“Australian Aboriginal art: Namaroto spirits and the Rainbow Serpent Burlung (Borlung). A replica in the Brno museum Anthropos. Public domain image by HTO on Wikimedia Commons.

All these lessons in wisdom would be lost if we fail to ask Aboriginal peoples to teach us.  Lessons of the sacredness of creation are lost too when the idolatry of extracting treasures from the earth takes precedence over entering into the sacredness of the earth. 

Says Eddie Kneebone:

Aboriginals don’t go anywhere to worship, because everything around them is alive and they are totally in touch, constantly with the Dreamtime, or the place of the spirits.  But it’s not the spirit world of the Europeans.  It is everything that is living around them that shares that common soul or spirit.  It includes the entire environment….The life force that is common in all living things, flows form the Dreamtime and the Creator spirit through the environment to the Aborigines and back to the Dreamtime.

Aboriginal Rock Art, Anbangbang Rock Shelter, Kakadu National Park, Australia, depicting “Namondjok, a Creation Ancestor, with his wife Barrginj below, the Lightning Man Namarrgon to the right, and a group of men and women with ceremonial headdresses underneath. These Spirit figures were repainted between 1962 and 1964, the last major rock painting at the Anbangbang Art site in Nourlangie Rock.” Photo by Thomas Schoch at Wikimedia Commons; description from ozoutback.com.au.

There is a world after this one.  Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that the soul or spirit will continue on after our physical form has passed away through death.  The spirit will return to the Dreamtime from where it came, it will carry our memories to the Dreamtime and eventually it will return again through birth, either as a human or an animal or even trees and rocks.  The shape is not important because everything is equal and shares the same soul or spirit from the Dreamtime. 

In the West, Meister Eckhart also talks about the “equality of all being.”


See Matthew Fox and Catherine Hammond, eds., Creation Spirituality & The Dreamtime (Millennium Books), 1991, 89f.

For Eckhart on the “Equality of Being,” see Matthew Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 91-101.

Banner image: “Wild Oranges” by Clarabelle Swift of the Arande Tribe who lives in Alice Springs. Women who pick the oranges will celebrate by donning ceremonial belts decorated with cockatoo feathers and dancing and singing before having their evening meal. Original painting gifted to Matthew Fox.

Queries for Contemplation

Have you experienced the “equality of all being”?  How did this occur?  What difference does it make in the way you see the world and act in it?

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3 thoughts on “Aboriginal Sense of the Sacred, continued”

  1. Anne Marie Raftery

    This Australian Aboriginal Art is AWE-inspiring. It is sad to think of how European Missionaries, in the past, tried to replace this beautiful culture and spirituality with Christianity. Thank you for nurturing Creation Spirituality world-wide.

    1. Gail Sofia Ransom

      Dear Anne Marie,
      Thank you for writing and expressing your appreciation for Aboriginal art. It is so alive, isn’t it? How could they not see the beauty and the deep mystical wisdom. How fortunate we are to learn about this culture now.
      Gail Sofia Ransom
      For the Daily Meditation Team

  2. I love this one today! It stretches my imagination while I meditate, and relaxes me into imagining I’m there present while these ideas are presented. Loved it! Thank you!
    Barbara

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