I spoke in yesterday’s video about Eddie Kneebone, an aboriginal activist who is now deceased, who taught with us at a Creation Spirituality workshop in Australia some time ago. Afterwards, a book was published with articles by several faculty and an interview with Eddie which formed the final chapter of the book called Creation Spirituality and the Dreamtime.*
Following are some excerpts from that interview. Eddie’s words are in italics.
How would you describe Aboriginal spirituality—the Dreamtime—to someone unfamiliar with it?
Aboriginal spirituality is the belief and the feeling with yourself that allows you to become a part of the whole environment around you—not the built environment, but the natural environment….Birth, life and death are all a part of it and you welcome each….The Dreamtime is the environment that the Aboriginal lived in, and it still exists today, all around us.
Where does an Aboriginal go to worship?
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….They did have special places for ceremonies that were necessary for the continuation of Aboriginal culture and teachings to the younger ones as they became older. These places are known as sacred places or sites. These area are where the Dreamtime spirits dwell and are the strongest….For the Aboriginals, the spirit is ever present and they are very aware of that presence….I have also realized that man created the buildings that he calls churches, God created the world. If I look for God then it will be in the environment that he build.
What have you, as an Aboriginal, found in Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality that you haven’t found in other Christian groups?
I found that there was an opening up there. It felt as if a door had been opened and light was shining through which I had not experienced anywhere else….I can now go out and see the world differently.
What aspects of CS are you most comfortable with and fits in best with the Dreamtime?
The aspect of being at one with the universe—not just the little piece of land that we stand on, not simply the environment around us, nor the country that we live in—but the universe. It is included in our lives. It is a part of us.
For me, CS as Matthew Fox talks about it is like the Dreamtime in the way that it brings the entire cosmos into our lives, making it a part of us, and us, a part of it.
* Eddie Kneebone, “An Aboriginal Response,” in Catherine Hammond, ed., Creation Spirituality and the Dreamtime, (Newton, NSW: Millennium Books, 1991) pp. 87-94.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Eddie Kneebone, ‘Bones of Contention (Panel 6)’ (detail), 2005, acrylic on canvas. Photo by Ben Eyles Wodonga TAFE.
Queries for Contemplation
What did you learn or have deepened in you about spirituality from listening to Eddie Kneebone’s teachings here?
Recommended Reading
Creation Spirituality and the Dreamtime
Collection of essays on the relation of spirituality, the Dreaming and (Christian) theology; essays by Matthew Fox, Joanna Macy, Veronica Brady, Elizabeth Cain, Eddie Kneebone annotated separately.
Out of print; Available through Amazon and Alibris.
By Donna Schindler, MD; Foreword by Matthew Fox
A white psychiatrist shares the truths she has learned about historical trauma in this book which has been called ‘prophetic’ by Reverend Matthew Fox. Starting with her childhood in South Texas and Bermuda, she takes us on a journey during which she had to confront her own racial biases and denial of the truth in order to work as a cross-cultural psychiatrist with a Maori mental health team in New Zealand, the Navajo Nation and California Native Americans.
7 thoughts on “Eddie Kneebone on the Dreamtime & Creation Spirituality”
Matthew, Today you ask in our Queries for Contemplation: “What did you learn or have deepened in you about spirituality from listening to Eddie Kneebone’s teachings here?” I found a similarity between the Aboriginal Dreamtime and Creation Spirituality–as with Native American spirituality and Wicca, is they are all, “earth-based” forms of spirituality. This does not mean I am interested only in the earth, all of the above as well as me, recognize that the earth is just part of the entire cosmos–and it is all One…
Wakan Tanka or The Great Spirit or The Great Mystery speaks through Nature or is Nature. God speaks through Nature or is Nature. Creation Spirituality is Cosmic Consciousness in action.
Gary, Thank you for your comment. You write, “Wakan Tanka or The Great Spirit or The Great Mystery speaks through Nature or is Nature. God speaks through Nature or is Nature.” However, Creation Spirituality does not teach that God is nature–that would be pantheism. Creation Spirituality teaches rather that God is in nature and nature is in God–this is “panentheism.”
What was deepened for me, within today’s DM, is the spiritual reality of God’s essence that is, was and ever shall be, present in its presence within the all and the everything of creation… and that the true meaning of worship is to acknowledge and respond in trust… to being and living in this reality of relationship with.
This expression of worship, and the spiritual reality of this eternal relationship of friendship, fellowship and continuous life-long companionship is offered as a gift to be experientially lived in a way that is uniquely personal and intimate to all creatures, including humanity. For me personally, I see that this is the kind of worship The Great Spirit, the Great Mystery, God is interested in engaging with, rather than what most religions tend to offer as expressions of worship.
Jeanette, Today you end your comment with these words: “For me personally, I see that this is the kind of worship The Great Spirit, the Great Mystery, God is interested in engaging with, rather than what most religions tend to offer as expressions of worship.” All I can say to that i s AMEN !!!
Thank you Matthew for helping us in today’s DM understand better and appreciate the mystical spirituality of the Dreamtime of the Aboriginals (I’ll be getting the book – “Creation Spirituality and the Dreamtime”). Indigenous spirituality and cultures have so much to teach us modern human beings what we have lost throughout history — our deeper connection to the Sacredness Present in our daily lives within us, with one another, all living creatures in nature, Mother Earth, and the Living Universe/Cosmos… psyche and Cosmos… Unique Beautiful manifestations of Divine Nature, especially our eternal human souls, and Our Loving Divine Oneness….
Hi How do I purchase the Creation Spirituality book by Eddie Kneebone please?