The Australian Aboriginal Culture - Case Study Example

Aboriginal Culture Name: Institution: Introduction Aboriginal cultures have shown a significant different socially, economically and politically in Australia. The paper is, therefore, a discussion how the indigenous cultures of the Aboriginal differ significantly with other cultures in Australia. Therefore, as a nurse working a palliative setting, I seek to investigate the extent to which the Aboriginal cultures vary with the rest of the cultures in the country. Further, the paper explicates a clear and precise consistency by synthesizing and illustrating the understanding of the indigenous people’s cultural beliefs and traditions with particular respect to dying and death. In essence, the paper presents an in-depth understanding of the Aboriginal. Therefore, to effectively accomplish this essay, I will focus my discussion on distinguishing between the practices of death and dying for the Australian Aboriginals as compared and contrasted to the non-indigenous Australian. Moreover, as a nurse in the palliative setting, I showcase the pathophysiology of the dying process as well as the linkage to the obvious groupings of symptoms experienced by all the individual succumbing to common life-limiting ailments (Haswell at al. 2010). Thus, in short, the paper puts a close eye on the reflection on the Aboriginals’ values as well as beliefs with respect to dying and death showcase closely how such noted beliefs impacts on the personal and professional interactions. Further, I will ultimately focus my inquiry on the identification of sources of spiritual, psychological and social support for the Aboriginals with life constraining illness as well as their respective families. Body The Aboriginal Culture Aboriginal Spirituality The Aboriginal spirituality is anchored firmly on the land that possess them. The Aboriginal spiritually attributes all object to life and sharing similar soul or spirit, Aboriginal people. In essence, the spirituality of this particular cohort of people is oneness and closely interconnected with every object that is believed to be living and breathing. Further, their spirituality is interconnected and in togetherness with the objects that do not breathe or live. Thus, these people are spiritually driven by oneness and sense of belonging that is interlocked and intertwined with the innermost feelings whereas everything else remaining secondary. Thus, land is central, and a key driver to the Aboriginal spirituality as beliefs and tradition of these people are invariably about the land Aboriginal people dwell. Thus, according to the aboriginals they believe on a geosophical that means that their spiritually is earth-centered and never theosophical that imply that of God-centered. The Aboriginal country is the earth that is impregnated with the Ancestral Spirits’ powers that are drawn by the Aboriginals. Thus, unlike the non-indigenous people, particularly the whites, Aboriginals experience a connection to their geosophical land that is far flung for the whites. Thus, the aboriginal spiritually is primarily characterized by the obligation to look after their land that has even integrated into the laws over the centuries. Thus, to the Aboriginals, spiritually is explicated and fathomed to be all about tapping into the still places when travels or strolls while on the country with an innermost feeling of a sense of belonging and the interconnection of all objects in one’s surroundings be it living and breathing or not. Further, the Aboriginal believes in silence as the key point of their connection to the land as the spiritual contact with their earth (mother) strongly anchors them in the place. In essence, Aboriginals are closely and linked to the land as they firmly believe that it is the land that possess them rather than the common believe by the non-indigenous that they always own land. Therefore, the land is rated the mother to the Aboriginals and everything be it positive or negative has the land as its stepping stones. Indeed, they believe to have originated from the land as the land remains the spirit, identity, foods, as well as culture. Thus, the Aboriginal spirituality goes beyond a mere common perception of the non-indigenous that only attributes humans and animals to have souls but extends an Olive branch to rocks to be possessing souls and thus living and equal to any other living aboriginals. Thus, an Aboriginal believes that once someone’s physical form has passed through death, the soul and the spirit remains livings and continue on. Therefore, the Aboriginal attaches less importance to the shape as every form shares same spirit and soul from the Dreamtime upon death as the spirits resurface to the Dreamtime and thus restores via birth as an animal, a plant a rock or a human. Thus, the Aboriginal spirituality is the bedrock of their respective religion that shapes the Aboriginals religious expression and practices. Religion The Aboriginal religion has beliefs in gods that created them as wells as the surroundings. The Aboriginals greatly believe in religion as well as spirits and are hence highly religious and spirituals people. The Aboriginals, however, do not worship and pray to one invisible god, a particular cohort of Aboriginals believe in many various deities. The deities have their image portrayed in recognizable and tangible forms such as individual landscape feature, a rock art shelter image, plants and animal’s images. The Australian Aboriginals attaches no belief in the animism. However, there is a likelihood that an Aboriginals will believe in the existence of a deity’s creation behind an outcropping rock. In other words, an outcropping rock is believed to be a representation of a deity from Creation Period. Nonetheless, the Aboriginals believe that several plants and animals do interchange with human life. This continuous process of interchangeability occurs via re-incarnation of the spirits and soul as reflected in the Creation Period where they believe that plants and animals were initially people. Interestingly, there is never a single deity that gives a full representation of the Aboriginals as individual tribes possess a particular deity. Also, the beliefs of the Aboriginals overlap in the similar manner words do overlap across the language groupings. The Aboriginals also believe in the Totemic Beings, Ancestral Beings, and Creation Beings. The Totemic beings lie between as it creates many species whereas people perceive themselves to have been drawn from these abundance species. Ceremonial Life The Aboriginals practice initiation ceremonies linked to boys and girls transition to the adulthood. The ceremonies are accompanied by singing and dancing, body decoration display as well ceremonial objects as well as storytelling. Moreover, the Aboriginals particularly Arnhem Land and Central Australia hold rituals to ensure Ancestral Beings supply adequate food from plants and animals. Such rituals are based on singing, dancing and chanting as well as ritual actions aim at invoking the Ancestral Beings to supply rain and adequate food. Health Practices The stringent cultural practices of Aboriginal have made it difficult for the Australian to lift the health standards in the country’s indigenous communities. Accordingly, the Aboriginals have persistently suffered from the worsening health crisis based on high mortality rates, low life expectancy, and sexuality transmitted disease just to mention a few. The Aboriginal smoke, alcoholic and eat unhealthy foods (Dudgeon at al. 2010 ). The Aboriginal hold that health and healing can never be isolated and hence, it goes beyond being not being sick but rather integrates mental, emotional, spiritual and cultural health. However, Australia has remained the only place where indigenous wellbeing takes a backward form. Death and Dying Similar to other world cultures and religions, Aboriginal culture has its beliefs in terms of how dying and death is interpreted and related to. The Aboriginal people believe in soul re- incarnation after death, a process that involves a transition from one being to another through the process of death and rebirth. The process is renewed each and every time a spirit detaches from the physical world. The soul interchanges between humans, animals, and plants. Subsequently, Aboriginal people practice respect to the dead as it is traditionally wrong to refer directly to a dead person by name for about twelve months to several years later depending on the nature of death. Names sakes of deceased are referred to using a substitute name during the avoidance period. Upon a person’s death, the bereaved often paint themselves white and cut themselves as a sign of remorse and grief on the loss of their family member. A series of songs and dances, chants and rituals are conducted in hopes of accompanying the spirit as it leaves the area to return to its origin where it undergoes the transition to rebirth. Burial practices vary throughout Australia. In the northern communities, burials are carried out in two stages each with specific ceremony and rituals. The first category of burial commonly referred to as primary burial involves the corpse being laid out on a raised wooden ground. The corpse is then covered with branches and plant leaves and left for several months. Upon the rotting of the flesh, bones are collected, and this begins the second phase of the burial. In addition, the collected bones are painted with red ochre and then dispersed in different locations. At times, a relative carries with him a portion of the bones for a year or less and in some occurrences more than a year. In other cases, the bones are wrapped and left in a cave shelter where they decompose with time. Conclusion However, it is key to note the absence of a common or single Aboriginal spirituality. This is due to the presence of over 250 languages before the invasion, and particular language cluster possessed particular creation stories and spirituality. Thus, Aboriginal spirituality is diversely incredible as presently there exist fifty languages with the thirty of these being critical based on individual cultures, spirituality, creation stories as well every diverse difference in all aspects of life. Reference Dudgeon, P., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2010). The social, cultural and historical context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 25-42. Haswell, M. R., Kavanagh, D., Tsey, K., Reilly, L., Cadet-James, Y., Laliberte, A., ... & Doran, C. (2010). Psychometric validation of the Growth and Empowerment Measure (GEM) applied with Indigenous Australians. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44(9), 791-799. Parker, R., & Milroy, H. (2010). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: An overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practices, 3-12. Zubrick, S. R., Dudgeon, P., Gee, G., Glaskin, B., Kelly, K., Paradies, Y., ... & Walker, R. (2004). Social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing. Group, 9. Read More