ABSTRACT
The Aborigines of Australia's deserts have the longest continuous culture of any people—40,000–60,000 years. Contrary to earlier (Darwinian-based) assumptions that they were primitive people with no religious understanding, we now know that they have a rich and sophisticated culture, encompassing a close spiritual bond to their land—‘Country.'
Their beliefs are centred on the Ancestors, spirits who, by their epic journeys and exploits in an ancient time known as the Dreaming, created the landforms, plants, animals and people. These landmarks are further venerated as visible reminders of the ‘Law' laid down by the Ancestors to ensure continuity of the tribe. The ‘Law' comprises obligations to perform religious ceremonies, to obey rules of behaviour and to take responsibility for Country, both physically (e.g., by clearing water holes, by regularly firing patches of grass, by respecting fauna) and spiritually (by performing appropriate ceremonies to restore its fertility and honour the Ancestral beings within it). This ongoing obligation to respect and care for the land is a salutary lesson for modern communities that have lost the immediacy of being reliant on, and close to, the land and have, in many cases, lost the knowledge of how to preserve Nature.
The intense bond Aborigines have with the land is a response to their belief that the Ancestors did not die but returned into the land at the first sacred sites where they are continually present. Thus spiritual power is not located in the distant heavens but deep within the land itself, making it both sacred and a sacred responsibility.
These beliefs are enacted and handed down in narratives, songs and dances, and depicted in traditional art. I shall describe these aspects of Aboriginal culture and explore how they offer valuable lessons in the Anthropocene.
