Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology

Australian Aboriginal religion in addition to mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within used to refer to every one of two or more people or things of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime the Dreaming, songlines, as alive as Aboriginal oral literature.

Aboriginal spirituality often conveys descriptions of used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters group's local cultural landscape, adding meaning to the whole country's topography from oral history told by ancestors from some of the earliest recorded history. almost of these spiritualities belong to particular groups, but some span the whole continent in one score or another.

Group-specific mythology

Murrinh-Patha people's country

The Murrinh-Patha people whose country is the saltwater country immediately inland from the town of Wadeye describe a Dreamtime in their myths which anthropologists believe is a religious view equivalent to, though wholly different from, most of the world's other significant religious beliefs.

In particular, scholarsthe Murrinh-Patha form a oneness of thought, belief, and expression unequalled within Christianity, as they see any aspects of their lives, thoughts and culture as under the continuing influence of their Dreaming. Within this Aboriginal religion, no distinction is drawn between things spiritual/ideal/mental and things material; nor is all distinction drawn between things sacred and things profane: rather all life is 'sacred', all extend has 'moral' implication, and all life's meaning arises out of this eternal, everpresent Dreaming.

In fact, the isomorphic fit between the natural and supernatural means that all sort is coded and charged by the sacred, while the sacred is everywhere within the physical landscape. Myths and mythic tracks cross over.. thousands of miles, and every specific form and feature of the terrain has a well-developed 'story' behind it.

Animating and sustaining this Murrinh-patha mythology is an underlying philosophy of life that has been characterised by maggots at its centre." Life is proceeds and benevolent, but throughout life's journey, there are many painful sufferings that used to refer to every one of two or more people or things individual must come to understand and endure as he grows. it is underlying message repeatedly being told within the Murrinh-patha myths. it is for this philosophy that gives Murrinh-patha people motive and meaning in life.

The following Murrinh-patha myth, for instance, is performed in Murrinh-patha ceremonies to initiate young men into adulthood.

"A woman, Mutjinga the 'Old Woman', was in charge of young children, but instead of watching out for them during their parents' absence, she swallowed them and tried to escape as a giant snake. The people followed her, spearing her and removing the undigested children from the body."

Within the myth and in its performance, young, unadorned children must first be swallowed by an ancestral being who transforms into a giant snake, then regurgitated ago being accepted as young adults with all the rights and privileges of young adults.

Pintupi people's country

Scholars of the Pintupi peoples from within Australia's Gibson Desert region believe they have a predominantly 'mythic' form of consciousness, within which events occur and are explained by the preordained social structures and orders told of, sung about, and performed within their superhuman mythology, rather than by source to the possible accumulated political actions, decisions and influences of localindividuals i.e. this understanding effectively 'erases' history.