Rabbit Proof Fence Aboriginal Spirituality

Part 1: Introduction

We will be learning about Aboriginal Spirituality, Christianity and what happened to the Aboriginal beliefs when Christianity was first introduced in Australia. We will be learning about Aboriginal Spirituality both before and after evangelization. Evangelization is when they convert religions that they are currently in to the Christianity religion, because they believe its the better way. The Catholic Church and Education in Australia use these things in the movie called ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ which is an Aboriginal Movie when a few girls get taken to be fully recognized not only as a catholic but as a Aboriginal woman.

Part 2: Aboriginal Spirituality Before Evangelisation (Knowledge & Understanding 1)

Show each of the following four aspects of Aboriginal spirituality as it was before the evangelisation of the Church and Government policies. Each aspect needs to include one visual and one written component.

ONE

belief of Aboriginal culture
Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centred on a belief in the Dreamtime.The Dreaming is the period when the creation when the world took shape after all life began. During the Dreamtime they created the landscape,made the first people and taught people how to live. The Dreaming has five different parts to it, the first is the time at the very beginning of time. Then the second thing was the world was hidden beneath the visible world, the third is a power than pretty much controls everything. Fourth this is that the dreaming can be person or been told to the community and the fifth thing is the dreaming is reflected with the Aboriginal Lands. Different Aboriginal groups/communities tell various and different Dreamtime stories about the Ancestral beings.

ONE spiritual experience
Aboriginal spiritual beliefs are invariably about the land Aboriginal people live on. The Aboriginal dont expect physical contact with their spiritual beings.

ONE Rite of Passage
The Rites of Passage is associated with puberty, birth, eating and marriage. The rites for the boys and girls who past puberty and head into fault hood. Adults who have been initiated can have a part in a role of the ritual. The roles usually vary as it depends on what the dreaming belongs to. No priests were in the ceremony because the aboriginal believe that everyone is equal so everyone who participated has equal amount of contribution. The initiation first starts of with the person heading to the bush where they get treated harshly in order to prove that they are worthy. Second is the person is though mysteries surround the objects or action of the group. The third and final stage is when the person return to the rest of there community and celebrate and they are ready to enter the adult hood and then get married

ONE spiritual ethic
Spiritual Ethics are guidelines and rules are on about how the Aboriginal people live nature, the land and other people. They say if one Aboriginal does something wrong also known as sinning it also has an effect on everyone and everything else. If an Aboriginal person kills and animal connected to the group of dreaming it will effect them because they are close to it and they feel it docent need to be killed for no reason.

Part 3: Aboriginal Spirituality After Evangelisation (Knowledge & Understanding 1)
Show each of the following four aspects of Aboriginal spirituality as it was after the evangelization of the Church and Government policies.

Each aspect needs to include one visual and one written component. Consider the impact on each of these areas of Aboriginal Spirituality and reference what you saw and inferred from the movie ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’.

ONE belief of Aboriginal culture

Evangelization has attempted to destroy the beliefs to different Aboriginal peopled there groups and also their culture. It has forced the Aboriginal people to forget their Aboriginal beliefs and the Catholics made the Aboriginal to believe in Catholicism because they thought it was the right thing to believe in. In the movie ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ they capture three young aboriginal girls to of to a school that converts them to Christians. They dont want to be captured because they want to stay there religion and be the same as each and every Aboriginal in there

tribe.

2. ONE spiritual experience
Some Aboriginal hold onto there faith but most are made to loose it because of the Catholicism that they have bought into there lives.

3. ONE Rite of Passage
Catholic Religion makes the Aboriginal people make them take the sacrements that we take as Catholics these include Reconciliation, Communion and Confirmation. They even do a Baptism even at an older age so they are fully recognized as a Catholic

4. ONE spiritual ethic
Aboriginal people have completely different spiritual beliefs to what the Catholics do. The catholics follow and kind of revolve around the 10 Commandments but the Aboriginal people dont follow them, number one because they may not know them or because its not their religion to know them and to follow them.

Part 4: The Early Catholic Church in Australia (Reasoning and Responding 2)
You are to show the history of how the Catholic Church used education in Australia to evangelize Australian communities. Each key area is to include one visual and one written component.
Include a response to the following Key Areas:

The mission of the Church (reference Matthew’s commissioning)
The mission of the church informs and lets people know about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Catholics were told that they do go through with evangelization ever since the time of Jesus when Matthew’s Commissioning. Jesus had told his disciples to ‘go therefore and make the disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the holy spirit’

2. Any significant events
Archbishop Vaughan helped the Catholic Community go thought the construction of schools and churches
Dr Mannix’s Influences on Catholicism in Australia

3. At least TWO important people involved in establishing the early Catholic Church.
Dr Mannix
Archbishop Vaughan

4. How Catholic settlements/schools in early Australia were used to evangelise.
The Catholic Schools/Settlements are used to evangelize to the people that have never learnt about religion or haven't been informed about Catholicism.

5. The genuine, if not misguided intention, to improve quality of life for Indigenous Australians.
We try to teach Aboriginal about different cultures and the different ways that people live and how they live. It is important that they just dont know what there culture is. We want them to learn new things and try new things and to introduce these cultures to the communities/tribes and they can pass it down from generation to generation. But most Aboriginal dont like to change their culture/religion because they want to stay pure Aboriginal and not change there culture because they feels its wrong.

Part 5: Written Response to either Finding a Way or Rabbit Proof Fence
(Personal & Communal Engagement)
In this part of your presentation you are to comment on key Church beliefs and events in history and how these have impacted on the lives of others in Australian history.

With a particular focus on the film, Rabbit Proof Fence but also referencing the two other texts we have referenced during this unit (Finding a Way & To Know Worship and Love), you are to use evidence to explain how the introduction of Christianity changed the way of life for Aboriginal people – for the better and for worse.

Remember to reference the texts & film as a basis for your discussion.

The more you can explain what happened and how it affected people, the better. Follow the outline below to cover the THREE key areas for the final section of your presentation.

Key Areas:

ONE: Outline your contention of how you feel these historical events impacted on Aboriginal Australians and use your chosen resource to provide evidence.
Christianity has influenced Aboriginal Spirituality in many ways and now many Aboriginal people are becoming Christians. Churches embrace Aboriginal culture because they want them to try out new cultures and pass it on to the families.

TWO: Identify both the positive and negative impact of evangelization on Aboriginal Spirituality by using quotes to support your opinion.
Positive thing about Evangelization is that you get to try a new religion and see what they do and what there culture is. Negative thing is that in some Aboriginal communities they dont want to be Christian because they either dont want to or they would feel like the are betraying there culture to be a Christian

THREE: Design an appropriate conclusion clearly summarizing your contention on the impact of evangelizing on Aboriginal communities.
In conclusion i think the impact of evangelizing Aboriginal communities is the wrong thing to do because they want to be there own religion and have there own culture. In the movie ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ they capture young Aboriginal girls to go to a Catholic sort of school so they can become Christians. They dont like it there because they want to stay Aboriginal and stay there religion and culture. By that the girls run away and try to get back to there families so they dont convert to Christians.