There are various indigenous people existing in the world. They have lived with their own culture for long time. It is well-known that indigenous cultures are often changed because of the impact of outsider’s culture. In Australia, there are two indigenous groups, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, from the long time ago. In the history, many Aboriginal people were killed by people from Europe since British began to colonise Australia. Also, European people reached to Torres Strait Islands. Thus, Torres Strait Island’s customs were probably impacted by Europeans. In addition, some of islands are located in very close to Papua New Guinea, so it is possible that island’s customs were impacted by Papuan culture. This essay will compare …show more content…
Traditionally, Torres Strait Islanders have been cultivated, hunted, fished, and traded for their food. Anderson, Fredericks and Lee Brien (2014, p. 29)refer that the traditional foods, that islanders have ate, are sweet potato, taro and yams, native plum, berries, coconuts, animals, cows and pigs, and seafood, fish, dugong, turtle, squid, and octopus. Similarly, the islanders still eat such traditional foods in some feasts, for example, a celebration, and a gathering of friends. For instance, in the feasting, they eat meats, fishes, turtle, dugong, and vegetables (Anderson, Fredericks and Lee Brien 2014, p. 30) and these are almost same as traditional foods. There is another similarity of food custom, which is the way of cooking. The traditional style was cooking on the ground that is called as Kup Maori and Edwards (1988, p. 14) explains that at a feast, the stone oven was used. Likewise, Alfred C. Haddon reported that hot stones were used for cooking on the ground in a Western tribe of Torres Strait where Haddon went and observed in 1888. Therefore, contemporary feasting is still based on the traditional Island food customs. However, at contemporary feasts, rice and noodles are also served, but Anderson, Fredericks and Lee Brien (2014, p. 30) state that rice and noodles are not traditionally food, so these can be different …show more content…
Mabo (2005, pp. 47-48) explains that when the dance is performed, drums and bamboo clapsticks are usually used for the dance music. These instruments are still used for the contemporary dance music, but Mabo (2005, p. 48) refers that guitars have also been used. Also, the dance costume such as a headdress, called Dari, have some differences between traditional and contemporary costumes of Island dance. Islanders still wear the headdress for the dance, but Casey (2012, p. 84) points out that recently, to make the headdress, sometimes not traditional materials, for instance, tinplate and cotton cloth, are used while they have traditionally used shells, foliage, and woods. In addition, Casey (2012, pp. 83-84) outlines about characteristics of several types of traditional Island dance and these dances were, for example, performed in sacred place; performed fighting and brave actions; or performed daily activities which are fishing and hunting. Therefore, traditional Island dance were probably connected to islanders’ spiritual beliefs and everyday life. However, according to Mabo (2005, p. 48): ‘On Thursday Island, a dance was performed depicting a football game and another about tennis.’ Such dances are hardly traditional dance which has been performed from long time ago. This is because both football and
In John Barker’s Ancestral Lines, the author analyzes the Maisin people and their culture centered around customs passed from previous generations, as well as global issues that impact their way of living. As a result of Barker’s research, readers are able to understand how third world people can exist in an rapid increasing integrated system of globalization and relate it not only to their own society, but others like the Maisin; how a small group of indigenous people, who are accustomed to a modest regimen of labor, social exceptions, and traditions, can stand up to a hegemonic power and the changes that the world brings. During his time with these people the author was able to document many culture practices, while utilizing a variety of
Dr. Marcia Langton, an anthropologist from Australia of Australian Aborigines descent, spoke at the Berndt’s lecture in 2011. Her article, Anthropology, Politics and the Changing World of Aboriginal Australians, focuses primarily on the works of an anthropologist couple Robert and Catherine Berndt. They had completed many ethnographic studies in various areas around Australia. Langton states that their work has been crucial in order to have a complete understanding of the Australian Aborigines’ society. The indigenous Australian’s society has been thoroughly researched by many social sciences through the decades. Artworks, religion, rituals, economy, politics, and even claims of UFO sightings have been recorded by a multitude of scholars. It could be argued that the Australian Aborigines’ culture has been better documented than any other non-western society. I would like to capture the movement of Australian Aboriginal tradition to a more modern society by incorporating Dr.Langton’s works as well as the work of National Geographic Journalist, Michael Finkel. By researching the society as it is today in the 21st century, I will to analyze how they relate to Australians of European descent.
Secondly, the customary health beliefs of the aboriginal populace are interrelated with numerous characteristics of their customs such as kinship obligations, land policies, and religion (Boulton-Lewis, Pillay, Wilss, & Lewis, 2002). The socio-medical structure of health beliefs, which the aboriginal people...
First of all, Indigenous people and Asian have different values and means to Australia. The Australian Indigenous people have lived Australia for long time and they have developed their own culture. However, when the British people started to colonise Australia, the British culture was brought into Australia. They have struggled under the pressure of White Australian. Therefore, whatever their identity can be a part of Australian. On the other hand, most of Asian people came to Australia as immigrants to seek better life. Ommundsen states that Asian Australian literatures made by the writer’s identity and life, for example (512). However, he also argues that “Asia”, “Australia” and “Asian Australia” are uncertain categories (512). In “Love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice”, there are no strong elements of Australia, and even the protagonist, Nam, lives in Iowa (Le 3), the United States. In “The boat”, Australia is just destination of the main character, a girl named Mai (Le 278). Thus, The Boat seems more Asian literature that Asian Australian literature. It is really difficult to find how Indigenous identity narratives affect to such Asian Australian literatures, because they seems really different from each other. If something must be said, Asian Australian literatures have to refer to Indigenous people. Most Asian immigrants regard Australia as a western country, white culture, and well-developed country. They do not think about Indigenous people so much, so but if Indigenous identity narratives’ increase of importance, Asian Australian literature must include them as
This comparative paper will focus on Hawaiian Hula and Tahitian Dance on its origins, similarities and differences.
Ancient Aboriginals were the first people to set foot on the Australian continent, over 40,000 years or more before Colonization (Eckermann, 2010). They survived by hunting and gathering their food, worshipping the land to protect its resources, and ensuring their survival. The aboriginal community had adapted to the environment, building a strong framework of social, cultural, and spiritual beliefs (Eckermann, 2010).
Aboriginal spirituality originally derives from the stories of the dreaming. The dreaming is the knowledge and a sense of belonging that the Aboriginals had of the beginning of life and the relationship to the land and sea (Australian Museum, 2011). The dreaming stories are passed on from one generation to the next orally. These stories teach the following generations how to behave towards the land and other people. The dreaming stories give them a sense of duty to protect the land and appreciate it because the dreamtime stories indicate that the spirits have not died but are still alive in different forms as animals or humans, therefore the ancestor’s power is still felt through the landforms (Clark, 1963), (Australian Governement, 2008)
Australian indigenous culture is the world’s oldest surviving culture, dating back sixty-thousand years. Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have been represented in a myriad of ways through various channels such as poetry, articles, and images, in both fiction and non-fiction. Over the years, they have been portrayed as inferior, oppressed, isolated, principled and admirable. Three such texts that portray them in these ways are poems Circles and Squares and Grade One Primary by Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Packer slams booing; joins three cheers for footballer and the accompanying visual text and Heywire article Family is the most important thing to an islander by Richard Barba. Even though the texts are different as ….. is/are …., while
erosion of the Aboriginal culture.(chp.2). Restrictions placed on the cultural practices of the Aboriginal people ultimately led to the abatement of the Aboriginal traditional medicines.(p88). Losing their freedom to practice traditional therapeutics, the Aboriginal people eventually had to adapt to the culturally inappropriate ways of western medicines. The purpose of this paper is to examine the advantages of Aboriginal healing methods for the Aboriginal people, as well as to explain why these traditional methods continued to persist long after western style medicines were introduced.
The authors describe Indigenous perspectives on health and well-being based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s historical and cultural backgrounds. In the Indigenous culture, health comprises not just physical and mental health, but emotional well-being, social and environmental factors as well. Moreover, this holistic approach to health is most associated with their cultural and spiritual dimension. For instance, it is important to maintain their physical and cultural connection to traditional lands as well
The Torres Strait Islanders were fishermen, hunters and agriculturalists and, because they gardened and were fearless defenders of their territories, they were generally considered Europeans to be superior to mainland Aboriginal people. Pre-contact Torres Strait Islanders were not a single homogeneous or unified group with the islands regulated by senior men and organised through totemic clan membership. It was a society based on kinship and reciprocal obligation.
Australia’s Indigenous people are thought to have reached the continent between 60 000 and 80 000 years ago. Over the thousands of years since then, a complex customary legal system have developed, strongly linked to the notion of kinship and based on oral tradition. The indigenous people were not seen as have a political culture or system for law. They were denied the access to basic human right e.g., the right to land ownership. Their cultural values of indigenous people became lost. They lost their traditional lifestyle and became disconnected socially. This means that they were unable to pass down their heritage and also were disconnected from the new occupants of the land.
even say that he used to sit out in his garden naked with his wife. It
For thousands of years, these affluent terrestrial vegetations have provided the habitat and patronage elements that were essential for the survival of the Papuan people. Accordingly, the vast majority of the Papuan people (87 ...
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) can be broadly defined as the knowledge and skills that an indigenous (local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. IK is unique to given cultures, localities and societies and is acquired through daily experience. It is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. Because IK is based on, and is deeply embedded in local experience and historic reality, it is therefore unique to that specific culture; it also plays an important role in defining the identity of the community. Similarly, since IK has developed over the centuries of experimentation on how to adapt to local conditions. That is Indigenous ways of knowing informs their ways of being. Accordingly IK is integrated and driven from multiple sources; traditional teachings, empirical observations and revelations handed down generations. Under IK, language, gestures and cultural codes are in harmony. Similarly, language, symbols and family structure are interrelated. For example, First Nation had a