5. Aboriginal Cultural Expression in Contemporary Society

The government’s and Aboriginal people’s concepts of land and sea rights differ from state to state. The aspect that does remain the same is that Aboriginal Cultural expression is always connected to country; land, water and sea.  

The government sees land and sea rights in terms of economic gain and a strong hold in international defence. Government holds dominion over land and sea. Though individuals and entities may have ‘ownership’, the government still has a say in what one can do with that ownership, in terms of legal frameworks. 

Aboriginal peoples consider land and sea rights as essential to spiritual and cultural health. The land and sea hold dominion over the people. The physical landscape and waters hold stories and a reciprocity that keeps culture alive through connection to land through seasonal events, custodial responsibility and ritual. 

Maintaining Aboriginal cultural expression within contemporary society is an important feature of community engagement and cultural continuity.  

Ritual ceremonies involving special sacred sites, song cycles accompanied by dance, and body painting, invoke these mythic and living beings. This continues to provide the means to access the spiritual powers of The Dreaming. Indigenous Australian culture is a living culture and therefore is evolving. These stories are often re-told with a contemporary twist, which embraces the Dreaming but now includes the future.  

Recent years have seen major Indigenous festivals emerge. These festivals and celebrations are becoming accepted by mainstream Australia as important staples in the calendar for celebrating the cultures of Australia’s first peoples. Some of these festivals include: 

  • Stompin’ Ground 

  • Yeperenye Dreaming 

  • Barunga Festival 

  • Laura Festival 

  • NARLA Knock Out 

  • Survival, Coming of the Light 

  • CROC Eisteddfod 

  • NAIDOC and Reconciliation Week. 

 

Aboriginal culture has been embraced by the expressive arts in contemporary Australia and in the international arts world, as an important part of Australian identity.  

Story telling is central to maintaining culture. All the expressive arts are explicitly or implicitly about storytelling. This storytelling is about identity and connectedness to country. These expressive arts include the visual arts such as painting, sculpture, carving and weaving etc. and performance-based disciplines such as dance, theatre, oratory storytelling and film making.   

Aboriginal cultural expressive arts, give all Australians direct access to the real stories, told by those who know them best, from a lived experience. The recent history of Aboriginal Australia is only just beginning to emerge into the conversation and the psyche of non-Aboriginal Australia. The expressive arts have a central role in this shift. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References 

Source: https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/land-rights