Snowdon - 2/3/22 - Aboriginal Religion and/in the Western World

 2/3/22


The lecture from Ian McIntosh really painted an interesting picture of what we have been learning about thus far. His experiences with the Australian Aboriginals really gave some visuals that few people have the ability to give in our modern world. A few elements of his stories really grabbed my attention, namely, the differentiation between different clans and cultures within the Aboriginal population, and the palpable Western influence in some areas of Aboriginal life.


The first really should go without saying, but, unfortunately, we know it does not. The great majority of us in the Western world, formally educated though we may be, would certainly already view the Australian Aboriginals as a group on the fringes of humanity, without much more thought devoted to the matter than that. It was really interesting to hear about the countless different clans and tribes which exist into the modern day throughout Aboriginal Australia. The family dynamics therein were another point that stuck with me, and it shows just how differently different groups of people understand the social world around them, and how they ought to interact with it, with this example being marked by the attitudes one must have as defined by your relation to another person, rather than the person themself, extending throughout the entire clan (insert wicked lame joke about avoiding in-laws being universal). The talk about the adherents of the Rainbow Serpent was interesting as well, when thinking about our common lack of knowledge on the subject, most people could tell next to nothing about “Aboriginal religion” at all, and so to see how deep one is able to delve, with different sects existing within the population, commanding fear from the others, was fascinating.


The Western cultural mingling was fascinating as well. The dispositions of David Burrumarra, and how he was a staunch advocate of both traditional Aboriginal religion and Christianity at the same time offers insight into how the two worlds are able to meet without clashing, and also how religion in non-literate culture does not usually come with the same level of creed and exclusivity as tragically many understand modern, especially Abrahamic, religion to be. The plane ride to find the Rainbow Serpent personified this better than anything else to me. Imagining an image of all these people dressing in their best Western attire in preparation for seeing their traditional, indigenous visualization of a supreme deity speaks volumes to this cultural contact.

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