Traditional Urban Aboriginal Religion

Authors

  • Kristina Everett

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/co2009375-86

Keywords:

urban aboriginal religion, tradition, dendroglyph

Abstract

This paper represents a group of Aboriginal people who claim traditional Aboriginal ownership of a large Australian metropolis. They have struggled for at least the last 25 to 30 years to articulate and represent their contemporary group identity to the wider Australian society that very often does not take their expressions seriously. This is largely because dominant discourses claim that ‘authentic’ Aboriginal culture only exists in remote, pristine areas far away from western society and that urban Aboriginal traditions, especially urban religious traditions are, today, defunct. This paper is an account of one occasion on which such traditional Aboriginal religious practice was performed before the eyes of a group of tourists.

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