The Rainbow Serpent, as painted on a cave wall by Aboriginal artists. Wikimedia Commons.
7. A rich and complex spiritual religion governed the beliefs of ancient Australian Aborigines, demanding life and nature be treated as sacred
At the core of nearly all civilizations throughout history is religion and the ancient Aboriginals of Australia are no exception, with their beliefs serving as the world’s longest continuous religion. A spiritualistic culture, the Aborigines founded their religious beliefs on the “Dreamtime“, a complex set of religious ideas divided into four composite key parts: the beginning of everything; the life and power of the ancestors; the war of life and death; and power in life. The Dreamtime was all four of these concepts simultaneously, representing the past, present, and future in an unending cycle. As all life stems from the great spirits who inhabit the Dreamtime, such as the Rainbow Serpent who is responsible for the creation of all the rivers, lakes, and mountains, all life and even nature itself is considered a sacred creation and thus must be respected.
As is common with early religious beliefs, stories of these divine spirits along with great ancestors were passed down by the Aboriginals through the tradition of oral folktales; similarly replicated in other cultures, communication with these spiritual entities is possible via ritualistic dancing and singing, known as “iwara” or songlines by the Aborigines and performed at “corroborees” or ceremonies. It was believed that without this link the spiritual underpinnings of life would be lost, that “without ceremony, the land soon dies”. It should be noted that there was not a singular conception of the Dreamtime, rather countless variants on the same general theme. One such version, belonging to the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia, is recorded within the Tjukurpa: a collection of questions and answers concerning life and the rules of behavior.