Aborigines Make Death Special

           This film showed exactly why Aboriginal Australians are so rich for study.  The complexity of the their culture provides rich insight into how previous hunter gatherer groups may have lived.  The interconnectivity of their law, totems, myths, painting, song, dance, rituals, religion, and how these aspects of their culture vary regionally from a connected group in one region to another group in another region, these similarities are the main reasons why it is so complex and difficult to gain a true holistic understanding of Australian aboriginal culture.  The film did such a beautiful job of displaying the vast cultural richness of the Australian aborigines.  Most of the aspects of the aboriginal religion are connected to totemic representations of ancestral kinship patterns (excuse me while offensively generalize about aboriginal religious belief, they would put me under spear-fire if my generalizations reached their ears).  In the build up to the funeral, there were methodical, meticulous efforts made in preparation for the event.  Over the course of these preparations, the religious songs of the ancestors of the deceased were sung, the dances celebrating that ancestral lineage were celebrated, paintings were drawn for the coffin, the sand sculpture was made, food and subsistence items were gathered, the right number of people with the correct status had to be present, and the bodies of the group were painting towards to culmination of the ritual.  All of these artistic acts and processes of making sure the ritual was properly realized; are acts of making special.

            The preparation of the aboriginal funeral rites is a long daunting process.  The proper hollow log must be chosen for the coffin, certain songs and stories must told and sung, certain dances must take place amongst the correct number and status of people, the correct sand sculpture must be made, and the deceased person’s ancestral lineage must paid homage to with the right people present.  All of these acts define making something special and represent ceremonial art.  The songs, dance, and stories are art; and the painting of the coffin and bodies of those participating in the ceremony are definitely artistic expression, making the impact and importance of these ceremonies all the more impactful.  The symbolic and abstract nature of the painting of the coffin is the most dramatic example of making special.  A specific, boring, plain piece of wood, although of a specific type, is selected for the ceremony.  Then over the course of the days leading up to burying of the dead, the coffin is painted methodically in a specific manner, with specific symbols representing that person lineage so that they can become part of the spiritual realm in which their ancestors reside and still live through the songs, stories, dances, and totemic landmarks that make up the aboriginal culture and life.

Sand Sculpture

A Painting of a Fish

Some Aborigines with Ceremonial Attire