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For Indigenous Australian Peoples, being human is relatedness centred. And this relatedness is not human focussed. Being human is defined by the value given to where we have come from, who we are, and where we are going in relationship to country as well as kin. (Atkinson et al. 2010, p. 29)

Introduction: During this unit we have learnt about Indigenous world-views and facts that are part of the Australian reality nowadays. For this research assignment, it is due to describe how relational ontology is formed, on the basis of an indigenous world view perspective. Indigenous relate between each other in a way, as well to the land, so we are going to look at the way they related in the past, present and future. As we know, relations are a part of our everyday life. We are related to other people, and to the world around us. Relationships are fundamental to reality. Things, elements and beings are understood and generated in relation to others, and those relations are not secondary we must cross time and space to interact with objects. Relationship requires another with whom to relate. First it is needed to describe and identified what is relational ontology. Relational ontology appears in fields such as theology, philosophy, political theory and so on. Relational ontology implies that relations between entities are ontologically more fundamental than the entities themselves; it places emotional and spiritual relationships between people and country and the people at the centre of our understanding of what reality is. Ontology is specific of a conceptualization, and it refers to the subject of existence. To simplify it, ontology is considered a description of the concepts that can exist for an agent or a community of the first. The importance of ontology lies is in its purpose, what ontology is for. Ontologies are made so the knowledge can be shared and illustrates how we apprehend reality. To sum up, relational ontology means the relations and the entities that share them and a primary understanding of how the world is constituted. For indigenous Australian peoples, the land is law, and the two most important kinds of relationship in life are between land and people, and secondly amongst people themselves, which is contingent upon the first. Landscape, climate, plants and animal migration is related to human practice and story, meaning that there is an indivisible relationship between culture and nature. Indigenous Australian people are a community, and the main task of a community is to live into the reality of the constitutive relatedness and to recognize and nurture difference and otherness. From an aboriginal conception, community is a sense of belonging and an area of origin. Community arise certain levels of association like, family (local level linked to country), and the Aboriginal community that can include local, state and national layers). For achieving a good social relationship the well being of individuals and groups are essential. As we have explained in class, relatedness, kinship and caring for people are fundamental values to Indigenous ways of exisitng in the world. These are values that have evolved through generations, and they continue to still be reflected in contemporary settings. We can wonder that although indigenous communities and families have been affected by colonial governments, relatedness is still and always will be present. It is a fact that changes and adapts to new circumstances, times, spaces and places. Relatedness can have different meanings and levels, and since the invasion of Australia it has changed. Relationships through the community and at individual level have been re-defined. In terms of 2

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community, relatedness is how people are cared for. Communities, as we explained before, is what Indigenous people and societies form part of, and is made up of different people that work together for a collective group. For example, the relationship between a human being and other natural aspects can be expressed through totemism. Kinship: Related to the topic of relatedness and relational ontology we can link kinship, which is more than a blood line or blood relations. It is a pack of beliefs and value systems that link people together within interactions based on shared rights and responsibilities. As we explained before, people are related to people and people with country. Kinship can also be considered as having common characteristics as well as a common origin, and a kinship system is defined as a group of interdependent, interacting, interrelated relationships that form a collective entity. This system evolves within cultures and people. These values changed from the past to the present and will in future. In the past, Indigenous Australian people used to live in small extended family units that were inter-linked in larger language groups with different territorial boundaries that have changed over time. Distinct groups were bound together by a complex kinship system. These kinships systems used to be complex, and were structured of relationships that were built over time. Aboriginal people used to associate and still do, with groups based on familial relationships. Kinship therefore can be used to organize social functions, personal interactions, labor forces, and intermarital relationships. It is also recognized on genealogical connections, and practiced with social interactions. It includes the land, which is the basis from which all extends, to the family relationship and beyond. These relationships incorporate a spiritual connection that is not separated from the material world. Kinship in places such as the Torres Strait Islands involves also relationships with animal spirits. Kinship connects you to the country and it gives you identity, so therefore a full relative is that one that shares the same country and the same dreaming (spirituality). In a basis of an indigenous view of relational ontology, thanks to their comprehensive nature of the web of relationships, each of them is linked and united into a whole. That happens through mother, father, conception, place of births and the place of residence. Kinship is shared among a set of relatives, and people ought not to be private of kinship. Kinship includes the land from where all extends then family relationships and so on. Those relationships are connected as I said before to a spiritual connection. The obligation to pass this knowledge about kinship to the children is given to their family. But a definition that is not so clear about aboriginal societies, considering the big group varieties existing, is the male/female role. Different authors have described indigenous societies as egalitarian, matriarchal or patriarchal. The most exact term would be egalitarian hegemony1. Another important aspect of aboriginal society and kinship is the Elders. In the old days was paramount. Elders carry certain responsibilities, because they are thought to have certain wisdom and knowledge product in their involvement in life and ritual stages. We can compare the process of acquiring the title of Elder as in the Western society earning your title of doctor.

Relationship with the land:

masculine stature balanced by a womens sovereignty and authority in some aspects

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Aboriginal people have a different understanding of the Australian environment. Some of these relationships are based on the traditional knowledge and practices that Indigenous Australian people pass through generations. Others are a result from the impacts of colonization in the indigenous world. The concept of country is used by aboriginal people to define family origins and associations with particulars parts of Australia. This definition of country, however, differs depending on the association that was passed down through the family or community. The resources that the Australian environment provides have a big role in religious practices and beliefs. Australian environment is diverse, and therefore the relationship that Indigenous Australian people have with these environment changes. As we can see in the map, different indigenous language groups are connected to a specific area of land in a spiritual and geographical way. In the past it could be estimated almost 700 language groups existed across Australia. Colonization was a phenomenon that impacted greatly in the relationship that indigenous people maintained with the environment and their connection to the land. As we all know, when first Europeans or nonindigenous first arrived to Australia, they conquered in the basis that it was the land of no one, and so they thought of the land as something you can buy and sell. This bad use and disrespect for indigenous relationships to the land created a conflict between them. Consequences of colonization On example that created that conflict was for example, clearing the land for agriculture purposes that consequently reduced the food supplies that Indigenous Australians needed for surviving. Another factor was the introduction of cattle animals that destroyed grass, which was adapted to softfooted marsupials. Therefore, that reduced marsupial population and resources for many indigenous groups. However, not only cattle animals affected the Australian environment, other animals have impacted drastically in Australias ecosystem. Also, aboriginals suffered the refuse of access of water, in some extremes. The access to water was important for food supplies such as fish, turtles and food plants that grow under these conditions. Also ceremonial practices were compromised because of the difficulties to access the important sites on traditional lands. Either, indigenous and non-indigenous were killed fighting over the land, and this impacted the current indigenous Australian population. The matter with land and Australian indigenous rights regarding it was not touch until the 1970s and later on (terra nullius). 4

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Despite colonization, indigenous Australians kept their connection to the land, in an environmental, social, political and language-related way. Also colonization has had some significant effects in the old ways that kinship used to be like, but many communities have managed to maintain aspects of the old ways in contemporary life. Indigenous people have the ability to recreate that connection and the relatedness that makes kinship strong. To sum up, Australian Indigenous have a spiritual connection to the land and all in it. And this connection as I will explain exists through the law. We saw some of the consequences that colonization had for the Australian aboriginals, but on the late XIX and mid XX, after the protectionist era, another era of assimilation developed, when the policies regarding aborigines began to change. This brought certain freedom to their right to traditional lands, which helped the revival of cultures and languages. But much of the aboriginal ways have been still preserved. Spirituality: Another factor that influences the indigenous world view, as well as their relationship with the land, is its connection to it, spiritual and environmental. Aboriginals have a special bond with nature, as well as a strong sense of community. Indigenous spirituality drifts from a philosophy that believes in the interconnectedness of the elements of the earth and the universe. This explanation to how this interconnectedness exists is in the sacred stories or myths. These myths describe the shaping of the world as we know it. It was shaped by the creation ancestors that laid down the foundation of life, and they also established the process that people had to follow to maintain that interconnectedness, that is called the Law. The law ensures that each person knows their kin (relationship and responsibility). Meaning they have to know their country, water sources, landforms, species, and their relationship with the ancestor spirits. Though Australian Indigenous has endured more than 200 years of colonial rule, they still have a spirituality belief system. Spirituality is a feeling that has a connectiong to the past, and ancestors and all the values they represent. Spirituality does not promise a life after death, for aboriginal people life is a mixture of good and bad. Even now, spirituality is still permanent in the aboriginal life, being still a basis of law for many groups. The root of contemporary aboriginal spirituality lies in traditions and experiences. And even though there are several aboriginal groups, they share cultural traits.

Conclusions: As we have explained, relational ontology is the relationships that link entities, and those values shared by a community or a group of people. And this can be described in the phrase we analyzed at the 5

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beginning. For Indigenous Australians, relatedness is not human focused, is more spiritual than that, as well is a set of values and beliefs set by a community to the country and land. Being human is being part of a community, being related to other human beings and to the land and it is defined by all the values and beliefs that take part in what it means to be an aboriginal. It is not only about being human, is about the relationships that they establish with the world around them. Regarding that, relational ontology forms on a basis of a set of values and beliefs of the Indigenous world view of Australian Indigenous, as described they have a connection with the land in several levels, which has been changing over time and changes how they relate to them. These changes from the past till the present could have been generated by colonization. As a personal input, one of my roommates is part aboriginal, and I have discussed with him the matter and asked some questions about if he knows the language of his elders, as well as the traditions, and what he thinks will be the future of aboriginal traditions. His answer were that though he knows some of the traditions, and has tried to study his specific language, he doesnt know it and does not practice most of the traditions. He thinks that his grand children most likely will not know anything about their aboriginal past and roots. As I expressed, contemporary aboriginal society is changing. The accommodation with the western society has created a threat within the relationship of Indigenous and with the world ecological order. I pointed out also that Aboriginal people are still struggling with having their land and rights restored. We can assume the enduring spirituality of aborigines have made them easier to go through all the colonization process. Aboriginal culture includes relatedness, and connection to all living things. This shows a difference between western forms of knowing and aboriginal. Regarding the future, intellectuals are developing systems for the adaptation of aboriginal ways of managing the natural environment. For example, the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Water resources are increasingly relying on Indigenous knowledge. The beginning of a real change will be when the values of Indigenous philosophy will achieve certain appreciation, and aboriginal and non-aboriginal realize the importance of developing knowledge from this ontological and epistemological base. Personally, through this research, I have read different articles that explained the complexity of aboriginal society and that has surprised me and widened my view. One of the articles I also found interesting talked about the fact that indigenous, and some non-indigenous have also a different concept or perception of time. While western societies see it as something linear, indigenous experiment it as a circular process. To finalize, relational ontology forms in different ways depending the group of Australian aborigines we are studying or talking about. Through different journals, different groups appeared that had different Ontologies, and per se believed in different entities, and therefore had different myths. But as it is explained in kinship and relatedness, it is transferred through the community, and the elders. There is a sense of connection with it all. And through relational ontology, there forms a basis of the indigenous ways, and a sense of belonging and belief of what we are part of. Australian Indigenous is a fascination culture that it will hopefully prevail in the future and it will not disappear, as long as it is maintained and promoted, though it has been proved that traditions for aboriginals are something that doesnt vanish so easily.

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Bibliography:

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Atkinson, J., Blomely, B., Lewis, L., Lynwood, R., Townsend-Cross, M. & Woods, G. 2013, Study Guide: Indigenous World-Views, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW Janka, A. & Bullen, C. 2003, The Aboriginal concept of time and its mental health implications, Australasian Psychiatry, Vol 11 Supplement Martin, Karen L. (2003) Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being and Ways of Doing: a theoretical framework and methods for Indigenous re-search and Indigenist research.. Voicing Dissent, New Talents 21C: Next Generation Australian Studies Journal of Australian Studies, 76, pp. 203-214. Grieves, V. 2009, Aboriginal Spirituality: Aboriginal Philosophy, The Basis of Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing, Discussion Paper No. 9, Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, Darwin Wildman,W.J. 2006, An Introduction to Relational Ontology, Boston University, Boston, MA Tripcony, P. 2007, Too obvious to see: Explaining the basis of Aboriginal spirituality, Reading Indigenous perspectives, Queensland studies authorities, Gold Coast, QSL Rose, D.B. 1996, Nourishing terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra