Aboriginal Cultures and Moral Issues

Question: Discuss about the Aboriginal Cultures and Moral Issues. Answer: Introduction: As mentioned by Wyld and Wilson (2013) on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people is located the beautiful city of Adelaide. This city has also been recognized as the traditional custodians of the lands now. The virtual visit to this traditional land would start with the Karrawirra Parri, which is the river Torrens region. The area across the River Torrens, today known as Pinky Flat was the site of the Aboriginals fringe camps during the year 1850 to 1900. This region is the favourite camping spot of the Kaurna people because of the availability of abundant resources in the region due to river presence. The next spot is the South Australian Museum, which is the largest museum that has the collection of the aboriginal artefacts and archival material. These all collections tell about the achievement of the Aboriginal lands. The Botanic Garden of the region is an establishment of 1870 by the white settlers. This place is an open park area where the aboriginals do camping. The Tandany a Cultural Institute is the National Institute of the Aboriginal Cultures. The contemporary and traditional arts by the aboriginal artists are displayed in this cultural institute. The last spot to visit is the fishing spot which in near the Victoria Square and is the most significant place traditionally for the Aboriginals. This is the place where the Aboriginals flag was first raised in Adelaide in the year 1971 on the National Aboriginal day (McIntosh 2014). The environment and the surrounding are termed as Country by the Aboriginal people. This word, apart from referring to the native country, in the Aboriginal context also refers to the ancestral lands and person, animal, minerals, earth, water dreaming and others. According to Maclean et al. (2013), the land or the country means life to the Aboriginal people and the land is the proof that the belief of theirs is right. All the aspects such as the spiritually, emotionally, socially, culturally and physically that the Aboriginals live in is sustained by the land. From the phrase "Social and emotional well- being" the Aboriginals not only mean the health of an individual instead it means the health of the whole community of Aboriginals. In the Aboriginal belief system, the protection and caring of the land is the most important key feature. The Aboriginals believe that the country is the source one's identity and through the areas of land, there is a spiritual link between the ancestors that could not be shifted to anywhere else. This makes the Aboriginals be inseparably bound to their land. A strong relationship with the land is the requirement of the Aboriginals in order to remain healthy both emotionally and socially. The Living Kaurna Cultural Centre provides the visitors with an opportunity to learn about the cultures of the traditional land of Kaurna. The visitors while visiting this place require being respectful towards the Kaurna traditions and cultures. This centre offer the visitors with the opportunity of group tours to the Warriparinga area with the help of the Kaurna guides and various educational programs for the schools and other institutes. This place generally holds the different exhibition of the Kaurna arts, performances, cultural workshops and events that are exhibited by the handcrafted gifts and artworks that are crafted by the local Aboriginals. Visiting this Cultural Centre would provide people with an experience of Aboriginal cultural tourism and educations and training for both the indigenous and non- indigenous people. The conciliation between the Aboriginals and the non- Aboriginal communities of Australia is well promoted through the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre (McGaw and Pieris 2014). South Australian Museum: The only place in the world that has such a large collection of Australian Aboriginal artifacts and the material that have archived in the present days is the South Australian Museum. The material and the artifacts that are displayed in this museum tell the visitors about the marvelous achievements of the Aboriginals of Australia. These achievements of the Aboriginals were achieved from the arising challenges that were posed to the traditional lands of the Aboriginals. This Aboriginal display museum gallery has about 3,000 artifacts, materials and other items at the display (Turnbull 2015). The showcase of the richness of the Aboriginals culture in this museum has been done through different themes, case studies of regions and technologies. The visitors are provided an access to about 1,500 images, 3D animations and videos through the Speaking Land Databases that are located throughout the gallery. The Tandanya National Indigenous Cultural Institute: The Tandanya cultural institute is named in the honour of the Red Kangaroo Day Dreaming, Tandanya. The main aim of this cultural institute is to promote the appreciation and the understanding of the Aboriginal arts and culture. It holds a number of permanent and temporary exhibitions. In front of this building, there is a mural inland in the footpath that is called the Rainbow Serpent and it represents the rivers and the creeks that are present in the South Australia. The rivers and the creeks are the symbol of life as different living creatures dwell in these water bodies (Carr et al. 2016). To the south- east of the Adelaide and adjacent to the Coorong National Park is the Camp Coorong that was established in 1987. To complete the main objective of Coorong Camp that is to improve the relation between the Aboriginals and the non- Aboriginals, the staffs there narrates the history and culture of the Ngarrindjeri to the people (MacGill et al. 2012). The reason why the Ngarrindjeri are so much attached to the lands of Coorong is explained here and the visits to the ex- Mission point McLeay are arranged here. Through the tours to the McLeay, the people of Coorong provide the visitors with the opportunity of understanding the background history of the Ngarrindjeri people and the reason for the situations in which the Ngarrindjeri people find themselves in today. The Murray- Darling Basin is a traditional land of the Aboriginals and they have a very strong and long connection with it. The Murray River, floodplain surrounding it and the land is a center of the traditional cultures and beliefs of the Aboriginals as it provides them with water, food, shelter and others. As there has no rainfall in the region since the long term, therefore it is also feared that the river may run dry due to this change in the climate (Hughes 2013). References: Carr, A., Ruhanen, L. and Whitford, M., 2016. Indigenous peoples and tourism: the challenges and opportunities for sustainable tourism.Journal of Sustainable Tourism,24(8-9), pp.1067-1079. Hughes, K., 2013. Challenging the moral issues of his time: Proud Ngarrindjeri man of the Coorong, Thomas Edwin Trevorrow (19542013).Aboriginal History, pp.111-116. MacGill, B., Mathews, J., Trevorrow, A.E., Abdulla, A.A. and Rankine, D., 2012. Ecology, ontology, and pedagogy at Camp Coorong.M/C Journal,15(3). Maclean, K., Ross, H., Cuthill, M. and Rist, P., 2013. Healthy country, healthy people: An Australian Aboriginal organization's adaptive governance to enhance its socialecological system.Geoforum,45, pp.94-105. McGaw, J. and Pieris, A., 2014.Assembling the Centre: Architecture for Indigenous Cultures: Australia and Beyond. Routledge. McIntosh, I.S., 2014. Reconciliation, you've got to be dreaming: exploring methodologies for monitoring and achieving aboriginal reconciliation in Australia by 2030.Conflict Resolution Quarterly,32(1), pp.55-81. Turnbull, P., 2015. Australian Museums, Aboriginal Skeletal Remains, and the Imagining of Human Evolutionary History, c. 1860-1914.Museum and Society,13(1), pp.72-87. User, A.S., 2011. Initiatives-Adelaide City Council. Wyld, F. and Wilson, M., 2013. Culturally appropriate collaboration.History Australia,10(3).