Ceremonies and mourning periods last days, weeks and even months depending upon the beliefs of the language group and the social status of the deceased person. But time is also essential in the healing process.
Many Aboriginal language and clan groups share the belief that this life is only part of a longer journey. When a person passes away, the spirit leaves the body. The spirit must be sent along its journey back to the ancestors and the land or it will stay and disturb the family.
Aboriginal people honoured and disposed of their dead in many different ways. The dead were usually buried in the ground, sometimes accompanied by possessions such as stone tools or personal ornaments. In some areas, special clothes were made for the deceased.
These stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The model was based on Kübler-Ross's work with terminally ill patients. People who work with the bereaved have learned that grief is an active process. Many people find it empowering to know that they are resilient.
For Aboriginal people, funeral rites and traditions hold significant importance and follow several customary practices. The Aboriginal people believe life is only part of a longer journey, and when a person dies, their spirit returns to the Dreaming, the spiritual realm that interconnects all things.
'The 26th of January, 1938, is not a day of rejoicing for Australia's Aborigines; it is a day of mourning. This festival of 150 years' so-called “progress” in Australia commemorates also 150 years of misery and degradation imposed upon the original native inhabitants by the white invaders of this country.
When you've passed, your family receives an amount of money to cover the cost of your funeral. Some Indigenous organisations offer funeral cover, as do private companies. You may end up paying a lot more than the actual cover you will get.
Etiquette books recommended that mothers mourn a child for one year, a child mourn a parent for one year, and siblings mourn for six months. Widowers mourned for only three months by wearing armbands, badges, or rosettes of black fabric.
Parents or children of the deceased are encouraged to spend six months in mourning, with the heavy mourning period lasting 30 days. Grandparents and siblings are to spend three months in mourning, with the heavy mourning time lasting 30 days. Other family members should spend thirty days in mourning.
In some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, hearing recordings, seeing images or the names of deceased persons may cause sadness or distress and in some cases, offend against strongly held cultural prohibitions.
An Aboriginal person's soul or spirit is believed to "continue on after our physical form has passed through death", explains Eddie Kneebone. After the death of an Aboriginal person their spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock.
Why is this so? The tradition not to depict dead people or voice their (first) names is very old. Traditional law across Australia said that a dead person's name could not be said because you would recall and disturb their spirit. After the invasion this law was adapted to images as well.
INTRODUCTION. Sorry business is the Aboriginal English term used by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to describe the mourning period when a family member dies and all responsibilities that follow in accordance with traditional lore and custom.
A woman stands alone on stage. Over one gripping hour, she traces seven phases of Aboriginal history - Dreaming, Invasion, Genocide, Protection, Assimilation, Self- Determination, and Reconciliation. A beloved Australian theatre work by two celebrated Indigenous storytellers.
The leading cause of death for Indigenous males was circulatory diseases (closely followed by cancer and other neoplasms), while for Indigenous females it was cancer and other neoplasms (Table D1. 23.1, Figure 1.23. 2).
Every May 26 in Australia, National Sorry Day reminds the colonist-descended people of the nation to remember the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Why?
In Chinese culture, a mourning period can last for 100 days, which is the length of time it may take for someone's soul to be reborn as another person. During that period, bereaved people might continue to wear grieving colours, and might feel it inappropriate to go to celebratory occasions, like weddings.
Trimming hair and nails
Generally, this emanates from the belief that nails and hair were given to the children by the deceased as a parent and as such they shouldn't be trimmed during the mourning period and after the burial. At least you should wait for 49 days.
The Talmud says, "When the month of Av begins, we [i.e. Jews] reduce our joy." The Nine Days inaugurates an even greater level of communal and personal mourning in recognition of the many tragedies and calamities that befell the Jewish people at this time.
After death, relatives and friends pour water over one hand of the deceased in a bathing ceremony. They then place the body in a casket and surround it with flowers, candles and sticks of incense. If possible, a photograph of the person is placed alongside and colored lights are hung around the casket.
Within 100 days of their passing: Avoid wearing bright coloured clothing and refrain from attending weddings, celebratory events or funeral wakes of friends or acquaintances.
It means Union flags will be flown at half-mast on royal residences, Government buildings, Armed Forces establishments and at UK posts overseas for the next week.
Acknowledgement of Country
Example - “I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the (people) of the (nation). I would like to pay respect to elders past, present and emerging and any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.”
They tend to be near water courses or in dunes surrounding old lake beds. Many burials have been found on high points, such as dune ridges, within surrounding flat plains. They are often near or within Aboriginal occupation places such as oven mounds, shell middens or artefact scatters.
Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, after adjusting for inflation, the median gross weekly personal income for Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over fell by 5.6%, from $518 to $489 (Figure 1).