STIMULUS MATERIALSSTIMULUS MATERIALSFOR FOR

EXTENDED WRITINGEXTENDED WRITING RESPONSERESPONSE

Year 11 Study of Religion:

Indigenous Spiritualities

Semester 2, 2009

ITEM 5

Living Religion: Third EditionMorrissey, J. (ed.)

ITEM 3

The Pohutukawa tree

The Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, as it flares into crimson display from late October until the end of November and into the Christmas holiday period. The most famous Pohutukawa grows from a promontory on the tip of Cape Reinga. It is reputed to be 800 years old, at least twice the generally accepted mature age of the tree, and is sacred to the Maori, who believed it to be the last stepping-off place of spirits from this world.

www.history-nz.org/maori6.html

ITEM 4

I belong to this earth.Soon my bones become earth...all the same.My spirit has gone back to my country…my mother.Now my children got to hang onto this story…I hang onto this story all my life.My children can’t lose it.

This law,This country,This people,All the same…Gagudju.

Gagadju Man, Bill Neidjie

ITEM 2

Maori

Traditional Maori religion, that is, the pre-European belief system of the Maori, was little modified from that of their tropical Eastern Polynesian homeland (Hawaiki Nui), conceiving of everything, including natural elements and all living things as connected by common descent through whakapapa or genealogy. Accordingly, all things were thought of as possessing a life force or mauri.

Maori Religion, Wikipedia

ITEM 1

The Dreaming

The Dreaming (also referred to as “Dreamtime” holds the essence of truth of Aboriginal religious beliefs. Dreaming does not refer to a dream that one would have during the night. Instead, the Dreaming holds the Aboriginal view of creation: it is the beginning of everything - the beginning of time, the creation of life, the birth of humanity, and the ordering of all things. It is the remote past of the Spirit Ancestors or Spirit Beings or Ancestral Beings; it is the period, long ago, when Spirit-beings interacted with Aboriginal people. This past lives on in ceremonies that have been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation for over 140,000 years - the time that the Aboriginal people have lived on his land called Australia.

Class Handout

ITEM 6Living Religion: Third EditionMorrissey, J. (ed.)

ITEM 7Whakairo House

SOR PowerPoint

ITEM 8 Ta Moko

SOR PowerPoint

ITEM 9 The Emu and the Jabiru

From the Marrkula clan in Arnhem Land comes this story of greed between two brothers-in-law and the creation of the Emu and the Jabiru. It also offers an insight into the life of the Gapuwiayk people. Translated by Bangana Wunungmurra and told by Clancy Guthijpuy Marrkula.

www.dreamtime.net.au