aboriginal land rights issueas recorded in oodgeroo noonuccal's ...

161means, in Aboriginal mythology, "a dimension of being where the spiritancestors reside and where the permanent records of the history ofgenerations of the Australian Aboriginal people are kept. These areillustrated in pictographs, rock and bark paintings, ceremonies and oralteachings" (Malykke, 1991: 98). It is the beginning of creation. Theybelong to the land and the land belongs to them. According to Gibbs(1975: 46), the land seems "to own them, rather than the reverse". Theeverlasting union between Aboriginal people and their land is welldescribed below:The great ancestral creative beings, who journeyed across thecontinent at the beginning of time, established the landboundaries between different Aboriginal groups and sacredsites. Carrying out ritual obligations at these sacred sites andperforming religious ceremonies are the ways by whichAborigines feelbound to their lands andprotective towards it.(AustralianAboriginal Culture, 1991:II)Since the land is the spiritual home of their ancestors, includingtheir ancestralbeings who wandered the landduringthe Dreamtime, theyregard the land as being entrusted to their care, rather than owned for apractical purpose. They see their land as having a religious as well as aneconomicbenefit: the home of their ancestral spirits as well as a source offood and materials.White people's notion of land-holding is different fromAborigines'. For white people, land is a valuable asset that can beexchanged into cash-money whenever they need. It is a commoditywhich can be owned by any individual. Buckley andWheelwright (1992:70) remark that White people obviously regard land as "a major naturalresource forproduction".D. Aborigines,Lands and Noonuccal'sPoetryThereusedto be a perceptionof WhitepeoplethatAboriginalAboriginal Land Rights Issue (Sugi Iswalono)