Culturally Imbued Trees: Physical and Metaphysical Connections

Abstract

Australian Aboriginal song-lines and Dreaming tracks follow the movement and interactions of ancestral beings and are marked by physical features associated with those ancestral beings at culturally significant places, often termed ‘sacred sites’. These locations can include living things like trees and other vegetation with culturally ascribed meanings. Not always visibly marked or intentionally altered, these plants comprise an integral part of a totemic landscape with an associated narrative. Trees and other plants are susceptible to destruction, both from natural and human impact but Aboriginal cultural beliefs maintain cultural continuity in the context of change. Thus cultural custodians may identify and determine the transfer of the locus of an ancestral being from a dead or destroyed tree or feature into an existing or new vegetation feature. Expertise and responsibility for sacred vegetation resides solely with the Traditional Owners and cultural custodians and is recognised in the Northern Territory under different heritage legislation that affords differing levels of protection according to the Aboriginal cultural significance of the particular tree or vegetation.