Australian Creation Story - Group 1

Australian Creation Story Discussion

There are five main characteristics of creation stories. They are as follows: 1. To explain how life began, 2. To explain why things are the way they are in nature, 3. To establish a belief in a higher power, 4. To establish a moral code of conduct, and 5. They provide a sense of purpose and order for life.
1. How life began: In the beginning the earth was bare and plain. There was no life. The sun, moon, and stars slept beneath the earth with all the eternal ancestors. One day, the eternal ancestors broke through to the surface. They arose in dreamtime and wandered the earth, sometimes in anial form, sometimes in human shape, sometimes part human and animal, and sometimes part human and plant.
Two such beings, self-created out of nothing, were the Ungambikula. They wandered the earth and found half-made human beings. They were made of plants and animals and were shapeless bundles. The Ungambikula carved heads, bodies, legs, and arms out of the bundles and made faces, hands, and feet. That is how every man and woman was transfomed.
After the eternal ancestors were done with their work, the went back to sleep. Some went back underground and some became trees and rocks. Everywhere the ancestors went, they left traces of their presence in rocks, waterholes, and trees.
2. Why things are the way they are in nature: Rocks, trees, and other things in nature are from the ancestors who went back to sleep.
3. Belief in a higher power: The higher power in the Australian creation story would be and Ungambikula and the eternal ancestors.
4. A moral code of conduct: People should have allegiance to nature.
5. Provide a sense or purpose and order to life: They provided a sense of order to life by creating it. Before the carved the humans out of the bundles of nothing, there was no life.

Before God created anything on earth, it was dark and without void, just like before the Ungambikula awoke and created the humans in the Australian story, it was dark. God created everything, and when the Ungambikula awoke, somethings were already created. God created us out of dirt, and the Ungambikula created humans out of half-made humans. When the eternal ancestors were done with their work, they went back to sleep and God is still here with us. The eternal ancestors left sacred traces of their presence and we also have God's sacred presence with us. God was one and their were two Ungambikula who created the Australians.

Krista Walley, Enotris Armstrong, Ashley Jones, Nicole Baker