# Australian Aboriginal Religion · The Canon · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/canon/australian-aboriginal-religion/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Canon · No. 003
Australian Aboriginal Religion
The Dreaming; Tjukurpa; Altyerre
c.65,000 BCE – present · Indigenous / Folk · Living · Australia
I. BEFORE HISTORY — c.100,000 – 3000 BCE
### How many
### Who began it
### What it is for
### What it worships
### What it holds
### What it does
### After death
### Its texts
### Its branches
### Of note
### Its timeline
- c.65,000 years ago Occupation at Madjedbebe, Northern Territory, with ground-edge axes and ground ochre — the earliest proposed date, contested by some archaeologists who argue for c.50,000.
- c.40,000–42,000 years ago At Lake Mungo, New South Wales, Mungo Lady is cremated, her bones crushed and buried, and Mungo Man is laid on his back and sprinkled with red ochre — among the oldest ritual burials on earth.
- 1788 CE British colonisation begins the dispossession that severs many groups from the country their religion depends on.
- 1910–1970 Forced removal of children under assimilation policies, the Stolen Generations — estimates run from 10,000 to 100,000 children — breaking the transmission chain of initiated knowledge. Documented in the 1997 Bringing Them Home report.
- 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act allows sacred-site claims to be argued in court, forcing religious knowledge into an adversarial legal setting.
- 1992 Mabo overturns terra nullius; native title recognises a continuing connection to country that is explicitly religious as well as legal.
- 2020 Rio Tinto destroys the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters, provoking a parliamentary inquiry and worldwide condemnation.
### Sources
Verified 2026-09-13, against these.
- Clarkson et al., Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago, Nature (2017)
- Inside Story, the Madjedbebe dating dispute
- National Museum of Australia, Mungo Lady
- AIATSIS, the Stolen Generations
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