Hi I'm Michael and I'm going to tell you something about what lore means for Aboriginal people. 

The Aboriginal people built a rich and diverse culture where spiritual life, religion, relationships between
people and their relationship to the land and sea, are all connected. All these things are built together
in what we call lore, that gives us guidelines for everything we do in life, not just
things that are traditionally covered by Western law. So when I'm talking about lore here,
I'm talking about l - o - r - e, lore.

First of all, lore is connected to our Dreaming. If you listen to Jack, he'll tell you a bit more about
the Dreaming and what it teaches us about sacred places. Each language group has it's stories that connect people to the lore.
When Dianne tells you about the loss of Aboriginal language, you should realise that this means a loss of
our Dreaming and of our whole culture.

Lore also lays down guidelines for life, telling us about the roles and responsibilities of men and women,
personal conduct, relationships and marriage. Emphasis was placed on social and spiritual relationships
and people worked to meet the needs of the group.

Ceremonies were and still are an integral part of life. The combination of song, dance, art and mime is a way
of retelling the stories and reinforcing the pattern of expected behaviour laid down by the ancestors.
They also provide a forum for the settling of disputes over land, marriages, hunting and gathering rights and community conflicts.

Ceremonies are places for handing on special practical information such as seasonal food gathering, but also have a spiritual significance.
A ceremony is a collective way for people to honour and celebrate the ancestors and the Dreaming.

Aboriginal lore and spirituality is a layered system of knowledge. Some knowledge is for the public to know,
while other layers of knowledge are secret and sacred. Have you ever heard the terms 'secret men's business'
or 'secret women's business'? It's secret because of the lore.

Many contemporary Aboriginal people don't live in their own lands any longer and many have lost their language.
Understanding a bit more about lore and how it makes connections between all aspects of life might help to explain why
it is so important for Aboriginal people to find ways to reconnect with their traditional culture.