Of course many things a child understands intuitively are beyond the scope of adults for adults have moved on to another realm. Folktale speaks to the minds of adults but it addresses the hearts of children. Spin doctors address the child in all of us. Witness how political debates focus on our inner child. When folklore speaks both to the mind as well as the heart, you have a tale that endures.
The world of children is a world that we, who call ourselves adults, can only look back at with misaligned nostalgia, for we view with fading sight caused by being too caught up with proof and reason. Children possess the gift of acceptance. That which they are unable to comprehend does not cause a moment's hiatus in their play. Would that we had that ability to carry on regardless. There is a gulf between the adult and the child as there is between cultures.
In the cultures of the Australian Aboriginals, children are pampered when very young and as they approach puberty, they begin to be challenged. Aboriginal children living in their natural environment have a great deal of learning to do before they reach puberty. They need to learn all sorts of survival skills. In addition they need to learn the spiritual traditions and taboos of their culture.
What does this "spiritual tradition comprise"?
Gondarra, Djinyini,"Aboriginal Spirituality," edited by Anne Patel-Gray, Harper Collins Australia Pty Ltd, 1996.
According to Djinyini Gondarra, author of "Aboriginal Spirituality, Australian Aborigines make no distinction between the religious and the secular, between the natural and the super-natural. He elaborated by adding, "Aboriginal religion can be seen as a particular view of the universe and sets of relationships with it; relationships which include people, gods, Spirit, magical power, totems, the land, features of the landscape, living creatures, trees, plants and all physical objects. All of these are, in some sense, potential sources of power" (Gondarra 43).
Taboos are branded on the psyche of the child and those going through initiation ceremonies. Taboos have much great portent than do taboos in European cultures. For example, it is well established in the ethos of the Walbiri people, who live in the harsh desert climate of the Northern Territory, on the northern edge of the Tanami Desert, as it is in most of Australian Aboriginal cultures, women must never infringe upon the circumcision rites which take place when boys are approaching puberty.
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