Australia’s Indigenous Peoples and Islam
Philosophical and Spiritual Convergences between Belief Structures
Keywords:
Islam, Indigenous Muslims, Aboriginality, conversion, convergenceAbstract
There is a growing scholarly interest in Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ engagement with Islam. This interest has highlighted some significant historical points of contact, such as with the Makassan fishermen, the Afghan cameleers, and the Malay pearl divers. Historical engagements with Islam, such as these, have influenced the contemporary identity formation for some Indigenous peoples, by acknowledging the historical connections without embracing Islam or identifying as a practicing Muslim. That some Indigenous people with no known familial historical engagement with Islam have embraced Islam has raised surprise, concern, and confusion. As it has primarily been historians, sociologists, and anthropologists that have heretofore been attempting to document and understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ engagement with Islam, it is unsurprising that the suggested reasons for such engagement have been historical, sociological, and anthropological. Without dismissing or contradicting the existing research, this article will suggest that current literature does not explicitly account for philosophical and spiritual convergences between the belief structures of Australia’s Indigenous peoples and Islam in the explanation of both historical and contemporary engagements.
References
al-Bukhari, Muhammad bin Ismail al-Mughirah. 1997. Sahih al-Bukhari. Translated by Muhammad M. Khan. Riyadh: Darussalam.
Cook, Abu Bakr Sirajuddin. 2017. Ibn 'Ata' Allah, Muslim Sufi Saint and Gift of Heaven. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Cox, James L. and Adam Possamai. 2014. “Religion, ‘non-religion’ and indigenous peoples on the 2011 Australian National Census.” Diskus 16: 31–44. https://doi.org/10.18792/diskus.v16i2.40
Elkin, Adolphus Peter. 1994. Aboriginal Men of Higher Degree. Rochester: Inner Traditions.
Ganter, Regina. 2008. “Muslim Australia: The deep histories Of Contact.” Journal of Australian Studies 32: 481–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050802471384
———. 2012. “Remembering Muslim histories of Australia.” The La Trobe Journal 89: 48–62.
———. 2016. “Yolngu Conversations with Faith: The outward signs of conversion to Christianity and Islam.” Australian Studies Journal 30: 10–43.
Garfield, Jay L. 2006. “Why did Bodhidharma go to the East? Buddhism’s struggle with the mind in the world.” Sophia 45: 61–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02782481
al-Haddad, 'Abdallah ibn 'Alawi. 2005. Sufi Sage of Arabia. Louisville: Fons Vitae.
Lawson, David Edward. 2010. “Indigenous Australians and Islam: Spiritual, cultural, and political alliances.” unpublished PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology.
McIntosh, Ian S. 1996a. “Islam and Australia’s Aborigines? A perspective from North-East Arnhem Land.” The Journal of Religious History 20: 53–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.1996.tb00692.x
———. 1996b. “Allah and the spirit of the dead.” Australian Folklore 11: 131–138.
———. 2015. Between Two Worlds. Indianapolis: Dog Ear.
———. 2018. Email Correspondence. October 1.
Onnudottir, Helena, Adam Possamai, and Bryan S. Turner. 2010. “Islam: A new religious vehicle for aboriginal self-empowerment in Australia?” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 1: 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v1i1.49
———. 2013. Religious Change and Indigenous Peoples: The Making of Religious Identities. Farnham: Ashgate.
Onnudottir, Helena, Adam Possamai, Bryan Turner and Michael Kennedy. 2013. “Australian Aboriginal Muslims in prison.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 34: 280–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2013.787403
Paget, John. 2015. “Aboriginal conversions to Islam in prison: A substantial security threat or another moral panic?” In Muslim Identity Formation in Religiously Diverse Societies, edited by Derya Iner and Salih Yucel, 290–307. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Russell, Denise. 2004. “Aboriginal-Makassan interactions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in northern Australia and contemporary sea rights claims.” Australian Aboriginal Studies 1: 3–17.
Stephenson, Peta. 2009. “Keeping it in the Family: Partnerships between Indigenous and Muslim Communities in Australia.” Aboriginal History 33: 97–116. https://doi.org/10.22459/AH.33.2010.06
———. 2011. “Indigenous Australia’s Pilgrimage to Islam.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 32: 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2011.565737
———. 2013. “Syncretic Spirituality: Islam in Indigenous Australia.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 24: 427–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2013.816015
al-Tirmidhi, Abu 'Eisa Mohammad Ibn 'Eisa. 2007. Jami' al-Tirmidhi. Translated by Abu Khaliyl. Riyadh: Darussalam.
Willis, Peter. 1988. “Riders in the Chariot: Aboriginal Conversion to Christianity at Kununurra.” In Aboriginal Australians and Christian Missions: Ethnographic and Historical Studies, edited by T. Swain and D. B. Rose, 308–320. Bedford Park: Australian Association for the Study of Religions.
Wood, Asmi J. 2016. “Indigenous Spiritual Light: Reconsidering the Negative Stereotypes On Indigenous Spirituality.” In Muslim Identity Formation in Religiously Diverse Societies, edited by Derya Iner and Salih Yucel, 266– 289. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
