The Law of Return
The belief that the spirit returns to country after death.
When death comes, the spirit returns to the place from which it emerged - the country where the spirit child entered the mother. This return completes the cycle, and the spirit may eventually emerge again in a new birth.
We come from the land and we return to it. The cycle is unbroken.
Beliefs about spiritual return reinforce connection to specific country.
Oral Tradition
Written about in
- What Aboriginal tradition says about grief
The spirit goes back to the country it came from, the place where it entered the mother. Death becomes a return to a known address rather than a disappearance, which is why where a person is buried carries so much weight.