David Turner is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of Trinity College and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies. He has worked with the Aboriginal peoples of Australia for over 30 years and the Inuit of Baffin Island for the past five. In 1986 he was initiated into the Lalara clan of the Warnindilyaugwa people of Groote Eylandt. He teaches Indigenous Spirituality at the University of Toronto and has published extensively in this area.
Indigenous religions traditions are often labeled “primitive,” “archaic,” “elementary,” as if they are in our past in contrast to the so-called “world religions” such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism which are somehow more contemporary and evolved. This all is a misnomer. Religious traditions such as those of the Australians and the Inuit are our contemporaries having undergone thousands of years of development and change. Moreover, in my view they are founded on much more secure foundations than those of the so-called “world religions.” Not text-based, beliefs rather rest on direct experience: if you don't experience the transcendent you are not required to believe in it. Dr. Turner’s presentation explores this aspect.
Presentation Article: