Dreamtime

Dreamtime is an Australian Aboriginal concept that describes the culture's beliefs. It is also known as the Dreaming or Tjukurrpa, which means "to see and understand the law" in the Arrernte language. The Dreaming is an interaction of the human, physical, and sacred worlds. Many dreaming stories relate the Creation, which Aboriginal Australians view as a never-ending story.

Aboriginal Australians use dreaming stories to pass the beliefs, knowledge, and values of their people from generation to generation. Art, dance, song, and storytelling, as well as ceremonies and rituals, are all employed to explain and share dreaming stories.

Aboriginal Australians and Beliefs

Aboriginal Australians have been on the continent for at least fifty thousand years. The earliest settlers probably arrived from Asia when sea levels were low, and crossed the waters between exposed land bridges by boat. Theirs is the longest continuous cultural history of any people. Aboriginal tribes spoke more than two hundred languages and hundreds of dialects, which were spoken in distinct territories. These differences helped define tribes or clans. The social structure includes families, bands of a few families who work together finding food, and a number of social categories based on social factions into which individuals are born. These small groups are also connected by larger social structures, including estate groups.

Many clans live across Australia and share many common beliefs, including the importance of the Dreaming. Throughout their history, they maintained a nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle largely restricted to a group's home territory. Unless food scarcity interfered, the people came together for large gatherings lasting one to two weeks every year. The Dreaming was shared during these gatherings. In some areas, the ritual sharing of dreaming stories is part of a chain; each community in the area is responsible for telling one part of a long story in turn.

According to the Dreaming, the Ancestor Spirits took human shapes when they came to Earth, or emerged from beneath the flat and barren land. They created the geography of the world and its creatures and plants. The Ancestor Spirits established the connections of groups and individuals with the animals, the land, and other people. Having created the world and life, the Ancestor Spirits remained on Earth in the forms of sacred places, including objects such as rocks, stars, trees, and watering holes. The enduring presence of the Ancestor Spirits means that the Dreaming is unending. The past, the present, the people, and the land are all continually connected.

Aboriginal Australians use the Dreaming to maintain traditions of social behavior as well as punishments. The people are expected to follow the examples set by their ancestors and to maintain the Dreaming by sharing the stories. The connections established between the people and the environment includes a responsibility to care for the world, economically and ecologically. A clan's connection to the land where it lives gives it the right to use the land but also the responsibility to care for it.

The Dreaming is a continuum. An individual receives his or her spirit as a fetus through the Dreaming, receives power of the Dreaming through customs and rituals throughout life, and upon death returns to the Dreaming.

Dreamtime Stories

Although many dreaming stories are ancient, others are just a few hundred years old. Some stories describe the arrival of ships carrying Europeans to Australia during the eighteenth century. Major dreaming stories include origin myths.

The Rainbow Serpent features in many myths that date back thousands of years. The Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground when the world was bare and cold. The animal tribes slept inside it waiting to be born. It called for them to wake up and gave birth to them. It also gave birth to the land and waters, creating hills, mountains, lakes, and rivers. The Rainbow Serpent also made colors, fire, and the sun.

The Gaagudju people believe the Rainbow Serpent next forced its way through rocks to make other water sources. They believe the Rainbow Serpent brings good, in the form of the rainy season, but also brings floods to drown those who do not follow the law. The Jawoyn people believe the Rainbow Serpent traveled around the land after it awoke. The imprint of its body sculpted the land. It awoke the frogs, which were very slow because they were full of water. When the serpent tickled their bellies, the frogs laughed. Water flowed from their mouths to fill the tracks and grooves in the land where the Rainbow Serpent had traveled.

Many peoples have stories about the constellations. The Warlpiri people believe the Spirit Ancestors broke the Milky Way, which they call Yiwarra, into stars. Pieces that fell to Earth created sacred places.

The peoples of the Torres Strait Islands are seafarers. Many of their stories feature the Tagai, a warrior. Because they needed to navigate by the stars, many stories also involve the constellations.

Aboriginal Art

Painting has been an Aboriginal tradition for tens of thousands of years. Some rock carvings and cave paintings are more than thirty thousand years old.

The oldest art pieces are paintings and carvings on boulders and rocks. Ancient artists used red ochre to create these sacred images. They are revered because they are testament to the ancestors. The three major styles are engraved geometric figures (circles, animal tracks, and dots), simple human and animal forms, and complex figurative paintings (including x-ray art of humans and animals).

The dot style of the Western Desert is widely recognized. It was traditionally applied to the body or ground. During the twentieth century, local artists began to use paints and canvas and adapted traditional themes. This created a new art industry that generates about $200 million a year in Australia while depicting traditional stories and images. The dot art style came about when members of the Aboriginal community objected to artists using sacred imagery in art seen by outsiders. Artists use the dot style to camouflage the sacred images.

Bibliography

"Australian Indigenous Art." Australian Government. Australian Government. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-art

"The Dreaming." Australian Government. Australian Government. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/dreaming

"The Dreamtime." Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre—Alice Springs. Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html

"Spirituality." Australian Museum. Australian Museum. 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. http://australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-spirituality

"Western Desert Painting." Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery. South Australian Museum. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/gallery/aacg/speakingland.htm