The Dreamtime
The foundation of Aboriginal culture – a holistic belief system that encompasses creation, law, morality, and the spiritual connection between all living things
Understanding the Dreamtime
The Dreamtime or the Dreaming are the terms used to describe the Australian Aboriginal belief system about the creation of the world. In the Dreamtime, Ancestor spirits formed the natural features of the earth and established the laws of science and society.
For Australian Indigenous people, the Dreaming is a holistic belief system that provides rules for living and a moral code. It also sets out rules for interacting with the natural environment. It is a total, integrated way of life.
The Dreaming continues to sustain generation after generation of Indigenous Australian peoples. Its powers are accessed through ceremony and through art.
Seven Sisters Dreaming
Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming)
Shorty Jangala Robertson
Tingari Dreaming
Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri
Why is it called Dreamtime or Dreaming?
These are English words invented by anthropologists. Australia’s Indigenous people do not use these terms when speaking in their own tongues.
In the more than two hundred distinct Aboriginal languages of Australia, many different words exist for the concept of the Creation.
Aboriginal Language Examples
Tjukurpa
– Used by Pintupi language groups
Jukurrpa
– Used by Warlpiri language groups
These terms appear in many artwork titles on our website and represent just a couple of examples of the diverse ways these concepts are expressed.
Ngatijirri Jukurrpa (Budgerigar Dreaming) by Karen Napaljarri Barnes – an example of Jukurrpa in contemporary art
Context Matters
Terms for Dreamtime are used in various contexts that westerners sometimes find confusing. For example, when discussing a painting, an Aboriginal person might say “that’s my Tjukurrpa”. On the other hand, when someone is absent for ceremony, their relatives may say “he’s gone for Tjukurrpa”.
Aboriginal Spirituality – The Basics
Interconnectedness
One of the basic qualities of Indigenous spirituality is that everything is interconnected. All animals, birds, insects, reptiles, plants and other life forms, including humans, are part of nature. It is only the outward forms that are different.
Ancestral Beings
The characters of The Creation narratives are known as Ancestral Beings. They are born and may sometimes die. Regardless, they are eternally present. Their spirits are passed on to descendants such as the Goanna, Kangaroo, Honey Ant, Snake, and Yam.
Landscape Significance
All parts of the landscape are significant. It is through the landscape itself that the spiritual and political identities of groups and individuals are formed. Aboriginal spirituality can be expressed visually, musically and ceremonially.
Totemic Systems
Descendants of Ancestral Beings become totems within diverse groups across the continent. These totemic relationships form the basis of spiritual and social organization, connecting people to specific animals, plants, and landscape features.
Dreaming Ancestors – The Great Creator Beings
The Dreaming Ancestors, which are also known as Ancestral Spirits or Ancestral Beings, are the ancient Creational figures. They were the first to move through country, creating landforms, singing and performing ceremonies. These Ancestral Beings did not only take human form. They could be an animal, reptile, an insect, rocks or trees or another type of flora.
The Ancestors left their life force, their power, in the landscape and in cultural objects. When First Nations people today paint their body for ceremony, they use the designs that were also painted on the Ancestral Spirits at the time of the first ceremony.
Models for Behavior
The actions and behaviours of the Ancestors provide models for human and non-human activity, social behaviour, ethics and morality. The stories may identify both appropriate and inappropriate human behaviours and thus can sometimes be compared to biblical parables.
You will notice that the Ancestors frequently behave badly, acting as what could be described as “negative exemplars”. They are not always happy narratives, but there is always something to be learned from them.
Warlugulong by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri – a complex Dreamtime narrative showing consequences of breaking cultural law
More than just a myth and not a religion
Sometimes people translate the Dreaming as mythology. This does not do it justice. It implies that they are not true. Many Aboriginal people view such an attitude as an insult. They are not Aboriginal mythologies.
The Dreaming is treated very seriously by Aboriginal people. They are revered accounts. Many times, at the conclusion of a story, the storyteller will say “This is a true story. Really important one, that one.”
Not a Western Religion
It is not a monotheistic or a polytheistic Aboriginal religion. Comparing the term ‘The Dreaming’ to ‘religion’ in the Western sense diminishes its complexity. It also fails to capture the fact that the Dreaming permeates every aspect of Aboriginal cultures and societies.
There is no ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ – it is all based here on country. There is no afterlife to redeem your sins. Law and payback must be dealt with here and now. When you pass away, you will return to country.
A Highly Philosophical and Sustainable Culture
Indigenous Australian Approach
No sacred/non-sacred separation:
All actions are steeped in spiritual purpose. Even burning grass has a specific story attached to it, directing the need and benefits of the action.
Sustainability focus:
Culture emphasizes keeping the world the same, maintaining balance for millennia through Dreamtime accounts.
60,000+ years:
Proven sustainable way of life that ensured existence for tens of thousands of years.
Western Culture Comparison
Continuous change:
Culture seeks to continually change and ‘improve’ the world around it.
Environmental impact:
Battling the effects of human impact on the land after only 2,000 years.
Separation of sacred and secular:
Spiritual and practical life are often treated as separate domains.
It is the past, the present and the future
The Aboriginal Dreamtime is difficult for people of western culture to understand because western norms such as the idea of time are not followed. It is not static or linear. It is the past, but it is also the present and the future.
It is constantly evolving to explain events and changes today, such as floods, storms and occurrences in people’s lives, both negative and positive. The stories are a Creative force from a distant past. However, they are also a constant and pervasive force in present day life, a lived daily reality.
Ongoing Work
Another way of looking at it is that the Dreaming stories are foundational, but the work of sustaining the world is ongoing. Law was established by Ancestors. The work that people do to sustain the connections can never end.
Songlines – The Paths Followed by the Ancestors
Australian First Nations people have no written language of their own, so all important information was transmitted verbally. Ceremonial Songs held great knowledge. Songlines connected language groups and clans from the Torres Strait through the desert country and onwards.
In the Seven Sisters Creation Story, the central characters travel great distances across Australia. From Wangkathaa and Martu Country in the west, through to Warlpiri and Anmatyerre Country in the north, and down to the remote tri-state environment of the NPY Lands.
Dreaming Tracks
Songlines can also be referred to as ‘Dreaming tracks’. They trace the journeys of ancestral spirits as they created the land, animals and lore.
Survival Knowledge
Features and directions of travel are included in the songs, as well as intricate explanations of land formations, plant remedies and animal behaviour. All this knowledge is memorised and sung so the traveller knows the route to their destination and how to survive.
Ceremonial Connections
The characters cross-country travels take them through many different clans. Each clan knows in detail what happened to the Ancestral Beings while on their Country, almost like a ‘chapter’ out of this great tale. During a big ceremony, when clans would come together, the entire story would be sung.
Wanampi (Rainbow Serpent) by Witjili George – showing songlines and ancestral journeys across Country
The Dreamtime in Aboriginal Art
Before European contact, Indigenous Australian art was closely connected with religious ceremony and practice. The designs, patterns and stories were taught to the Aboriginal people by the Ancestors. They were then replicated through dance, song, body paint for ceremonies, rock art and on cultural objects.
As mentioned previously, many stories relate to landforms which mean many tales are location specific. When going through Law, the elders take the young people onto country to show them the landforms and explain the stories. Since European contact, Indigenous Australians have been affected by government policies that have removed them from their country.
The Papunya Revolution
This was particularly true for the Pintupi people, who were transported or migrated to the community of Papunya in the Northern Territory. The elders faced huge uncertainty, not knowing how they could pass on Law and culture without physical reference to landforms and the stories that go with them. They were fearful that culture would be lost.
In the early 1970s, the Pintupi people at Papunya first had the opportunity to paint using western materials such as acrylic paint and canvas. It is not surprising that many depicted their Dreamtime stories. It was a way to assert their identity and ensure their stories were taught to the younger generation.
Aboriginal art using non-traditional media was born and the first creative outpouring started.
During the 1970s and 1980s, small groups of Aboriginal people started leaving the larger mission or government run communities, such as Papunya. They moved back to their traditional and often remote lands.
As the old saying goes, ‘there’s no place like home’ and many Aboriginal artists experienced a creative explosion once returning to their country. This further established Australia’s Aboriginal art movement.
To this day, the central inspiration for many Aboriginal artists is the Dreaming. Designs from rock art and ceremonial life continues as the reference point and structure behind much contemporary art. Indigenous Australian art continues to express Indigenous beliefs and cosmology, and people’s hope and aspirations in a changing world.
Experience Dreamtime Stories in Art
Discover how contemporary Aboriginal artists continue to express ancient Dreamtime stories through modern mediums