Australian Dreamtime Mythology

Myths are common amongst all cultures and walks of life. One of the most common myths that is shared between cultures are creation myths. For example, in the Yoruba culture their idea of how things were created differs greatly from the Japanese. These myths are often passed down through generations.

The Dreaming stories pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems to later generations. This is done by song, dance, storytelling and painting. Indigenous Australians have maintained links to The Dreaming dating back from ancient times up to the present, providing a very rich cultural heritage. The role that The Dreaming plays in Indigenous Australian life is very important to this culture as it holds big significance of how Indigenous Australians and their culture came to be.

The dreamtime is when the Indigenous Australians thought the world begun created by the rainbow serpent.

All that exists in this world, as the Aboriginal Australians believe, originates from “The Dreaming”, a cosmology of existence which serves as the larger context or background against which Aboriginal people orient their lives. In a mystical time long ago, anthropomorphic and theriomorphic beings who emerged from the land, traveled across Australia manifesting permanent geographic features and all there is into being. The essence of these powerful beings remains within the subterranean realm and evidence of their existence, vestiges, are embedded in the Australian landscape. Vast regions of western and central parts of the Australian continent are covered by harsh, arid terrain. Geographically, this region includes grassy plains, sand hills,

The indigenous Warlpiri people of Central Australia exhibit an array of cultural beliefs that structure their lives in a way that hugely distinguishes them from modern society, granting the group a meaningful perspective into the world around them. Jackson explores the existential notion of being at home in the world, and what it signifies in a nomadic context. He focuses on cultural relationships of people to the material world and environment, as well as Warlpiri spiritual belief systems. This essay will explore the effects of nomadic culture on the Warlpiri, concentrating on how the nomadic sense of home influences their lives both physically and intellectually through short-term resource management and the Warlpiri language. Following, it will analyse the Aboriginal concept of dreaming and of ancestry, in order to express how this spiritual system of belief meaningfully affects Warlpiri spirituality, ritual behaviour, and their connection to the surrounding natural environment. Jackson’s reading will be analysed for this purpose, which follows his experiences in and around the Tanami desert with a group of Warlpiri companions.

Thomas King portrays absorbing and idiosyncratic reasoning behind why Aboriginal stories are the forefront of cultural erudition in his text The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Aboriginals rely on storytelling to, “teach about cultural beliefs, values, customs, rituals, history…” and to, “pass on the… teachings of our ancestors” to ensure the continuity of tradition and information (Hanna & Henry, 1995). King authenticates the importance of keeping Aboriginal heritage alive as he delicately balances detail with knowledge in his five stories that paint an illustration of how stories shape both Aboriginal and Western societies. Discussions that King engages the reader in include topics such as Aboriginal identity, capitalism, colonialism,

The Dreaming is the way the Aboriginal understand about the world through the great creative stories. These stories are passed on lore, culture and belief system to the next generations. Aboriginal people believe that the Ancestors Spirits in human form created animals, plants, rocks and other forms of land. Then they changed into trees, starts, water holes and other subjects that are the sacred places of Aboriginal culture. (Australia.gov.au, 2017)

In an excerpt taken from his 1953 publication titled, The Dreaming and Other Essays, W.E. H. Stanner mentions that an Indigenous Australian may refer to “the place from which his spirit came his Dreaming,” additionally, “he may also explain the existence of a custom or law of life as casually due to ‘The Dreaming’” (Stanner 1953:23). Here, Stanner not only exposes the multiplicity of Dreaming but, also, its implications on the Aborigine. The Dreaming is the larger context or the background against which they orient

The Dreaming are stories of great spiritual value used to define the creation of the world from their ancestor

Different Aboriginal groups have a common characteristic and that is that they have a similar belief system which is called the ʻDreamingʼ. The dreaming may be well known as a religious system but it does not always convey its true eminence. However it does convey a sense of enlightenment through visions and dreams. The dreaming provides a strong bondage between The Aboriginal people and their land and identity. In the Indigenous community, Aboriginal people learned about their environment before they were able to identify the characteristics of animals, plants, sources of food and water, useful materials and the weather. The stories that they tell provide them with a map of their environment and information such as trade routes and resources. With the knowledge they had due to their access to information about their land led them to know how to travel successfully around the Australian landscape which then enhanced their imagination that helped them compose more dreamtime stories. The Aboriginal people are introduced to the spiritual world through the dreaming stories which are important teachings that make up their identity.The Aboriginal people travelled the same routes through the lands that their ancestors once used, these are called the dreaming trails. This strengthens their communication with the ancestors and are able to build on their relationship with their land and identity.

The Aborigines’ forefathers left cave paintings and markings that describe ‘the dreams’ that connect them to their ancestors and their ways of life, which they treasure as sacred places. These sacred places are marked by pieces of their culture that are and were important to them, such as the animals that hunt and fish for as well as what one would consider ‘history’ of their people. They mark the

For thousands of years, dream interpretation has been an avid study by hundreds of different cultures. Dreams have been the inspiration for songs, poems and stories, and were even recorded on clay tablets far before the time of Christ. Caedmon’s Hymn is said to have come to him in a dream, with angels singing the poetic lyrics sweetly into his ears while he slept. What is the significance of dreaming in response to this literature? Why is it a popular trend for dreams to play a part in old myths, fables and Bible stories?

Myths intersect with religion philosophy history and public space, which is used to shape communal identity. I believe back in the day myths was used as a means of communication. In other words people would have used myths so they could understand why certain things were the way they are. Instead of science, mathematical equations, and experiments. Many people had their imagination and a key source was to relate certain things to gods. I believe that still today even though science is number one in the millennial generation. Myths from ancient Greece still flutter around in books, slogans, propaganda, stories, and in school. Myths also have an analogous role they are figures, tropes ideas and stories they have tremendous cultural power and persuasive abilities. In addition being aware that one is using the power of myth can make one aware within our own

In the south-west of Western Australia lay over a dozen tribes of the Noongar people. The aboriginal Noongar tribe is one of the largest Aboriginal cultural blocks in Australia, and their names stems from the meaning of the “original inhabitants of the south-west of Western Australia.” The Noongar people are deeply, spiritually connected to the earth, nature, and their ancestral past through what they call “the dreaming”, or “dreamtime”. For Aboriginals, the Dreamtime is how their cultural knowledge is formed and how they understand the creation of the world, passed down traditionally through oral telling and stories. The Dreamtime is the world of their ancestors and how the spirits were born out of darkness. One of the most well-known deities/spirits and its corresponding origin story is that of the Waugal, or the Rainbow Serpent.

In these few lines from the poem “Chuang Tzu and the Butterfly”, Li Po simplifies the question raised by Chuang Tzu: Which is the true reality? Are we currently in the true reality or is the true reality in our dreams? These questions separate dreams and reality into two different concepts; however, in Japanese tales a common theme, when it comes to dreams, is the blending of these concepts. Kawai addresses this and aptly states that this blending is due to the “free interpenetration of this world and the dream world”. Dreams are the doorways between worlds/realities. Dreams can act as the door to the land of the dead, to your higher self, or even to the gods.