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The Dreaming

"The Dreaming" is the belief of many Aboriginal groups that Aboriginal people have been in Australia since the beginning.

During this significant period the ancestral spirits came up out of the earth and down from the sky to walk on the land were they created and shaped its land formations, rivers, mountains, forests and deserts. These were created while the ancestors traveled, hunted and fought. They also created all the people, animals and vegetation that were to be apart of the land and laid down the patterns their lives were to follow. It was the spirit ancestors who gave Aboriginal people the lores, customs and codes of conduct, and who are the source of the songs, dances, designs, languages, and rituals that are the basic of Aboriginal religious expression. These ancestors were spirits who appeared in a variety of forms. When their work was completed the ancestral spirits went back into the earth, the sky and into the animals, land formation, and rivers. The ancestors-beings are ‘alive’ in the spirit of Australian Aboriginals.

This rock painting depicts the creation spirit Biame. Creator of all things, this particular image is known to the local Wanaruah people as the Keeper of the Valley.

The Rainbow Serpent is one of the Dreamtime creators. Dreamtime stores can vary between tribes, however the Rainbow Serpent is one of the few common to all. In the Dreaming the world was flat and empty. The rainbow Serpent lay sleeping under the ground. When it was time, she pushed herself up, with all the animals in her belly waiting to be born. Calling to the animals to come from their sleep she threw the land out, making mountains and hills and spilled water over the land, making rivers and lakes. She made the fire and the sun and all the colours. The serpent or snake plays an important role in every culture, sometimes as the Creators or Source of everything other times as the giver of knowledge, sexual energy, spiritual awakener or source of evil. Not only does it connect Aboriginal tribes, it also unites people of all different cultures and walks of life throughout the world.
(From http:rainbowserpent.net/background/philosophy/)

Further Reading

Living the Dreaming, by Bill Edwards in Aboriginal Australia, An Introductory Reader in Aboriginal Studies, Second Edition (Edited by Colin Bourke, Eleanor Bourke and Bill Edwards). University of Queensland Press. 1998, 2004.

A few of the points made in the reading

The first Europeans coming to Australia had preconceived ideas of religion and what it involved (churches, priests, etc). When they could not see these things in Australian Aboriginal communities they presumed Aborigines had “no religious notions or ideas”. These Europeans were wrong.

The Dreaming is difficult for people of western culture to comprehend because western norms such as the idea of linear time are not followed.

The Dreaming is used commonly to describe the Aboriginal creative epoch.

The Dreaming does not assume the creation of the world from nothing.

It assumes a preexistent substance, often described as a watery expanse or a featureless plain. From this substance spirit beings emerged and formed creatures often made up of various humans, plants and animals. These creatures roamed the land, doing this they created what is now the land, e.g “the winding track of a serpent became a watercourse”.

The entire Australian continent is dotted with sites that are sacred to different Aboriginal groups, this is because these spirit creatures are thought to have created and formed these sites with their actions in the Dreaming.

Aborigines are aware of the Dreaming in there every day life, e.g upon approaching a waterhole an Aborigine might throw a stone into the water to alert the spirit of a water serpent that he/she is approaching. He/she would do this because of a real fear that a water serpent might attack them should they not alert it of their approach.

Relationships are extremely important in Aboriginal communities, everyone knows what type of relationship they have with other members of the community, these relationships are often based on relationships accorded to the spirits of the Dreaming.