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Dreamtime and Dreaming stories
The Aborigines have the longest time of cultural history, about 65000 years. Dreamtime is the Aborigines' religion and culture. It has a different meaning for various groups.
In Aborigine language "Dreamtime" means "Tjukurrpa".
What is "Dreamtime"?
"The Dreaming means our identity as people. The cultural teaching and everything, that's part of our lives (…); it's the understanding of what we have around us."
Merv Penrith;
Elder,
Wallaga Lake, 1996
Quotation www.dreamtime.net.au
Dreamtime describes how the universe came to be. It embraces everything that happens in the past, in the present and in the future. It includes all human beings, all animals and all plants, every stone and every river. It influences the whole life: the structure of society, the rules of social behaviour, the Aboriginal ceremonies and the way people live and should behave.
It describes the time of creation:
The land was empty and the Dreaming ancestors came out of the desert and formed the land, the landscape and all the creatures. When the land was formed, the Ancestors retired into the earth, the sky, the clouds and the creatures to live within all they had created.
The Dreamtime ancestors are really important for Aborigines.
Ancestors are animals, plants or human beings. One of these spirit ancestors is the Rainbow Serpent. Everyone has got his or her own ancestor, which is something like a patron saint. Which one they get depends in most cases on the place of birth or the place where the mother felt the first time that she was pregnant. If they turned into rocks, trees or a landscapes these places became sacred places and could be only seen by initiated men and women.
The Rainbow Serpent as the most important Dreamtime ancestor:
About the Rainbow Serpent
"And that... is the resting place of the Rainbow Serpent, and all of the gullies and all of the lagoon itself was about the Rainbow Serpent created after he had created the universe and all the dry gullies is the tracks that he's made looking for a resting place."
Carl McGrady,
Aboriginal Education Assistant,
Boggabilla, describing the path of the
Rainbow Serpent at Boobera Lagoon,
northern New South Wales, 1996.
Quotation: www.dreamtime.net.au
The Rainbow Serpent is a large snake creature which came from Northern Australia. On the way the Rainbow Serpent went in the Dreamtime it is associated with waterholes, like billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. It is the source of all life. The Rainbow serpent can be the protector of the land and also the destructor. The Rainbow Serpent creates the typical landscape of Australia. After it went back to the place it came out of the earth, it called the frogs to come out of the earth and to enrich the land with water from their bellies.
The Rainbow Serpent was often painted as a symbol by rock art. It was a strong and powerful symbol to demonstrate the creative and destructive process of power in nature.
This is a statement by an Aborigine regarding dreamtime:
THE DREAMTIME
They say we have been here for 40 000 years, but it is much longer -
We have been here since time began We have come directly out of the Dreamtime of our creative ancestors -
We have kept the earth as it was on the first day.
Our culture is focused on recording the origins of life.
We refer to forces and powers that created the world as creative ancestors.
Our beautiful world has been created only in accordance with the power, wisdom and intentions of our ancestral beings.
Quotation: aboriginalart.com.au
Dreamtime stories explain the creations of people, animals, plants, landforms and sacred places and about how everything is created. There are stories of getting the fire, of the arrival of the first Europeans and about how the language is formed. "Legend of three Sisters Mountain" is one of many examples for an aboriginal Dreamtime story:
Legend of the Three Sisters Mountain
Quotation: www.informatik.hu-berlin.de
"According to an Aboriginal dreamtime story, the three huge rocks formations were once three beautiful sisters named "Meehni", "Wimlah" and "Gunnedoo" from the Katoomba tribe. The three sisters fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe but their tribal laws forbade their marriage. The three brothers did not accept this law and tried to capture the three sisters by force. This caused a major tribal battle and the lives of the three sisters were thus threatened. A witchdoctor decided to turn the sisters into rocks in order to protect them and thought to reverse the spell only after the battle. Unfortunately, he was killed in the battle and the three sisters remained as the enormous and beautiful rock formations until today. The magnificent formation stands at 922m, 918m, and 906m respectively."
Quotation: www.crystalinks.com
Interpretation of the legend in accordance with the Dreamtime:
It is typical of the legend that tribal laws were broken and a tribal battle was the consequence. In this battle, the oldest Aboriginal people called witchdoctors played a big role. A witchdoctor is a person, who has the ability to use some positive or negative magic or rituals for health, for example. In the legend, the witchdoctor protected the three sisters by using magic and turning them into stones. They have been rocks until now because the doctor was killed by the battle.
The three sisters are rock formations in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. The Aboriginal people told stories, like this legend, to explain the Dreamtime and special natural phenomena or significant formations in the landscape or a tree, which looks like an animal.
The whole continent is full of such Dreamtime ways the ancestors went in the Dreamtime and created everything. This is also called "Song lines". There exist different Dreamtime Song lines like the "emu dream", or the "kangaroo-dream". The Dreaming ancestors travelled the land by singing for nature, the animals and the human beings. Special significant places on their way show a rock formation looking like a serpent or a footprint in the rock from a kangaroo. It is very important to say the Dreamtime is strongly connected with the land the Aboriginal people live in it. Both belong together.
Caren Lewinsky & Sophia Buck 13a
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