Dreaming is a common term among Indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation story and for the mythological time of creation, as well as for the places where the creation spirits now lie dormant in the land. Indigenous Australians or Aborigines[1][2] are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ... The term origin belief refers to stories and explanations which describe the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe. ... This article is about a system of myths. ...

The Dreaming has different meanings for different Aboriginal groups. The Dreaming can be seen as an embodiment of Aboriginal creation which gives meaning to everything. It establishes the rules governing relationships between the people, the land and all things for Aboriginal people. ^[1]

Origin of the term and definitions

The term was made popular by anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner, after an Aboriginal man had told him "white man got no Dreaming", which Stanner subsequently entitled one of his books.^[2] See Anthropology. ... Emeritus Professor W.E.H. Bill Stanner (1905-1981) was an Australian anthropologist who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians and played an important role in establishing the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. ...

However, many argue it is an inadequate translation of the concept – from the Arrernte word, "Altyerre" – a concept largely unrelated to the European notion of dreams. Arrente is both a language, a group of people, and an area of land in Central Australia. ... A dream is the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep. ...

Even Stanner preferred the term "everywhen", while T.G.H. Strehlow favoured "Eternal, Uncreated". Theodor George Henry Strehlow (1908–1978) was an anthropologist who studied the Arrernte Australian Aborigines in Central Australia. ...

Robyn Davidson, in her recent Quarterly Essay on nomads, writes: Robyn Davidson (born September 6, 1950) is an Australian writer best known for a book and CD-ROM about a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of west Australia. ... Quarterly Essay is a highbrow, relatively small-circulation Australian news magazine that straddles the border between magazines and non-fiction books. ...

No matter how much I read about the Dreaming, the confidence that I understand it never quite takes root in my mind. To me it is on a par with, say, quantum mechanics, or string theory – ideas you think you grasp until you have to explain them. Each time I attempt it, I have to feel my way into it again, and I am never sure of my ground.

One could say that the Dreaming is a spiritual realm which saturates the visible world with meaning; that it is the matrix of being; that it was the time of creation; that it is a parallel universe which may be contacted via the ritual performance of song, dance and painting; that it is a network of stories of mythological heroes – the forerunners and creators of contemporary man.

During the creation period, the ancestral beings made journeys and performed deeds; they fought, loved, hunted, behaved badly or well, rather like the Greek gods, and where they camped or hurled spears or gave birth, tell-tale marks were left in the earth. While creating this topography, they were morphing constantly from animal to human and back to animal, again rather like the Greeks.

They made separate countries, but interlaced them (related them) with their story tracks. They created frameworks for kin relations. Many different ancestors created a country, by travelling across it and meeting each other. In that way, a particular country is shared by all creatures who live there, their essences arising from the Dreaming, and returning to it. Some Dreamings crossed many countries, interacting with local ones as they went, and connecting places far from each other. Thus the pulse of life spreads, blood-like, through the body of the continent – node/pathway, node/pathway – as far as, and sometimes into, the sea.

At the end of that epoch, exhausted by their work, they sank back into the ground at sacred sites, where their power remains in condensed forms.

It is not quite right, however, to say that the creation period is in the past, because it is a past that is eternal and therefore also present. Ancestors sink back into, but also emerge from and pass through, sites. In other words, an ancestor's journey, or story, became a place, and that place holds past, present and future simultaneously.

For traditionally oriented Aboriginal people, the historical past lies a couple of generations back and always will. The Dreaming encompasses and surrounds this time of living memory, which sinks into it. Time sinks into place, into Country.

Each sacred site contains a potentially limitless supply of the particular species left there by an ancestor. But in order to ensure their continued generation, ceremonial action is required. If this isn't done, or isn't done properly, that life-form will eventually disappear [a term Aboriginal people call Looking after Country]. Children, too, are born from the ancestor's spirit which arises out of its place to impregnate a woman. Such children belong to and have responsibility for that place, and will return to it after death, so that its life potential isn't dissipated.

Not only did the mythical ancestors give the world its shape, they imbued it with moral and social structures – handing down laws whereby all humans have intrinsic value and a share of goods. Living by these laws invigorates the life-force surging and burgeoning through the land. In fact, to sing a ritual song is to move that ancestor along through the land. Earth is sacred, sentient stuff; it is not a counterpoint to heaven. Heaven and earth are embedded together, on the same plane. A country is saturated in consciousness. It recognises and responds to people. It depends on people.^[3]

While Dreaming stories are considered to have been passed down from time immemorial, some would appear to have evolved quite recently. For exampe, some Western Desert and Central Australian peoples have Pujikat Dreamings ("pussycat": Felis catus, the feral domestic cat which has populated most parts of Australia since white arrival and which is often hunted and eaten by Aboriginal people).^[4] Fig. ... Interaction in the subatomic world: world lines of pointlike particles in the Standard Model or a world sheet swept up by closed strings in string theory String theory is a model of fundamental physics whose building blocks are one-dimensional extended objects called strings, rather than the zero-dimensional point... The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics or MWI (also known as the relative state formulation, theory of the universal wavefunction, many-universes interpretation, Oxford interpretation or many worlds), is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that claims to resolve all the paradoxes of quantum theory by allowing every possible outcome... A listing of Greek mythological beings. ... It has been suggested that Geomorphometry be merged into this article or section. ... Songlines - the British based world music magazine featuring the greatest artists in the current music scene on the web at [Songlines http://www. ... Australian Aboriginal kinship refers to the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Aboriginal culture. ... Time immemorial is time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition. ... The Western Desert refers to a large tract of desert in the west of Australia, comprising the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts. ... Central Australia is a term used to describe the area of land surrounding and including Alice Springs in Australia. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus Schreber, 1775 For alternative meanings see cat (disambiguation). ... Rescued feral kittens Most feral kittens have little chance of surviving more than a few months and are vulnerable to starvation, predators, disease and even flea-induced anemia[1][2]. Here, kittens from two feral litters are fostered by a domestic mother. ...

Ownership of Dreamings

The world was created during the Dreamtime and a Dreaming is a story owned by different tribes and their members that explains the creation of life, people and animals. A Dreaming story is passed on protectively as it is owned and is a form of "intellectual property". In the modern context, an Aborigine cannot relate, or paint some one else's dreaming or creation story without prior permission of the Dreaming owner. Someone's dreaming story must be respected as they hold the knowledge to that Dreaming story, leading to certain behavioural constraints, with accusations of "stealing" someone else's Dreaming if it is painted without authorisation. Representation of the Rainbow serpent, the Waugal For other uses, see Dreamtime (disambiguation). ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (movie). ...

The late Geoffrey Bardon's three books on Papunya specifically mention the conflict and possession of a dreaming story; the Honey Ant Dreaming painted on the school walls of Papunya (which was subsequently painted over by the white administrations of the town). Geoffrey Robert Bardon (1940, Sydney – 2003) was an Australian school teacher who was instrumental in bringing desert art, or dot art to the attention of the world. ... Papunya (23°13′ S 131°54′ E), is a small Indigenous Australian community of about 350 people roughly 240 km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. ... Honeypot ants, also called honey ants are ants which are gorged with food by workers, to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. ...

When the mural was being painted, there had to be agreement among all tribes in Papunya (the Pintupi, Warlpiri, Arrernte, Anmatyerre) that the honey ant was an acceptable mural, since Papunya is the meeting place for all tribes. Salle des illustres, ceiling painting, by Jean André Rixens. ... Pintupi refers to an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose homeland is in the area west of Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. ... Location of Warlpiri (light green) in the Northern Territory The Warlpiri are a group of Indigenous Australians, many of whom speak the Warlpiri language. ... Arrente is both a language, a group of people, and an area of land in Central Australia. ... Location of Anmatyerre(pale red) in the Northern Territory Anmatyerre, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. ...

After the mural was painted, one of the senior elders, Long Tom Onion, went to Bardon and forcefully reminded him that it was his suggestion the mural be painted. Later, Bardon realised Long Tom Onion owned that Dreaming and thus the importance of Dreaming ownership among Indigenous Australians, especially those who still retain their tribal and traditional connections. The term Elder (or its equivalent in another language) is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority. ...

Among the Central Desert tribes of Australia, the passing of the Dreaming story is for the most part gender-related. For example, the late great artist from the Papunya movement, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, painted ceremonial dreamings relating to circumcision and love stories, and lessons for "naughty boys". His daughters, Gabriella Possum and Michelle Possum have tended to paint the "Seven Sisters" Dreaming or the Pleiades as they inherited that Dreaming through the maternal line. Consequently, they have painted their "Grandmother's Country" which is an expression of their inherited ownership of the land through knowledge of the dreamings. Clifford and his daughters have not painted the same subjects; Clifford has never painted the "Seven Sisters Dreaming" and in tribal law, his daughters are not allowed to see male tribal ceremonies, let alone paint them. Gender often refers to the distinctions between males and females in common usage. ... Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933 - 21 June 2002), Australian Aboriginal art artist. ... This article is about male circumcision. ... Pleiades refers to: Pleiades (star cluster) an open cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. ...

Dreamings as "property" have also been used by a few Aboriginal tribes to argue before the High Court of Australia their title over their traditional tribal land. Paintings of Dreamings, travelling journeys and ceremonies tend to depict the locations where they occur. There have been cases where massive 10-metre long paintings have been presented before the Court, presented as the tribe's title deed after terra nullius was struck down during the tenure of Chief Justice Gerard Brennan. High Court entrance The High Court of Australia is the final court of appeal in Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. ... A deed is a legal instrument used to grant a privilege. ... Terra nullius (English pronunciation , Latin pronunciation [[IPA]])is a Latin expression deriving from Roman Law meaning no mans land or, literally, empty land. // Rationale As in Antiquity peace was considered an exceptional condition between states, only established by peace treaty, war being their natural rapport, any territory that was... Sir Gerard Brennan, was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, on 22 May 1928. ...

Artists and their Dreamings

• Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri had the following Dreamings: kangaroos, honey ant ceremonies

• Gabriella Possum Nungurayyi owns the following Dreaming stories: bush foods, Grandmother's country and the Seven Sisters.

• Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri had the following Dreaming: death ceremony

• E. Kame Kngwarreye had a Pencil yam Dreaming, as well as mountain devil lizard, grass seed, dingo, emu, small plant emu food, green bean and yam seed Dreamings.

• M. Pwerle had a bush melon seed Dreaming.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1933 - 21 June 2002), Australian Aboriginal art artist. ... Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-3 September 1996), Australian Aboriginal artist from the Utopia community in the Northern Territory. ... Binomial name Vigna lanceolata Pencil yam, is an Australian native plant. ... For other uses, see Lizard (disambiguation). ... Natural vegetaton dominated by grasses Grass is a common word that generally describes a monocotyledonous green plant in the family Poaceae. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus dingo (Meyer, 1793) Dingo range Breed standards (external link) ANKC The dingo (plural dingoes or dingos), Canis lupus dingo, is a type of wild dog, probably descended from the Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). ... Binomial name Dromaius novaehollandiae (Latham, 1790) The Emu has been recorded in the areas shown in black. ... Green beans Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed. ... M. passed away on 18 March 2006. ...

See also

• Dreamtime

Representation of the Rainbow serpent, the Waugal For other uses, see Dreamtime (disambiguation). ...

References

1. ^ Source: http://www.dreamtime.net.au/indigenous/glossary.cfm (accessed: Friday, 16 March 2007)
2. ^ Stanner,W.E.H., White Man Got No Dreaming: Essays 1938-1973, 1979, ISBN 0-7081-1802-X. Canberra, 1979
3. ^ Davidson, Robyn, No Fixed Address: Nomads and the fate of the planet, Quarterly Essay, Issue 24, 2006, p14-15, ISBN 186-395-286-1
4. ^ http://www.clc.org.au/media/publications/rose_reports/feral2.asp

• Bardon, G. and Bardon, J. (2005) Papunya: The Story After the Place, Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Miegunyah Press