Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:39:24.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards an Understanding of the Significance of “The Dreamtime” to Aboriginal People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

E.A. O’Keefe
E.A. O’Keefe*
Affiliation:
Northam, W.A., formerly Jigalong School, via Newman, W.A.
Get access

Extract

To traditional Aborigines their whole concept of life, whether it is physical or spiritual survival, is centred on their belief in the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime was the period of creation when the Aborigines’ life-style was planned and the Aborigines’ entire life centred on the need to live in the style prescribed by the mythical Dreamtime ancestors.

An understanding of the Dreamtime is essential to an understanding of traditional Aboriginal culture. Stanner (1979, 23–40) describes the Dreaming as pervading every aspect of life from social organization to food gathering. Not only is it the period of creation when the mythical ancestors roamed the earth, but it is also the life spirit which ties man, society and nature, both past and present, to the living now.

R.M. Berndt (1980) describes the dreaming thus:

The Dreaming therefore constituted a particular view of life, of the place of human beings within a preordained scheme or patterning symbolising a three-sided relationship between mythic beings, nature and people. Each was dependent on the others. People were part of nature, part of particular mythic beings, in social and personal terms.

(Berndt, 1980, 14–15)

Not only did traditional Aborigines believe in the Dreaming, they lived it. It is the Dreaming which provides the blueprint for life.

Central to the belief in the Dreaming is the belief in the mythical beings. These beings were part human and part animal. They roamed the earth in the Dreamtime using super-human powers to create all natural features.

Type
Across Australia …… From Teacher to Teacher
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , September 1984 , pp. 50 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akerman, K., 1980: The renascence of Aboriginal law in the Kimberleys. In Berndt, R.M. and Berndt, C.H. (Eds): Aborigines of the West. University of W.A. Press, Perth.Google Scholar
Berndt, R.M., 1980: Traditional Aboriginal life in Western Australia: as it was and is. In Berndt, R.M. and Berndt, C.H. (Eds): Aborigines of the West. University of W.A. Press, Perth.Google Scholar
Berndt, R.M. and Berndt, C.H., 1970: Australian Aboriginal Anthropology. University of W.A. Press, Perth.Google Scholar
Elkin, A.P., 1974: The Australian Aborigines. Angus & Robertson, Sydney.Google Scholar
Lofgren, M.E., 1975: Patterns of Life. W.A. Museum, Perth.Google Scholar
Strehlow, T.G.H., 1980: Geography and the totemic landscape in Central Australia. In Berndt, R.M. and Berndt, C.H. (Eds): Australian Aboriginal Anthropology. University of W.A. Press, Perth.Google Scholar
Tonkinson, R., 1974: The Jigalong Mob. Cummins Publishing Company Inc., Menlo Park, California.Google Scholar
Tonkinson, R., 1978: The Mardudjara Aborigines. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar