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The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to
Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by
Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague
Baldwin Spencer and thereafter popularised by
A. P. Elkin, who, however, later revised his views.
The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of ''Everywhen'', during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods, as they did not control the material world and were not
worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...
ped but only
revered. The concept of the Dreamtime has subsequently become widely adopted beyond its original Australian context and is now part of global popular culture.
The term is based on a rendition of the
Arandic word ''alcheringa'', used by the
Aranda (Arunta, Arrernte) people of
Central Australia
Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...
, although it has been argued that it is based on a misunderstanding or mistranslation. Some scholars suggest that the word's meaning is closer to "
eternal
Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to:
* Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state
* Immortality or eternal life
* God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism
Comics, film and television
* ...
, uncreated". Anthropologist
William Stanner said that the concept was best understood by non-Aboriginal people as "a complex of meanings". Jukurrpa is a widespread term used by
Warlpiri people
The Warlpiri, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered thr ...
and other peoples of the
Western Desert cultural bloc
The Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in central Australia covering about , including the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, So ...
.
By the 1990s, Dreaming had acquired its own currency in popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, based on idealised or fictionalised conceptions of Australian mythology. Since the 1970s, Dreaming has also returned from academic usage via popular culture and tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
and is now ubiquitous in the English vocabulary of Aboriginal Australians in a kind of " self-fulfilling academic prophecy".
Etymology
The station-master, magistrate, and amateur ethnographer Francis Gillen first used the terms in an ethnographical report in 1896. With Walter Baldwin Spencer
Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (23 June 1860 – 14 July 1929), commonly referred to as Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian evolutionary biologist, anthropologist and ethnologist.
He is known for his fieldwork with Aboriginal peoples in ...
, Gillen published a major work, ''Native Tribes of Central Australia'', in 1899. In that work, they spoke of the ''Alcheringa'' as "the name applied to the far distant past with which the earliest traditions of the tribe deal". Five years later, in their ''Northern Tribes of Central Australia'', they gloss the far distant age as "the dream times", link it to the word ''alcheri'' meaning 'dream', and affirm that the term is current also among the Kaitish and Unmatjera.
Altjira
Early doubts about the precision of Spencer and Gillen's English gloss were expressed by the German Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
pastor and missionary Carl Strehlow in his 1908 book ''Die Aranda'' (''The Arrernte
Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia.
It may refer to:
* Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?)
* Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
''). He noted that his Arrente contacts explained ''altjira'', whose etymology was unknown, as an eternal being who had no beginning. In the Upper Arrernte language
Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are A ...
, the proper verb for 'to dream' was ''altjirerama'', literally 'to see God'. Strehlow theorised that the noun is the somewhat rare word ''altjirrinja'', which Spencer and Gillen gave a corrupted transcription and a false etymology. "The native," Strehlow concluded, "knows nothing of 'dreamtime' as a designation of a certain period of their history."
Strehlow gives ''Altjira'' or ''Altjira mara'' (''mara'' meaning 'good') as the Arrente word for the eternal creator of the world and humankind. Strehlow describes him as a tall strong man with red skin, long fair hair, and emu legs, with many red-skinned wives (with dog legs) and children. In Strehlow's account, ''Altjira'' lives in the sky (which is a body of land through which runs the Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
, a river).
However, by the time Strehlow was writing, his contacts had been converts to Christianity for decades, and critics suggested that ''Altjira'' had been used by missionaries as a word for the Christian God.
In 1926, Spencer conducted a field study to challenge Strehlow's conclusion about ''Altjira'' and the implied criticism of Gillen and Spencer's original work. Spencer found attestations of ''altjira'' from the 1890s that used the word to mean 'associated with past times' or 'eternal', not 'god'.
Academic Sam Gill finds Strehlow's use of ''Altjira'' ambiguous, sometimes describing a supreme being, and sometimes describing a totem being but not necessarily a supreme one. He attributes the clash partly to Spencer's cultural evolution
Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation a ...
ist beliefs that Aboriginal people were at a pre-religion "stage" of development (and thus could not believe in a supreme being), while Strehlow as a Christian missionary found presence of belief in the divine a useful entry point for proselytising.
Linguist David Campbell Moore is critical of Spencer and Gillen's "Dreamtime" translation, concluding:
Other terms
The complex of religious beliefs encapsulated by the Dreamings are also called:
* ''Ngarrankarni'' or ''Ngarrarngkarni'' by the Gija people
Gija, also spelt Gidja and Kija, alternatively known as the Lungga, refers to Aboriginal Australians from the East Kimberley area of Western Australia, about 200 km south of Kununurra. In the late 19th century pastoralists were fiercely r ...
* ''Jukurrpa'' or ''Tjukurpa''/''Tjukurrpa'' by the Warlpiri people
The Warlpiri, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered thr ...
and in the Pitjantjatjara dialect
Pitjantjatjara (; or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert language, and is particularly ...
[
* ''Ungud'' or ''Wungud'' by the Ngarinyin people
* ''Manguny'' in the language Martu Wangka
* ''Wongar'' in North-East ]Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
* ''Daramoolen'' in Ngunnawal language
Ngunnawal/Ngunawal is an Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Ngunnawal people, Ngunnawal. Ngunnawal is very closely related to the Gandangara language and the two were most likely hi ...
and Ngarigo language
Ngarigo (Ngarigu) is a nearly extinct Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Ngarigo people
The Ngarigo People (also spelt Garego, Ngarego, Ngarago, Ngaragu, Ngarigu, Ngarrugu or Ngarroogoo) are Aboriginal Australian ...
* ''Nura'' in the Dharug language
The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in th ...
Translations and meaning
In English, anthropologists have variously translated words normally understood to mean Dreaming or Dreamtime in a variety of other ways, including "Everywhen", "world-dawn", "ancestral past", "ancestral present", "ancestral now" (satirically), "unfixed in time", "abiding events" or "abiding law".
Most translations of the Dreaming into other languages are based on the translation of the word ''dream''. Examples include in French ("dream spaces") and in Croatian (a gerund derived from the verb for 'to dream').
The concept of the Dreaming is inadequately explained by English terms, and difficult to explain in terms of non-Aboriginal cultures. It has been described as "an all-embracing concept that provides rules for living, a moral code, as well as rules for interacting with the natural environment ... tprovides for a total, integrated way of life ... a lived daily reality". It embraces past, present and future. Another definition suggests that it represents "the relationship between people, plants, animals and the physical features of the land; the knowledge of how these relationships came to be, what they mean and how they need to be maintained in daily life and in ceremony
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''.
Church and civil (secular) ...
".[ According to Simon Wright, "''jukurrpa'' has an expansive meaning for Warlpiri people, encompassing their own law and related cultural knowledge systems, along with what non-Indigenous people refer to as 'dreaming
A dreaming is often associated with a particular place, and may also belong to specific ages, gender or ]skin group
Aboriginal Australian kinship comprises the systems of Aboriginal customary law governing social interaction relating to kinship in traditional Aboriginal cultures. It is an integral part of the culture of every Aboriginal group across Austra ...
s. Dreamings may be represented in artworks, for example "Pikilyi Jukurrpa" by Theo (Faye) Nangala represents the Dreaming of Pikilyi
Mount Doreen Station is a pastoral lease operating as a cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.
It is situated about north east of Papunya and approximately north west of Alice Springs just off the Tanami Track in the cent ...
(Vaughan Springs) in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
, and belongs to the Japanangka/ Nanpanangka and Japangardi/ Napanangka skin groups.
Aboriginal beliefs and culture
Related entities are known as ''Mura-mura'' by the Dieri
The Diyari (), alternatively transcribed as Dieri (), is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.
Language
Diyari is classified as one of the Ka ...
and as ''Tjukurpa'' in Pitjantjatjara
The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...
.
"Dreaming" is now also used as a term for a system of totemic symbols, so that an Aboriginal person may "own" a specific Dreaming, such as Kangaroo Dreaming, Shark Dreaming, Honey Ant Dreaming, Badger Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their country. This is because in the Dreaming an individual's entire ancestry exists as one, culminating in the idea that all worldly knowledge is accumulated through one's ancestors. Many Aboriginal Australians also refer to the world-creation time as "Dreamtime". The Dreaming laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.
Creation is believed to be the work of culture heroes who travelled across a formless land, creating sacred sites
Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...
and significant places of interest in their travels. In this way, "songline
A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia which mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dre ...
s" (or ''Yiri'' in the Warlpiri language
The Warlpiri ( or ) ( wbp, Warlpiri > waɭbɪ̆ˌɻi language is spoken by about 3,000 of the Warlpiri people from the Tanami Desert, northwest of Alice Springs, Central Australia. It is one of the Ngarrkic languages of the large Pama–Ny ...
) were established, some of which could travel right across Australia, through as many as six to ten different language groupings. The dreaming and travelling trails of these heroic spirit beings are the songlines.[ The signs of the spirit beings may be of spiritual essence, physical remains such as ]petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is a supposed image of parts of a human or animal body in rock. They occur all over the world, often functioning as an important form of symbolism, used in religious and secular ceremonies, such as the crowning of kings. Some a ...
s of body impressions or footprints, among natural and elemental simulacra.
Some of the ancestor or spirit beings inhabiting the Dreamtime become one with parts of the landscape, such as rocks or trees. The concept of a life force is also often associated with sacred sites, and ceremonies
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''.
Church and civil (secular) ...
performed at such sites "are a re-creation of the events which created the site during The Dreaming". The ceremony helps the life force at the site to remain active and to keep creating new life: if not performed, new life cannot be created.
Dreaming existed before the life of the individual begins, and continues to exist when the life of the individual ends. Both before and after life, it is believed that this spirit-child exists in the Dreaming and is only initiated into life by being born through a mother. The spirit of the child is culturally understood to enter the developing fetus
A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal deve ...
during the fifth month of pregnancy. When the mother felt the child move in the womb for the first time, it was thought that this was the work of the spirit of the land in which the mother then stood. Upon birth, the child is considered to be a special custodian of that part of their country and is taught the stories and songlines of that place. As Wolf (1994: p. 14) states: "A 'black fella' may regard his totem or the place from which his spirit came as his Dreaming. He may also regard tribal law as his Dreaming."
In the '' Wangga'' genre, the songs and dances express themes related to death and regeneration. They are performed publicly with the singer composing from their daily lives or while Dreaming of a ''nyuidj'' (dead spirit).
Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia, with variations on the same theme. The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin in The Dreaming, and certain places have a particular potency or Dreaming. For example, the story of how the sun was made is different in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
and in Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. Stories cover many themes and topics, as there are stories about creation of sacred places, land, people, animals and plants, law and custom. In Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, the Noongar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
believe that the Darling Scarp
The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to th ...
is the body of the ''Wagyl
The Wagyl (also written Waugal and Waagal and variants) is the Noongar manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent in Australian Aboriginal mythology, from the culture based around the south-west of Western Australia. The Noongar describe the Wagyl as ...
'' – a serpent being that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways and lakes and who created the Swan River. In another example, the Gagudju
The Gaagudju, also known as the Kakadu, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. There are four clans, being the Bunitj or Bunidj, the Djindibi, and two Mirarr clans. Three languages are spoken among the Mirarr or Mirrar cl ...
people of Arnhemland
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
, for which Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...
is named, believe that the sandstone escarpment that dominates the park's landscape was created in the Dreamtime when ''Ginga'' (the crocodile-man) was badly burned during a ceremony and jumped into the water to save himself.
See also
* Dreaming (Australian Aboriginal art)
In Australian Aboriginal art, a Dreaming is a totemistic design or artwork, which can be owned by a tribal group or individual.
This usage of anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner's term was popularised by Geoffrey Bardon in the context of the Papuny ...
* Aboriginal mythology
Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes ...
** Rainbow Serpent
The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...
** Tjilbruke
Tjilbruke (also Tjirbruki, Tjilbruki, Tjirbruke, Tjirbuk or Tjirbuki,) is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia. Tjilbruke was a Kaurna man, who appeared in Kaurna Drea ...
* Apeiron
''Apeiron'' (; ) is a Greek word meaning "(that which is) unlimited," "boundless", "infinite", or "indefinite" from ''a-'', "without" and ''peirar'', "end, limit", "boundary", the Ionic Greek form of ''peras'', "end, limit, boundary".
Origin ...
, the concept of the eternal or unlimited in Greek philosophy
* Wuji (philosophy)
In Chinese philosophy, ''wújí'' (, meaning 'without limit') originally referred to infinity but came to mean the "primordial universe" prior to the "Supreme Ultimate" state of being ( ''Taiji'', ) in the Neo-Confucianist cosmology of Song Ch ...
and Taiji (philosophy)
In Chinese philosophy, ''Taiji'' or ''Tai chi'' () is a cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of the world and affairs - the interaction of matter and space, the relation of the body and mind. While Wuji is undifferentiated, tim ...
, concepts of the eternal or limitless in Chinese philosophy
* ''The Dreaming
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...
'' (1982 album by Kate Bush)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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*("Into the Crystal Dreamtime", promotional pamphlet, late 1980s; "Crystal Woman: isters of the Dreamtime" 1987; p. 36:"the prescriptive New Age genre, which sells one-hundred-proof ethnological antimodernism without overmuch worry about bothersome ethnographic facts")
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreaming, The
Australian Aboriginal mythology
Creation myths