Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths
By
Chris Cochran
ANT3241
Instructor:
Dianna Wilson-Mosley
This
paper will be a discourse on the Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths and the mystery
that surrounds the Dreamtime, Dreaming, or Vision Quest as it is sometimes
referred to. I will start out with a
brief history of the Aboriginal people and then talk about how their
“walkabouts” connected them to dreamtime.
Then I will talk about how the dreamtime is used as a teaching tool to
pass along information from the old to the young and why vision quests are so
important to the Aborigine. Next, I will
discuss a few of the different dreamtime stories and what they are all
about. At the end, I will conclude this
essay with my own reflection on this experience as far as picking the topic, my
participation in the group experience, and what I learned from all of
this.
There are two
recognized Indigenous peoples in
The songs they
used in Dreamtime were also known as “songlines” which depicted their journey
through sacred pathways and would convey a spiritual message. “The Dream Journey is the Aboriginal path to
spiritual renewal because the people and the land are inseparable. These are a
people in deep harmony with nature” (Internet: About Dreamtime web site on
“The expression
'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time
of the creation of all things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an
individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality” (Source: Indigenous
Australia web site on 25 Jul. 05 http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/dreamtime.htm). Aboriginal spirituality and beliefs are
centered on creation stories. These
stories are recounted during their Dreamtime ceremonies and through oral
traditions. The stories tech how their
ancestors left their mark on the land and are manifested in particular sacred
sites all over
The group or tribe
would be called together, sometimes with the use of the yidaki (also known as
the didjeridu or didgeridoo), and tell great stories of how everything was
created in a ceremonial performance. The
Yidaki would help the story teller enter an altered state of consciousness with
its rhythmic sounds. Although the story
telling was generally done by the males in the clan, it was not unheard of for
the women to participate as well. During
these ceremonial performances the laws and beliefs of and individual tribe were
passed along to the rest of the clan.
The ceremonies were also used as a means to increase their connection to
their totemic ancestor and increased the creative energy within
When Aboriginal males hit puberty, around the age of eleven to thirteen, they go through what is called, “the making of a man” ritual. This rite of passage often involves circumcision and the breaking of the mother-son nurture bond. It is also a time when the young male must venture out into the desert on a Vision Quest. While on his Vision Quest he is to hunt for himself and attempt to make contact with a spirit for protection and/or to acquire a supernatural power. Vision Quests are brought about by fasting, isolation, and extreme exposure to the elements. Vision Quests are normally performed by male youths as a right of passage into maturity but can be performed by females from time to time. These rites of passages by the male youth would involve them going on a walkabout for several days or even weeks with nothing more than a knife and the clothes on their backs, sometimes less. It is during these Vision Quests that they connect with the land and their totem spirit who guides them along their journey.
Body paint and
headdresses help the Australians to connect their physical bodies to the spirit
world. There are many different types of Aboriginal groups within the
Aboriginal community; much like the different groups of Native American
Indians. Each language group has their
own type of ceremonial dress and paint scheme.
Ceremonies are group specific but can sometimes involve people from
different language groups for the larger of the ceremonies.
Ceremonies are a time for the Aboriginal people to bring gifts and raw materials to trade with each other. They also perform songs and dances to celebrate their daily activities. After the feast the elders meet to discuss laws and ensure the survival of the Dreaming by passing down their information to one another. An important aspect of aboriginal stories involves where water can be found like the Sandhills and the Brock Brock stories. So accurate are these dreamtime stories that they can even be used as a map to find the location of the watering hole talked about in the stories. There are many others stories as well that talk about water but these two are the more popular ones. The Sandhills tells of a watering hole that can be found along a path surrounded by many sand hills and the Brock Brock is the frog that senses the coming of the rains and comes out to sing in them.
The land is the Aborigines’ tie to the Dreaming. Sacred sites mark where ancestors ‘went down’ and serve as ties to ancestors. A person’s link to one part of the land cannot be transferred to any other part. Aboriginal worship practices all center on the land: maintaining certain sites, preserving certain species, etc. Songs about the Dreaming are so concerned with the land that they can be used as maps, even across unfamiliar terrain. Land is a ‘record’ of the Dreaming.
The
Aborigine’s have many different Dreamtime myths, all of which are very
entertaining to watch and listen to.
Most of their stories have to deal with the animals that can be found in
The
reason I chose to do a paper on the Aboriginal Dreamtime Myths is because I
have always been fascinated by them ever since I saw the movie “Altered States”
with William Hurt. It was a great movie
that delved into the whole world of Dreamtime and Vision Quests. In the movie, William Hurt visits an
Aboriginal tribe in
Not to mention the fact that I was recently in contact with an Aboriginal girl from Canberra, Australia who told me about her Uncle and how he would tell her Dreamtime stories all the time when she was younger and interested in learning her heritage (Karen Lavender, July 6, 2005).
Our group divided up our presentation into three areas: Christianity, Australian Aboriginal Myths, and Buddhism. We worked very well together and tried to explain a little bit about each subject in the time allotted. Right off the bat I knew that I wanted to talk about the Australian Aboriginal Myths because I already had a working knowledge of some of the myths and how they worked.
The
thing I learned the most from this experience were the facts brought up in the
other two sections of our presentation.
I did learn a little more about Aboriginal myths, but not nearly as much
information as I did about Christianity and Buddhism. I think everyone in the group did an
outstanding job and I was very pleased with the final presentation of our
group.
Bibliography
Hume,
2002 Ancestral Power.
Parker, K. Langloh, and Johanna Lambert.
1993 Wise Women of the Dreamtime:
Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers.
About Dreamtime
2005 About Dreamtime. Electronic
document, http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/dailard/oceanarts/Dreamtime.html,
accessed
Indigenous
2005 Indigenous