THE DREAMTIMEThey 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.

THE DREAMTIMEDuring the creation of our world , the ancestors moved across a barren land, hunting, camping, fighting and loving and in doing so shaped a featureless landscape. 

Moving from Dreams to actions, the ancestors made the ants, the emus, the crows, the possums, the wallabies, the kangaroos, the lizard, the goanna, the snakes and all the food and plants. 

They made the sun, the moon and the planets. They made the humans, tribes and clans. 

Each could transform into the other. A plant could become an animal, an animal a landform, a landform a man or a woman.Everything was created from the same source. 

Everything was created in our Dreamtime. 

As the world took shape and was filled with species and varieties of the ancestral tranformations, the ancestors tired and retired into* the earth * the sky * the clouds * and the creatures to live within

The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse Indigenous groups across the continent. Spirits don’t belong to anyone and can be accessed by everyone.

The Dreamtime continues as the "Dreaming" in the spiritual lives of aboriginal people today. The events of the ancient era of creation are enacted in ceremonies and danced in mime form.(It is interesting to note that many Aboriginal people also use the term ‘Dreaming’ to refer to their concepts about spirituality. This might be because some of them find ceremonies or songs in a state of dreaming, a state between sleeping and waking . Strictly speaking, dreaming and mythology can be considered as the same thing: the deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on to be guided by them when the conscious mind is in a state of quietness.)The fact that the Dreaming is still around Aboriginal people is a fundamental difference to other spiritual beliefs. In Christianity, for example, the spiritual world is ‘heaven’, and many Christians believe it is reachable only after death and never while the person is still alive.

Dreaming gives identityEach Aboriginal person identifies with a specific Dreaming. It gives them identity, dictates how they express their spirituality and tells them which other Aboriginal people are related to them in a close family, because those share the same Dreaming. One person can have multiple Dreamings.Each form shares the spirituality from the ‘Dreaming’. It is during ceremonies that the trance-like dreaming state seizes the Aboriginal people and they connect with the ancestral being.

THE DREAMTIMEAccording to Aboriginal belief, all life as it is today - Human, Animal, Bird and Fish is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.

THE SACRED WORLDThe Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it's creation, and it's great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. For survival these laws must be observed. The Dreaming world was the old time of the Ancestor Beings. They emerged from the earth at the time of the creation. Time began in the world the moment these supernatural beings were "born out of their own Eternity". 

The Earth was a flat surface, in darkness. A dead, silent world. Unknown forms of life were asleep, below the surface of the land. Then the supernatural Ancestor Beings broke through the crust of the earth form below , with tumultuous force. The sun rose out of the ground. The land received light for the first time.

The supernatural Beings, or Totemic Ancestors, resembled creatures or plants, and were half human. They moved across the barren surface of the world. They travelled hunted and fought, and changed the form of the land. In their journeys, they created the landscape, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, waterholes, plains and sandhills. They made the people themselves, who are descendants of the Dreamtime ancestors. They made the Ant, Grasshopper, Emu, Eagle, Crow, Parrot, Wallaby, Kangaroo, Lizard, Snake, and all food plants. They made the natural elements : Water, Air, Fire. They made all the celestial bodies : the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Then, wearied from all their activity, the mythical creatures sank back into the earth and returned to their state of sleep.

Sometimes their spirits turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men. These sites had special qualities.

PHYSICAL WORLD " OUR LAND OUR LIFE " 

'We don't own the land, the land owns us' 'The Land is my mother, my mother is the land' 

'Land is the starting point to where it all began. It is like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I will go' 

'The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity' 'We don't have boundaries like fences, as farmers do. We have spiritual connections'

Land means many things to many people. To a farmer, land is a means of production and the source of a way of life. It is economic sustainability. To a property developer, it is a bargaining chip and the means of financial progress and success. To many Australians, land is something they can own if they work hard enough and save enough money to buy it. To Indigenous people land is not just something that they can own or trade. Land has a spiritual value.

THE HUMAN WORLDAn Aboriginal person is defined as a person who is a descendant of an Indigenous inhabitant of Australia, identifies as an Aboriginal, and is recognised as Aboriginal by members of the community in which she or he lives. Sometimes non-Aboriginal people get confused by the great range and variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, from the traditional hunter to the Doctor of Philosophy; from the dark-skinned to the very fair; from the speaker of traditional languages to the radio announcer who speaks the Queen's English. The lesson to be learned from this is that we should not stereotype people ; that people are different, regardless of race. 

„Our people, of course, did not use the word "Aborigene" (from the latin ab, origin meaning "from the beginning") to refer to ourselves before the coming of non-Aborigenes. Everyone was simply a person.“

The serpent as a Creation Being is perhaps the oldest continuing religious belief in the world, dating back several thousands of years. The Rainbow Serpent features in the Dreaming stories of many mainland Aboriginal nations and is always associated with watercourses, such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. The Rainbow Serpent is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.The most common version of the Rainbow Serpent story tells that in the Dreaming, the world was flat, bare and cold. The Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground with all the animal tribes in her belly waiting to be born. When it was time, she pushed up, calling to the animals to come from their sleep. She threw the land out, making mountains and hills and spilled water over the land, making rivers and lakes. She made the sun, the fire and all the colours.

To the Gagudju people, the Rainbow Serpent was called Almudj and was a major creator being. It forced passages through rocks and created more waterholes. Today, Almudj is still a great creator, bringing the wet season each year, which causes all forms of life to multiply, and appearing in the sky as a rainbow. But Almudj is also to be feared as he can punish anyone who has broken a law by drowning them in floods. Almudj still lives in a pool under a waterfall in Kakadu.

The Jawoyn people, of the Katherine Gorge area in the Northern Territory, tell how the Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground until she awoke in the Dreaming and pushed her way to the surface. She then traveled the land, sleeping when she tired, and left behind her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body. When she had travelled the earth, she returned and called to the frogs to come out, but they were very slow because their bellies were full of water. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs and when the frogs laughed, the water flowed out of their mouths and filled the tracks and hollows left by the Rainbow Serpent, creating the rivers and lakes. This woke all of the animals and plants, who then followed the Rainbow Serpent across the land.

Lightning Brothers in the sky

Bill Harney, Lightning Dreaming (Lightning Brothers), 2001, acrylic on Galicia linen. Image courtesy of Bill Harney and Didgeridoo and Aboriginal Art Distributors.Knowledge of the stars helped people in navigation across the land as well as the seas. Constellations of stars depict figures familiar in the Aboriginal environment like crocodiles and eagles as well as heroic figures like the Lightning Brothers from a Wardaman story.The Lightning Brothers travelled from the Warlpiri lands of the Northern Territory, stopping at Yirindale Springs before coming to camp at their site known as Yiwalalay. During their travels, the younger brother, Yabiringi, began lusting for Kanayanda (or Gulidang), wife of his older brother, Yagjabula, which ended in a fight between the two brothers. In the Dreamtime story, the older brother is claimed to have decapitated the other with a swing from his special stone axe. Other variations of the legend say that the fight ended when the headdress was knocked off. The Lightning Brothers live in the sky-world, the dwelling place of many ancestral spirits. The brothers are depicted in rock art and paintings.

Sacred sites and Dreaming stories

Ludo Kuipers, Joli Laywonga dancing a 'bungkul' traditional dance during the opening of the library at Bamyili School in Barunga, an Aboriginal community 80 km from Katherine in the Northern Territory, 1982. Courtesy of OzOutback Internet Services.In most stories of the Dreaming, the Ancestor spirits came to the earth in human form and as they moved through the land, they created the animals, plants, rocks and other forms of the land that we know today. They also created the relationships between groups and individuals to the land, the animals and other people.Once the ancestor spirits had created the world, they changed into trees, the stars, rocks, watering holes or other objects. These are the sacred places of Aboriginal culture and have special properties. Because the ancestors did not disappear at the end of the Dreaming, but remained in these sacred sites, the Dreaming is never-ending, linking the past and the present, the people and the land.For Aboriginal people all that is sacred is in the land. Knowledge of sacred sites is learned through a process of initiation and gaining an understanding of Aboriginal law. It is, by definition, not public knowledge. This is why the existence of many sites might not be broadcast to the wider world unless they are threatened.Perhaps the most well-known sacred site in Australia is Uluru. Located in the centre of Australia, southwest of Alice Springs, the first European explorers named it Ayers Rock. The caves inside the rock are covered with Aboriginal paintings. In 1985 the Commonwealth Government of Australia returned Uluru to its traditional owners, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people (also known as Anangu).

Aboriginal Uluru Dreamtime StoryDreamtime is the core of everything, and of the many sacred sites in Australia, few are as important as Uluru.

According to Uluru dreamtime, the world was a featureless place until the ancestors of the Anangu emerged and travelled across the land, creating the features like Uluru that we see today. Ayers Rock represents the physical evidence of their time on the earth and is seen as one of their most dramatic and inspiring creations.Aboriginal culture dictates that Uluru was formed by ancestral beings during Dreamtime. The rock’s many caves and fissures are thought to be evidence of this, and some of the forms around Uluru are said to represent ancestral spirits. Rituals are still often held today in the caves around the base where ‘No Photography’ signs are posted out of respect.Ayers Rock tours incorporate the amazing rock paintings of the Anangu, which are seen as a record of the very period of dreamtime. The rock’s caves, cliffs and fissures contain countless petroglyphs that tell the story of the ancestors. Certain rock outcroppings represent ancestral spirits, and the Anangu believe that by simply touching the rocks they can communicate with Dreamtime and receive blessings from their ancestors.Uluru remains sacred to a number of Aboriginal tribes in the region who still perform rituals in the caves and make new rock paintings. It is worth signing up for a quality tour at Ayers Rock that can show you some of the more unique and special paintings. Each side of Uluru has a different creation story associated with it, and with an experienced local guide you can hear all of the incredible colourful tales that form the basis of Aboriginal culture in this important part of Australia.

Aboriginal Beliefs Connected With Uluru (Ayer's Rock)Kunia & Liru

During the creation (tjukurapa) times many of the Woma, the non-venomous snakes, and Kunia, the carpet-snake, lived at Pugabuga, an unlocalised place to the east of Mt Conner. Pugabuga would probably be a water body of some sort, as snake beings, especially non-venomous species, from the dreamtime are almost always associated with water.After a while, the snake people became dissatisfied with the surroundings at Pugabuga and travelled west. When they arrived at Maratjara, a spring near the deserted station, Lyndavale, the snakes divided into 2 parties. The Woma, who now live only in the sandhill country, stayed near Maratjara. The Kunia continued on until they  came to a large, flat sandhill in the centre of which was Uluru water. Others, mostly old people, women and children stayed at either the southeastern corner, or in Tjukiki Gorge on the south side.Those Kunia people were transformed into natural features at the end of the creation period. The Kunia women sitting in their camp became large boulders in Tjukiki Gorge. Their wooden carrying dish became a tall conical slab of rock at the head of the gorge. Their pubic hairs became the low bushes on the floor of the gorge, and their camp fire became Kapi Tjukiki, the Rockhole. The Kunia women were transformed into the larger boulders on the southeastern corner of the rock, and the smaller boulders their children. The camps of the women are now large caves and the camps of their children are the small caves.A long boulder on the plain around Uluru was a Kunia woman and smaller boulder her children. An old Kunia woman and old Kunia men lying asleep in the sun became another long boulder. The deep ridges on the sides of Uluru were once the tracks made by the carpet-snake people as they travelled to and from the Uluru Waterhole. The gutters on the sides of the rock were the beard of the old men.  The caves in the face of the cliff were places where the Kunia people had camped. Smaller circular depressions on the summit of Uluru were the places where one or another of the carpet-snake people rested during tjukurapa in what was then the soft sand of Uluru. At that time things were going well at Uluru, every day the women gathered yams, grass seeds and fruit and the men hunted kangaroos, emus and wallabies and other animals.

ARTArt is a very important part of our religious life, to maintain traditional representations and styles. It is still in the tradition to represent many of the desert Dreamings stories, and the sand paintings have been replaced by paintings on canvas and new styles like dot paintings and X rays styles are the most popular modern art styles based on traditional Dreamings and totemic representations.

Symbols used within paintings include concentric circles, curved lines & straight lines. Concentric circles usually represent camp sites, waterholes or places of significance. Curved lines generally represent rain or water travelling underground. Straight lines may be indicative of travelling & when these lines join concentric circles it may show the pathway travelled by the ancestors. A small "U" shaped figure may represent a person & depending on the iconoraphy next to the person determines whether it is male or female.Tracks, whether human or animal, are often shown as they appear on the ground. Lizards and snakes are frequently seen from a topographical view - as one would see them from above.Dotted motifs & design work have become the trademark of the contemporary Aboriginal Art movement.

ARCHITECTURECommunity-based public architectureIndigenous communities and architects have collaborated with non-Indigenous people on projects to design public buildings that account for the relationships between family members, are characterisedby Indigenous symbolism and meaning, and integrate with the landscape to show the Indigenous notion of connectedness with the land.The Tjulyuru Ngaanyatjarri Cultural and Civic Centre in Warburton, Western Australia, designed by Insideout Architects, was designed to reflect the landscape and culture in which it is set. It provides meeting areas as a unique environment in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people can mix, and through which visitors can immerse themselves in Ngaanyatjarra culture. The Centre demonstrates a shift in emphasis in Indigenous tourism from 'presenting culture as an object...to culture as a subject' .

Unknown photographer,Brambuk Living Cultural Centre. Image courtesy of Gregory Burgess Pty Ltd Architects.Spiritual symbolism and attachment to the land have been significant considerations in creating culturally appropriate designs. Gregory Burgess designed the Brambuk Living Cultural Centre and Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre at Uluru. The Brambuk's undulating roofline makes reference to the ranges and to the shape of the Djab wurrung's and Jardwadjali's totemic symbol, the cockatoo. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre was designed in collaboration with the Aboriginal community.The Musgrave Park Cultural Centre was designed on behalf of Musgrave Park Aboriginal Corporation (MPAC) to incorporate the needs of clients, Centre functions, activities, cultural issues, Indigenous meanings and symbolic aspects.The goanna-shaped Karijini National Park Visitors Centre in north-west Western Australia similarly reflects totemic symbols by basing the design on an animal. Designed by Woodhead International, the Centre houses an interpretative display which talks about the history of the Park and its inhabitants. The design concept was to take a visitor out of the vastness of the landscape, to confine their thoughts, and then tell them about the place. The Aboriginal story is a major part of the display.Indigenous architectsIn the late 20th century, the first Indigenous students of university-based architecture and design courses in Australia graduated. Some contemporary Indigenous architects incorporate different aspects of traditional Indigenous cultural references and symbolism, and fuse modern residential architecture with traditional styles. Others avoid the iconic representation of Aboriginal ancestors or references to 'The Dreamtime', and instead pursue different approaches to the question of identity and architecture.Contemporary designs may reflect traditional layouts of camps, such as the Wilcannia Health Services project in western New South Wales by Merrima Design Group. The design incorporates large, open spaces for meetings and has a focus on external spaces. Although it draws on references from the Darling River and its sacredness to Barkanji people, it does not obviously abstract any Barkanji ancestors. The 'Shroud House Project', the residential property of Indigenous architectural graduate Carroll Go-Sam, incorporated a fusion between contemporary architecture and Dyirrbal symbols.

Andrew Lane, Queensland's first registered Indigenous architect, was first employed in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing section of the Queensland Department of Housing, then at the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs where he designed the Yuendumu Art Centre. Current work encompasses planning of housing projects in small communities such as Mornington Island.

Brett Boardman,Aboriginal Medical Service, 2004. Designed by Merrima Design Group. Image courtesy of Indigo.

TRACKING SKILLS

Paul Raffaele, Aboriginal tracker Teddy Egan and son. Image courtesy of Paul Raffaele.Aboriginal people have developed exceptional tracking skills based on their hunter and gather life which includes the ability to track down animals, to identify and locate edible plants, and to find sources of water.Indigenous Australian- external site  children learn to recognise the tracks of animals as soon as they are old enough to notice. Traditionally, as soon as children learn to walk, they learn to track their mother's and sibling's footprints as well as learning hand signs so people know when to be quiet or careful. To this end, people walking together in the bush do so in single file. The ground also makes a good drawing board and children learn the patterns and shapes which represent the tracks of common animals.An experienced tracker can read the ground like a storybook. If the tracks are those of a mammal, he can probably tell you, from the size and 'weight' or depth of the tracks, its gender and approximate age. If the animal is a female, he will know by the spacing of the hind legs whether or not it is 'parapu' (carrying young). He will usually be able to tell you the species of a lizard and not only which way a snake is travelling, and its size, but how fast it is moving and whether it is harmless or venomous.

DIDGERIDOO"As with imagemaking, Aboriginal music also unites consciousness with the invisible laws and energy patterns of nature. Aboriginal art is perhaps most accurately described as a method for gaining knowledge of nature and its invisible Dreaming. An example is the playing of the didjeridoo, a long wooden flute, perhaps the oldest musical instrument on earth.

Traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjereedoo. For the Aborigine, the observation of nature immediately requires a state of empathy, which leads to am imitative expression." 

10 didgeridoo facts:1. Possibly the world's oldest musical instrument2. A wind instrument originally found in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia.3. Is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites (insects).4. Is cut to an average length of 1.3 metres and cleaned out with a stick or hot coals.5. Was used as an accompaniment to chants and songs. 6. Produces a low-pitch, resonant sound with complex rhythmic patterns. 7. In sure tribal groups only played by men but in most groups by men, women and children.8. Traditional various forms at the didjeridoo where found in Central Australia around Alice Springs.9. The Didgeridoo is the sound of Australia.10.If the earth had a voice it would be the sound of the Didgeridoo.

References:

https://www.google.cz/search?q=Dreamtime&espv=2&biw=890&bih=542&site=webhp&tbm=isch&imgil=DNm26GbBAP_dDM%253A%253BJdhx7N-Z-mFwzM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.englishdaybyday.net%25252Farticle-australia-culture-aborigines-and-dreamtime-stories-116516841.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=DNm26GbBAP_dDM%253A%252CJdhx7N-Z-mFwzM%252C_&dpr=1.25&usg=__dqFhGlUVjHU8q8vrukh35TA4tck%3D&ved=0ahUKEwj_vJKWxaLJAhXLuxQKHT0GCosQyjcIRw&ei=5exQVr-2Lcv3Ur2MqNgI#imgrc=X_EbapWz1KkEgM%3A&usg=__dqFhGlUVjHU8q8vrukh35TA4tck%3D

http://uluru-australia.com/about-uluru/aboriginal-uluru-dreamtime/

http://austhrutime.com/mythology_uluru.htm

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/aboriginal-trackers

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-architecture

http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/dreaming

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming#toc4