The Dreaming, the Dreamtime has become a handy phrase used to describe
what is in fact a sophisticated and interconnected mosaic of knowledge,
beliefs and practises concerning the creativity of Ancestral Beings,
and the continuity and values of Aboriginal life.
The vibrant ceremonial and religious life of Northern Territory
people generated a spectacular array of art forms, including body
painting and personal ornamentation, ground sculpture, bark painting,
wood carving, and rock painting and engraving. Artistic creativity
and innovation were informed by religious belief. Designs and motifs
embodied multiple sets of meanings about group ownership of lands
and relationships to particular Ancestral Beings. These expressions
along with the rich oral traditions, elaborate song and dance styles
and personal performance of them, were all regarded as manifestations
of the original ancestral creative power. Each generation accepted
responsibility for passing on the economic, social and religious
knowledge, beliefs and actions that ensured the reproduction of
Aboriginal societies and cultures.
Before the dawn of the present age was "the Dreaming",
or the Alchera of the Aranda, a time when the ancestors of the Aborigenes
wandered over a featureless land. These ancestors were unlike people
of today ; they possessed special powers and were so intimately
associated with certain animals and plants that an ancestor of the
kangaroo totem "many sometimes be spoken of either as a man-kangaroo
or as a kangaroo-man. As the ancestors journeyed over the land,
their actions gave if form, created the natural features such as
rivers and ranges. The land they shaped is today occupied by their
descendants.
During their travels the dreamtime ancestors carried one or more
sacred tjurunga, each "intimately associated with the idea
of a spirit part of some individual". Many tjurunga were buried,
each burial site marked by a natural object such as a rock or a
tree.
Other places of significance are where ancestors entered the earth,
at which time they died, but their spirits remained within the buried
tjurunga. These places were also marked by natural objects.
There are thus at the present day, dotted about all over the Arrernte
country, a very large number of places associated with these Alcheringa
spirits, one group of whom will be Kangaroo, another Emu, another
Hakea plant, and so on. When a woman conceives it simply means that
one of these spirits has gone inside her, and knowing where she
first became aware that she was pregnant, the child, when born,
is regarded as the reincarnation of one of the spirit ancestors
associated with that spot, and therefore it belongs to that particular
totemic group.