Understanding the Australian Aborigines’ complex yet beautiful mythology
According to Aboriginal accounts, every last outcropping and fissure of Ayers Rock represents a specific action performed by the spirit-ancestors who dwell there.
The Time before Time. The Time Outside of Time. The Time of the Creation of All Things. The Everywhen. These are just some of the names that outsiders attempting to understand Aboriginal culture have given to the complex web of spiritual beliefs collectively known as “Dreamtime.”
At its most basic, Dreamtime is defined as the Aboriginal people’s creation mythology. In the beginning, the earth was flat, silent, and dark, a formless landscape devoid of life. But one day, long dormant spirit-ancestors awakened, and time began. Assuming half-human, half-animal forms, the spirit-ancestors began creating the mountains and rivers, deserts and forests as they exist today. After giving life and form to the earth, they returned to their original state, once again dwelling within the earth. Everything in the Aboriginal world thus contains an essence or spirit that had its beginnings in the Dreamtime.
However, this seemingly straightforward analysis is complicated by the Aboriginal concept of time. As opposed to the Western notion of time as a linear progression, Dreamtime is a fluid entity in which the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. In addition, there are no spatial limitations; the natural, physical, and spiritual worlds are essentially interchangeable, existing both within and outside of each other in an eternal state. In this way, Aboriginal people remain inextricably connected to nature, their ancestors, and their own personal meaning.
Like Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, Dreamtime also posits the existence of an infinite spiritual cycle. Thus defined, human life is viewed as a mere gap in eternity; a person’s essential nature is a constant that exists prior to birth and remains after death. In the Aboriginal understanding, a spirit-child sent from the realm of the spirit-ancestors is said to enter a woman’s womb sometime during the fifth month of pregnancy; this is evidenced by the quickening of the fetus.
In Aboriginal culture, Dreamtime is not a recounting of past history, but rather a living presence that continues to animate the world and everything in it.
Explore Australia’s Aboriginal traditions on OAT’s Ultimate Australia adventure.