The Dreaming in Aboriginal Spirituality

The Dreaming in Aboriginal Spirituality

The Dreaming is the core of traditional Aboriginal religious beliefs.

The term itself translates as various words in different languages of

the Aboriginal people. Groups each have their own words for this

concept: for example the Ngarinyin people of north-Western Australia

use the word Ungud, the Arrernte people of central Australia refer to

it as Aldjerinya and the Adnyamathanha use the word Nguthuna. Its

meaning is paramount to traditional Aboriginal people, their lifestyle

and their culture, for it determines their values and beliefs and

their relationship with every living creature and every characteristic

of the landscape. Through a network of obligations involving

themselves, the land, and the Ancestors, traditional Aboriginals

express The Dreaming through every facet of their life.

The Dreaming is not just a recollection of the past, it is also the

reality of the now and the creator of the future. At the most

elementary level, The Dreaming embodies the Aboriginal idea of

creation. In Aboriginal belief it was the activities of the Ancestral

beings as the moved around which created the world as it is today. For

example, to the Pitjantjatjat people of the western Desert of Central

Australia, a high mountain peak may represent a place where one of the

Ancestors stood up and looked over the surrounding country These

Ancestral beings have been described as the "prototypes of the various

natural species." This belief reinforces the spiritual and physical

ties that Aboriginal people have with the land. Thus insuring that The

Dreaming is not separated from the physical world or hinged to the

past, but existent in the present.

It is not only believed that the Ancestral beings gave Aboriginals

their physical surroundings but were also responsible for establishing

the social and cultural patterns to be emulated. Demonstrating human

qualities the Ancestor Spirits established the Aboriginal way of life

including kinship systems, customs and moral lessons represented by

both good and wrong behaviour. This is why The Dreaming is in one

dimension thought of as the 'law' of Aboriginal belief.