The Dreaming

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA

Western & Central Desert Aboriginal Art Symbols by Margo Smith, Director

February 2005

The Dreaming Australian Aborigines have been present in Australia for over 60,000 years. Australia is a vast country (about the same size as the continental United States) with many varied climates and temperature zones. Just as there are great differences among North America’s indigenous people, Aboriginal people are culturally diverse. At the time of contact there were an estimated 250 distinct Aboriginal languages spoken. One unifying theme in Aboriginal culture is the belief in the Dreaming, also called the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime explains the origins of the land and its people. Dreaming stories tell how the present day landscape was created by ancestral beings before the existence of humans. Ancestors traveled the countryside engaging in activities that formed the natural features of the land, giving birth to humans, and establishing the code of moral behavior, known to Aboriginal people as the Law. Tales of the Dreaming are conveyed through song, dance, body paint, rock art, sand sculpture and bark painting, and more recently, through acrylic paint on canvas. The art is not self-explanatory, but represents key elements of a rich oral history, which has been passed down for generations. The ancestors who inhabited the Dreaming are often associated with a species of animal. Yet they have many human qualities and live in society. In addition, they may have superhuman capabilities, such as the power to travel through the sky or underground and to transform themselves into different beings. Most life as we know it human, animal, or plant - can be traced directly back to the Dreaming. In the Aboriginal worldview, the events of the Dreaming made things the way things are today. One needs only look at the landscape, to find proof that the Dreaming occurred as described in the stories. For example, a little hill that represents the coiled body of the Snake Woman reminds people that she slept in that place in the Dreaming. The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin in the Dreamtime, and certain places have a particular potency, which the Aborigines call its Dreaming. Dreaming stories give lessons about morality and social obligations. In Australia's harsh climate, they also encode information about the landscape, such as where to find food and water. For hunting and gathering people they served as mental maps, providing information about one’s location and the resources available in that place.

Aboriginal art often conveys this map-like quality, as if the viewer is looking down on the landscape from above. The Dreaming is a relationship with the spiritual that existed when the world was created, exists now, and will exist in the future. It is one of the most fundamental and enduring expressions of Aboriginal culture.