"The Dreamtime" - Aboriginal story of Creation

Aboriginal spirituality entails a close relationship between humans and the land. Aborigines call the beginning of the world the "Dreaming," or "Dream time." In the "Dream time," aboriginal "Ancestors" rose from below the earth to form various parts of nature including animal species, bodies of water, and the sky.

Unlike other religions, however, aboriginal belief does not place the human species apart from or on a higher level than nature. Aborigines believe some of the Ancestors metamorphosed into nature (as in rock formations or rivers), where they remain spiritually alive.

The oral tradition of storytelling informs aboriginals' vibrant cultural life. Songs illustrate the Dream time and other tales of the land, while dances and diagrams drawn in the sand accompany oral tales.

Time began when the supernatural beings awoke and broke through the surface of the earth. The earth was soon flooded with light as the sun too rose from the ground. The supernatural beings varied greatly in appearance. Some rose in animal shapes resembling kangaroos and emus, other emerged in human guise looking like perfectly formed men and women. There was an indivisible link between humans, animals and plants. Those beings that looked like animals thought and acted like humans, and those in human form could change at will into animals.

After emerging from their eternal slumber, the beings – referred to as totemic ancestors (such as Wallaby Dreaming and Emu Dreaming etc) – moved about the earth bringing into being the physical features of the landscape. Mountains, sandhills, plains and rivers all arose to mark the deeds of the wandering totemic ancestors. Not a single prominent feature was created which was not associated with an episode of the supernatural beings.

The sacred songs of their deeds were compositions by the supernatural beings themselves. It was these compositions which became the subject of the many sacred myths, songs and ceremonies in which Aboriginal religious beliefs were to find expression. Hence, they were sung on ceremonial occasions and body decorations were worn by actors impersonating the totemic ancestors. All sacred ritual was regarded as eternal and unalterable.

The supernatural beings continued to roam until, exhausted by their effort, they fell back into their sleep and returned to the earth. Many vanished into the ground, often from the sites where they first emerged, others turned into physical objects like rocks or trees. The places that marked their final resting places were regarded as sacred sites to be approached only by initiated men. But before their disappearance from the face and of the earth, the sun and the moon and the rest of the earth-born celestial beings rose into the sky, and man was left to wander the earth.

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