The Dreaming
The Dreaming is a unique religious concept, but it is not the same as Dreamtime since Dreaming goes beyond the usual sense of how Western civilisation understands dreams. It is the environment the Aboriginal people lived in and still do today. For the Indigenous people, the Dreaming refers to the Creation Period, which is a time beyond human memory, when human beings, landscapes, and languages were created. Dreams are the key parts for the communication between the human and spiritual. The beings, that created all this, died as bodies, but their spiritual character remains in the landscape, the sky, and the ocean.
The Indigenous Australians believe that the life giving and life sustaining powers of ancestral beings still exist. These people have a deep connection to particular 'Dreamings ', such as plants, animals and other elements of nature. Even though individuals come and go, the
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Dreaming stories transfer important knowledge, cultural values, and belief systems to later generations. Through song, dance, painting and storytelling, Aboriginal peoples created a rich cultural heritage with the connection of the ancient Dreaming to today. Most of the stories have a deep relationship with the landscape, animals, and people, like in the story "The Rainbow Serpent" above. (cf. Australian Government)
"There are many Dreamings and stories for all regions, but on the Larapinta Trail near Alice Springs, for example, visitors cannot help but be aware of the Caterpillar Dreaming. In Arnhem Land, the Yolngu record their interaction with Macassan traders with the Red Flag dance. The Titjikala community, south of Alice Springs, tell the story of the evil Itikiwarra, the knob-tailed gecko spirit ancestor, while the Anangu of northern South Australia have the Kuniya songline, where the woman python lays her eggs on a slab of rock, leaving landmarks across the country." (Pascoe