Aboriginal- The Dreamig

Question 1

Origins of the dreaming?

Answer 1

• founded in the Dreaming stories of foundation.
• the ancestral spirit beings shaped the natural world and continue to sustain the events and places of the traditional Ab world.

Question 2

What does the term The Dreaming refer to?

Answer 2

Used to refer to the concept which underpins all beliefs and practised in Ab communities - knowledge and understanding among Ab societies

Question 3

What does metatemporal refer to in terms of The Dreaming?

Answer 3

It is the past, present and future simultaneously as a complete and present reality

Question 4

How is the dreaming inextricably linked to the land?

Answer 4

• It is the physical medium through which the Dreaming is lived, expressed and communicated
• physical link between the natural and supernatural
• land is the area of creative activity in the dreaming that gives Ab people identity in their spiritual beliefs and responsibility to the land and therefore the Dreaming
• through an individual’s journey of identity, the stores and beliefs of the dreaming is revealed through the land.
• there is kinship between the land and aboriginal identity as they are both formed by the ancestral spirit-dreaming-inextricably linked
• ab identity is often formed through their totems which comes from the dreaming which took place in the land

Question 5

Sacred sites:

Answer 5

• They are connected to the different events of the dreaming, where diff Ab groups have responsibility to care for and lean from the sites
• places where ancestral being became part of the land

Question 6

Stories of the dreaming:

Answer 6

=law and lifestyle

Not seen as myth but reality, simultaneously past, present and future

Question 7

Symbolism and art:

Answer 7

Communicates the dreaming

• illustrates actions of the spirit ancestors
• rituals and laws
• offers multiple layers of meaning depending on the individuals understanding of the dreamtime

Question 8

Diversity of the dreaming

Answer 8

• 900 Ab nations=stories differ greatly + rituals
• geographically close tribes have similar stories
• centre to all tribes is the belief in an ancestral creative spirit who created the physical land

Question 9

Importance of the dreaming :

Answer 9

• Important in recognising that there is no felt separation between the natural and supernatural -human and spiritual , present and eternal, descendants and ancestors
• the dreaming magnifies life through a devoted preoccupation (signs,symbols)
• allows life to be taken as sacred, a miracle