Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Aborigines are Australia's indigenous people. Recent government statistics counted approximately 400,000 aboriginal people, or about 2% of Australia's total population.
Australian Aborigines migrated from Asia at least 30,000 years ago. There are about 500 different Aboriginal peoples in Australia, each with their own language and territory and usually made up of a large number of separate clans.
The Rainbow Serpent is represented as a large, snake-like creature, whose Dreaming track is always associated with watercourses, such as rivers, creeks and lagoons. It is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.
The Rainbow Serpent is a consistent theme in Aboriginal painting and has been found in rock art up to 6000 years old. The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful symbol of the creative and destructive power of nature. Most paintings of Rainbow Serpents tell the story of the creation of the landscape particular to an artist's birthplace.
Dreaming stories vary throughout Australia and there are different versions on the same theme.
For example, the story of how the birds got their colors is different in New South Wales and in Western Australia.
Stories cover many themes and topics. There are stories about creation of sacred places, landforms, people, animals and plants. There are also stories of language or the first use of fire. And more currently, there are stories telling of the arrival of the first Europeans on ships or stories about trading with Macassan fisherman in northern Australia.
The Dreaming establishes the structures of society, rules for social behavior, and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. The Dreaming governs the laws of community, cultural lore and how people are required to behave in their communities. The condition that is The Dreaming is met when people live according to law, and live the lore: such as singing the songs, dancing the dances, telling the stories, painting the songlines and Dreamings.
The Dreaming' or 'the Dreamtime' indicates a psychic state in which or during which contact is made with the ancestral spirits, or the Law, or that special period of the beginning.
During the Dreaming, ancestral spirits came to earth and created the landforms, the animals and plants. The stories tell how the ancestral spirits moved through the land creating rivers, lakes and mountains. Today we know the places where the ancestral spirits have been and where they came to rest. There are explanations of how people came to Australia and the links between the groups throughout Australia.
There are explanations about how people learned languages and dance and how they came to know about fire.
In essence, the Dreaming comes from the land. In Aboriginal society, people did not own the land it was part of them and it was part of their duty to respect and look after mother earth.
The Dreaming did not end with the arrival of Europeans but simply entered a new phase. It is a powerful living force that must be maintained and cared for.