Dreaming (Australian Aboriginal art) facts for kids

In Australian Aboriginal art, a Dreaming is a special design or artwork. It tells a story that belongs to a group of people or an individual. These stories are very important and often explain how the world, people, and animals came to be.

What is the Dreaming?

The term "Dreaming" (or "Dreamtime") is often used to describe the creation stories of Aboriginal Australians. It's about how the world was formed and how everything came into being. It also refers to a "timeless time" when powerful spirits and ancestors created the land, animals, and people.

The Dreaming also includes special places on traditional Aboriginal land. These are places where the spirits and ancestors are believed to live.

The word "Dreaming" was first used by a researcher named W. E. H. Stanner in 1956. It became popular in the 1960s. He based it on descriptions of Aboriginal stories. The term comes from the word altjira (or alcheringa) used by the Aranda people. However, it's now known that this was not a perfect translation of the original meaning.

Dreaming in Modern Aboriginal Art

Further information: Papunya Tula

A "Dreaming" is like a special story or knowledge that belongs to different Aboriginal tribes and their members. These stories explain how life, people, and animals were created. A Dreaming story is passed down carefully because it is owned, much like "intellectual property".

In modern times, an Aboriginal person cannot tell or paint someone else's Dreaming story without their permission. It's very important to respect someone's Dreaming story, as that person holds the special knowledge about it. If a Dreaming is painted without permission, it can be seen as "stealing" someone else's story.

The Honey Ant Dreaming Example

For example, in the 1970s, a mural of the Honey Ant Dreaming was painted on a school wall in Papunya. Papunya is a meeting place for many tribes, including the Pintupi, Warlpiri, Arrernte, and Anmatyerre people. Before the mural could be painted, all these tribes had to agree that the Honey Ant was a suitable story for the mural.

After the mural was finished, an important elder named Long Tom Onion reminded the artist, Geoffrey Bardon, that he had suggested the mural. Bardon later realized that Long Tom Onion actually owned that particular Dreaming story. This showed Bardon how important Dreaming ownership is among Aboriginal Australians, especially those who still have strong connections to their traditions.

Passing on Dreaming Stories

Among the tribes in the Central Desert of Australia, Dreaming stories are often passed down based on gender. For instance, the famous artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri painted ceremonial Dreamings about growing up and love stories. His daughters, Gabriella Possum and Michelle Possum, often paint the ""Seven Sisters" Dreaming" (which is about the Pleiades star cluster). They inherited this Dreaming through their mother's family.

Because of this, they paint about their "Grandmother's Country," which shows their inherited connection to the land through these Dreaming stories. Clifford and his daughters did not paint the same subjects. Clifford never painted the "Seven Sisters Dreaming," and by tribal law, his daughters were not allowed to see or paint male tribal ceremonies.

Dreamings and Land Rights

Dreamings are also seen as a form of "property" and have been used by some Aboriginal tribes to argue for their rights to traditional land in the High Court of Australia. Paintings of Dreamings often show the places where the stories happened, or the journeys taken by ancestral beings.

In some court cases, very long paintings (up to 10 meters long) have been shown as proof of a tribe's connection to the land. This happened after the idea of terra nullius (meaning "nobody's land") was overturned in Australia, which recognized that Aboriginal people had owned the land for thousands of years.

See also

In Spanish: El Sueño (espiritualidad) para niños

• Anangu
• Embodied imagination