{{Short description|Sacred era in Australian Aboriginal mythology}}{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=May 2026}}{{Copy edit|date=April 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} {{Use Australian English|date=July 2019}}
[[File:Aboriginal art Carnarvon Gorge.jpg|thumb|300px|Stencil art at Carnarvon Gorge. The collective works of the Bidjara, Karingbal (or Garingbal), Ghungalu (or Gangulu), Gunggari, Gayiri (or Kairi), Nguri, Gungabula, Yiman, Wadja, Kara Kara, and Butchulla peoples (Aboriginal groups that have created the myriad of stencil art sites that exist at Carnarvon Gorge) encompass many critical aspects of early and recent Aboriginal society. They include, but are not limited to, insights on memorial practices, appeals to totemic ancestors or varying interpretative records of Dreaming stories, and provide direct documentation on the daily lives of said groups ~19,500 - 3,500 years ago. {{sfn|Walsh|1979|pp=33–41}}]]'''The Dreaming''', also referred to as '''Dreamtime''', is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology.<ref name=":1" />
It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Walter Baldwin Spencer, and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who later revised his views.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=digitalfolklore |url=http://archive.org/details/the-australia-aboriginal-how-to-understand-them |title=The Australia Aboriginal How To Understand Them |date=2024-09-18}}</ref>
The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of "Everywhen," during which the land was inhabited and created by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Dreamtime {{!}} Religion and Philosophy {{!}} Research Starters {{!}} EBSCO Research |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/dreamtime |access-date=2026-05-20 |website=EBSCO |language=en}}</ref>
The meaning and significance of specific places and creatures are wedded to their origin in the Dreaming, and certain locations have a distinct potency, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (Mt. Olga), Wollumbin, and Baiame Cave.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Rise |first=History |date=2020-10-30 |title=The Cultural History of the Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories and Their Contemporary Relevance |url=https://historyrise.com/the-cultural-history-of-the-aboriginal-dreamtime-stories-and-their-contemporary-relevance/ |access-date=2026-04-22 |website=History Rise |language=en-US}}</ref>
Many Aboriginal Australians also refer to the world-creation time as "Dreamtime". The Dreaming laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}
The Dreaming is also used as a term for a system of totemic symbols, so that an Aboriginal person may "own" a specific Dreaming; such as a Kangaroo Dreaming, a Shark Dreaming, a Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their country.<ref name=":0" />
This is because in the Dreaming an individual's entire ancestry exists as one single, continuing cycle, culminating in the idea that all worldly knowledge is accumulated through one's ancestors.<ref name=":1" />
== Creation in the Dreamtime == Creation is believed to be the work of culture heroes who travelled across a formless land, creating sacred sites and significant places of interest in their travels.<ref name=":2" />
The concept of a life force in creation is also often associated with sacred sites, and ceremonies performed at such sites "are a re-creation of the events which created the site during The Dreaming". The ceremony helps the life force at the site to remain active and to keep creating new life: if not performed, new life cannot be created.{{sfn|The Dreaming: Sacred sites}} == Nuance regarding the Dreamtime == The grouping of all Aboriginal peoples' beliefs and culture around the Dreaming together can only give a generalised view that lacks substantial nuance. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies cites 250 distinct language groups,{{sfn|AIATSIS|2020}} each with variation in beliefs to one another.
Dreaming stories vary across Australia, frequently sharing variations on the same theme.<ref name=":1" />
For example, stories of how the sun was made differ among the Aboriginal groups of New South Wales (the Gamilaraay, Wiradjuri, Euahlayi, Ngiyaampaa, Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, Eora, and Yuin nations) compared to those of Western Australia (Noongar sub-groups like the Wadandi and Bibbulmun, etc.).<ref>{{cite arXiv | last1=Fuller | first1=Robert S. | last2=Norris | first2=Ray P. | last3=Trudgett | first3=Michelle | title=The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi People and their Neighbours | date=2013 | class=physics.hist-ph | eprint=1311.0076 }}</ref>
In the Gamilaraay and Wiradjuri traditions of New South Wales, the sun began as a celestial accident born from a rivalry between the Emu and the Brolga (a graceful, tall, grey bird). During a fierce argument on the plains, the Brolga snatches a massive emu egg from a nest and hurls it toward the sky spirits. The egg struck a heap of kindling, causing the yolk to burst into a brilliant flame that illuminated the world for the first time. Moved by the beauty of the light, the spirits decided to rekindle this fire daily, appointing the Kookaburra to wake the world with its laughter each dawn so no one would miss the sun's return.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Austin |first1=Peter |last2=Tindale |first2=Norman B. |date=1985 |title=Emu and Brolga, a Kamilaroi Myth |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24045827 |journal=Aboriginal History |volume=9 |issue=1/2 |pages=8–21 |jstor=24045827 |issn=0314-8769}}</ref>
In the Noongar traditions of Western Australia, the sun is personified as Ngaangk, a maternal spirit who travels across the sky as a torch-bearer. Each morning, she rises in the east carrying a smoldering Banksia cone, echoing the traditional practice of Aboriginal women who carried "walking fires" between campsites. As she moves toward the western horizon, she provides the earth with warmth and life before traveling through a subterranean tunnel at night to return to her starting point. In this perspective, the sun is not a permanent fixture but a continuous act of care and a daily renewal of fire for the People.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ngaangk (Sun) - Wp/nys - Wikimedia Incubator |url=https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Ngaangk_(Sun) |access-date=2026-04-22 |website=incubator.wikimedia.org |language=en}}</ref>
== Examples of physical manifestation of Dreamtime entities ==
Some of the ancestors or spirit beings inhabiting the Dreamtime become one with parts of the landscape, such as rocks or trees.{{sfn|Korff|2019}}
For example, the Anangu people believe that features of Uluru (Ayers Rock) are the physical remains of ancestral Dreamtime beings, such as the carpet-snake people (Kuniya); who fought or lived there during the Dreaming, with specific rock holes marking the sites of occurrences such their battles with the Liru (venomous snake people).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Kuniya & Liru stories {{!}} Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park {{!}} Parks Australia |url=https://uluru.gov.au/discover/culture/stories/kuniya-liru-stories/ |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=uluru.gov.au |language=en}}</ref>
In another example, the Gaagudju people of Arnhemland, for whom Kakadu National Park is named; believe that the sandstone escarpment that dominates the park's landscape was created in the Dreamtime when Ginga (the crocodile-man) was badly burned during a ceremony and jumped into the water to save himself.
Narratives cover many themes and topics, including the creation of sacred places, land, people, animals, plants, law, and custom.<ref name=":3">https://cico3.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/wolfe-patrick-1991-22on-being-woken-up-the-dreamtime-in-anthropology-and-in-australian-settler-culture22.pdf</ref>
== Aboriginal groups with notable Dreamtime interpretative variation ==
* Anmatyerr * Arrernte * Bidjara * Butchulla * Dharug * Gaagudju * Gija * Jawoyn * Kaytetye * Luritja * Martu * Ngarinyin * Ngunnawal * Ngarigo * Noongar * Pintupi * Pitjantjatjara * Warlpiri * Yankunytjatjara =="Translations" and meaning== The term is based on a rendition of the Arandic word alcheringa, used by the Arrernte (Aranda, Arunta) people of Central Australia, although it has been argued that it is based on a misunderstanding or mistranslation. Some scholars suggest that the word's meaning is closer to "eternal, uncreated."<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283206413_What_does_Jukurrpa_%27Dreamtime%27_%27Dreaming%27_mean_A_semantic_and_conceptual_journey_of_discovery</ref>
Anthropologist William Stanner said that the concept was "best" understood by non-Aboriginal people as "a complex of meanings." Stanner famously termed this "Everywhen," representing the Aboriginal concept that the Dreaming is not a "far distant past," but a timeless reality where the past, present, and future coexist in an omnipotently simultaneous manner.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archive |first=Internet Sacred Text |title=The Native Tribes of North Central Australia Index |url=https://sacred-texts.com/aus/ntca/index.htm |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=Internet Sacred Text Archive |language=English}}</ref>
Some Aboriginal groups find the word "Dreaming" inappropriate because it implies something non-real, whereas the concept is a lived daily reality. By the 1990s, Dreaming had entered popular culture, based on idealised or highly fictionalised conceptions of Australian mythology. Since the 1970s, Dreaming has also returned from academic usage via popular culture and tourism and is now ubiquitous in the English vocabulary of Aboriginal Australians in a kind of "self-fulfilling academic prophecy." <ref>{{Cite web |last=Archive |first=Internet Sacred Text |title=The Native Tribes of North Central Australia Index |url=https://sacred-texts.com/aus/ntca/index.htm |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=Internet Sacred Text Archive |language=English}}</ref>
The station-master, magistrate, and amateur ethnographer Francis Gillen first used the terms in an ethnographical report in 1896. Along with Walter Baldwin Spencer, Gillen published a major work, ''Native Tribes of Central Australia'', in 1899. In that work, they spoke of the Alcheringa as "the name applied to the far distant past with which the earliest traditions of the tribe deal." Five years later, in their ''Northern Tribes of Central Australia'', they gloss the far distant age as "the dream times," link it to the word ''alcheri'' meaning "dream," and affirm that the term is current also among the Kaytetye and Anmatyerr. <ref name=":3" />
In English, anthropologists have variously translated words normally understood to mean Dreaming or Dreamtime in a variety of other ways, including:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administrator |date=2014-01-28 |title='Dreamtime' and 'The Dreaming': Who Dreamed up These Terms? |url=https://ourlanguages.org.au/dreamtime-and-the-dreaming-who-dreamed-up-these-terms/ |access-date=2026-04-22 |website=Our Languages |language=en-US}}</ref>
* "Everywhen" * "world-dawn" * "ancestral past" * "ancestral present" * "ancestral now" (satirically) * "unfixed in time" * "abiding events" * "abiding law" [13]
Most translations of the Dreaming into other languages are based on the translation of the word dream. Examples include ''Espaces de rêves'' in French ("dream spaces") and ''Snivanje'' in Croatian (a gerund derived from the verb for "to dream").<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Jennifer |date=August 2012 |title=The Altyerre Story—'Suffering Badly by Translation' |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1757-6547.2012.00179.x |journal=The Australian Journal of Anthropology |language=en |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=158–178 |doi=10.1111/j.1757-6547.2012.00179.x |issn=1035-8811|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The concept of the Dreaming is inadequately explained by English terms, and can be a challenging concept in itself to explain to others not familiar with subject matter. It has been described as "an all-embracing concept that provides rules for living, a moral code, as well as rules for interacting with the natural environment ... [it] provides for a total, integrated way of life ... a lived daily reality". It embraces past, present and future in high reverence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dreaming {{!}} Common Ground |url=https://www.commonground.org.au/article/the-dreaming |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=www.commonground.org.au |language=en}}</ref>
Another definition suggests that it represents "the relationship between people, plants, animals and the physical features of the land; the knowledge of how these relationships came to be, what they mean and how they need to be maintained in daily life and in ceremony." According to Simon Wright, "Jukurrpa" has an expansive meaning for Warlpiri people, encompassing their own law and related cultural knowledge systems, along with what non-Indigenous people refer to as "dreaming."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whittington |first=Vanessa |title=White Paternalisms, Authenticities, and Deficits: Visitor Responses to Indigenous Cultural Tourism in Australia's Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/tcc/pre-prints/content-551}}</ref>
A dreaming is often associated with a particular place, and may also belong to specific ages, gender or skin groups. Dreaming's may be represented in artworks; for example, "Pikilyi Jukurrpa" by Theo (Faye) Nangala represents the Dreaming of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs) in the Northern Territory, and belongs to the Japanangka/Nanpanangka and Japangardi/Napanangka skin groups. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson / Vaughan Springs Dreaming (7A) |url=https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/artworks/theo-faye-nangala-hudson-vaughan-springs-dreaming-7a/ |access-date=2026-04-21 |language=en-AU}}</ref>
== Etymology and translation disputes == [[File:The Rising Milky Way over Uluru.jpg|thumb|The Milky Way over Uluru. In Carl Strehlow's 1908 study known as ''Die Aranda,'' the Arrente people of Central Australia near Uluru, envisioned the Milky way as a free flowing "river of blood" / a celestial waterway into the sky realm of the Dreamtime that leads directly to the dwelling of Altjira (an eternal Creator Deity). Do note that while Strehlow's views provided an early, detailed account of Arrente cosmology; it is often compounded with other early, controversial interpretation of Aboriginal spirituality. ]]
=== Early challenges to the "Dreamtime" === Early doubts about the precision of Spencer and Gillen's English gloss were expressed by the German Lutheran pastor and missionary Carl Strehlow in his 1908 book ''Die Aranda'' (''The Arrernte''). He noted that his Arrernte contacts explained ''altjira'' (also spelled ''alchera''), whose etymology was unknown, as an eternal being who had no beginning. In the Upper Arrernte language, the proper verb for "to dream" was {{lang|und|altjirerama}}, literally "to see God". Strehlow theorised that the noun is the somewhat rare word {{lang|und|altjirrinja}}, which Spencer and Gillen gave a corrupted transcription and a false etymology. "The native," Strehlow concluded, "knows nothing of 'dreamtime' as a designation of a certain period of their history."{{sfn|Hill|2003|pp=140–141}}{{efn|The Strehlows' informant, Moses (''Tjalkabota''), was a convert to Christianity, and the adoption of his interpretation suffered from a methodological error, according to Barry Hill, since his conversion made his views on pre-contact beliefs unreliable.}}
Strehlow gives {{lang|und|Altjira}} or {{lang|und|Altjira mara}} ({{lang|und|mara}} meaning "good") as the Arrernte word for the eternal creator of the world and humankind. Strehlow describes him as a tall, strong man with red skin, long fair hair, and emu legs, with many red-skinned wives (with dog legs) and children.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kenny |first=Anna |url=https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/arandas-pepa |title=The Aranda's Pepa |date=2013 |publisher=ANU Press |doi=10.22459/AP.12.2013 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-1-921536-77-9 |language=en}}</ref>
In Strehlow's account, ''Altjira'' lives in the sky (which is a body of land through which runs the Milky Way, a river).{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=93–103}}
=== Missionary influence and the concept of God === However, by the time Strehlow was writing, the ''majority'' of his contacts had been converts to Christianity for decades, and critics such as Sam Gill suggested that ''Altjira'' had been used by missionaries from the Hermannsnurg Institute as a word for the Christian God{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=93–103}} to fill in a lexical gap. Implying that Strehlow's references in question may be unsuited for sourcing.
The process is said to have manipulated the original traditional meaning of the word, to shift it to fit Christian theology.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Altjira, Dream and God |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306037801 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260217154551/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306037801_Altjira_Dream_and_God |archive-date=2026-02-17 |access-date=2026-04-22 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}</ref> === Spencer's rebuttal and modern academic views === In 1926, Spencer conducted a field study to challenge Strehlow's conclusion about ''Altjira'' and the implied criticism of Gillen and Spencer's original work. Spencer found attestations of {{lang|und|altjira}} from the 1890s that used the word to mean 'associated with past times' or "eternal", not "god".{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=93–103}}
Academic Sam Gill finds Strehlow's use of ''Altjira'' ambiguous, sometimes describing a supreme being, and sometimes describing a totem being but not necessarily a supreme one. He attributes the clash partly to Spencer's cultural evolutionist beliefs that Aboriginal people were at a pre-religion "stage of development (and thus ''could not'' believe in a supreme being)," while Strehlow as a Christian missionary found presence of belief in the divine a useful entry point for proselytizing.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=93–103}}
Linguist David Campbell Moore is critical of Spencer and Gillen's "Dreamtime" translation, concluding:{{sfn|Moore|2016|pp=85–108}}
{{Quote|text="Dreamtime" was a mistranslation based on an etymological connection between "a dream" and "{{lang|und|Altjira}}", which held only over a limited geographical domain. There was some semantic relationship between "{{lang|und|Altjira}}" and "a dream", but to imagine that the latter captures the essence of "Altjira" is an illusion.|author=David Campbell Moore|source=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306037801_Altjira_Dream_and_God}}
==Other linguistic terms among Aboriginal groups== The complex of religious beliefs encapsulated by the Dreaming is also called:
* ''Ngarrankarni'' or ''Ngarrarngkarni'' by the Gija people{{sfn|Nicholls|2014a}} * ''Jukurrpa'' or ''Tjukurpa''/''Tjukurrpa'' by the Warlpiri people and in the Pitjantjatjara dialect{{sfn|Nicholls|2014a}}{{sfn|Nicholls|2014b}} * ''Ungud'' or ''Wungud'' by the Ngarinyin people{{sfn|Nicholls|2014a}} * ''Manguny'' in the language Martu Wangka{{sfn|Nicholls|2014a}} * ''Wongar'' in North-East Arnhem Land{{sfn|Nicholls|2014a}} * ''Daramoolen'' in Ngunnawal language and Ngarigo language{{sfn|Nicholls|2014b}} * ''Nura'' in the Dharug language{{sfn|Nicholls|2014b}} * ''Nyitting'' in the Noongar language{{sfn|Noongar Culture}}
==Cultural practicality / effect of Dreamtime beliefs== {{Further|Aboriginal Australian culture|Aboriginal Australian religion and mythology}}The Dreaming operates as a functional database for environmental stewardship. For the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, Songlines serve as high-resolution topographical maps, containing vital data on seasonal water sources and "fire-stick farming" (controlled burning) protocols. These traditional narratives are currently integrated into "Two-Way" land management programs, where indigenous ecological knowledge is applied alongside Western climate science to mitigate bushfire risks and manage biodiversity. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Indigenous expertise: Brushfire-reduction practices encourage collaborative approach to other potential disasters |url=https://www.iawfonline.org/article/indigenous-expertise-brushfire-reduction-practices-encourage-collaborative-approach-to-other-potential-disasters/ |access-date=2026-04-22 |website=International Association of Wildland Fire |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Dreaming serves as a contemporary legal code, often referred to as The Law (or ''Malak''). Among groups such as the Pitjantjatjara, ancestral narratives dictate "skin groups" and kinship systems that regulate marriage, social obligations, and dispute resolution. This customary law often functions as a primary framework for social cohesion in remote communities, providing a culturally specific alternative or supplement to the Australian judicial system. <ref>https://parliament.nt.gov.au/committees/previous/constitutional-development/constitutional-development/VOL4-2.pdf</ref>
A central tenet of Dreaming philosophy is the rejection of land as a commodity in favor of land as a "kin relation." Among the Noongar of Western Australia, the landscape is regarded as a sentient subject possessing agency and memory. This is exemplified in the practice of "Singing to Country," a protocol intended to maintain the spiritual and physical health of the environment. In modern urban planning, these philosophies necessitate consultation with Traditional Owners to ensure developments do not disrupt the "spiritual metabolism" of sites associated with beings like the Waugal (Rainbow Serpent).<ref>https://researchers-admin.westernsydney.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94779651/uws_2495.pdf</ref>[[File:Ku-ring-gai Chase - petroglyph.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ku-ring-gai Chase-petroglyph, depicting Baiame, the Creator God and Sky Father in the dreaming of several Aboriginal language groups. The petroglyph is carved into Hawkesbury Sandstone on the Waratah Track, and is approximately 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) long. Unique artistic features of the petroglyph include a significantly swollen leg, the complete absence of a neck, ]] [[File:Bibbulmun Track Markings.jpg|thumb|200px|Waugals (yellow triangles with a black snake in the centre) are the official Bibbulmun Track trailmarkers between Kalamunda and Albany in Western Australia. The Waugal symbol was adopted in 1987/88 during a major overhaul of the Track by the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM). The symbol was deemed appropriate to recognize the rich indigenous (Noongar) history of the region. The Noongar believe that the Waugal meandered across the land, carving out the Swan River (Derbal Yerrigan) and the Canning River (Djarlgarro Beelier) on its journey to the ocean (likely the Indian ocean). It is represented by the Darling scarp. The Darling Scarp is a "320 kilometer long fault formed escarpment" running north to south; and forming the eastern edge of the Swan Costal Plain in Western Australia. It is believed to represent the body of a resting Waugal. Its scales are said to have become forests, while its droppings are noted to be represented by large piles of rock. In Noongar tradition, the Waugal is a guardian of fresh water. When the water in a river is dark and murky, it is believed that the Waugal is swimming, and people should not enter the water.]]
==See also== {{Portal|Australia}}
* Aboriginal mythology ** Rainbow Serpent ** Tjilbruke * Dreaming (Australian Aboriginal art) * Festival of the Dreaming, an arts festival that ran from 1997 until 2012
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
===Citations=== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Sources== {{Refbegin|30em}} *{{Cite book| title = Aboriginal Perth and Bibbulmun biographies and legends | last = Bates | first = Daisy | year = 1996 | publisher = Hesperion Press | isbn = 978-0-85905-135-4 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Religious Evolution | last = Bellah | first = Robert N. | year = 2013 | author-link = Robert Neelly Bellah | orig-year = First published 1970 | title = Readings in Social Evolution and Development | editor-last = Eisenstadt | editor-first = S.N. | editor-link = Shmuel Eisenstadt | publisher = Elsevier | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LkttBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 | pages = 211–244 | isbn = 978-1-483-13786-5 }} *{{cite web| title = Catapult Wall Art: Pikilyi Jukurrpa | website = Catapult Design | url = https://www.catapultdesign.net.au/shop/wall-art/pikilyi-jukurrpa/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210318101024/https://www.catapultdesign.net.au/shop/wall-art/pikilyi-jukurrpa/ | access-date = 18 March 2021 | archive-date = 18 March 2021 | ref = {{harvid|Catapult Design}} }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Introduction | last = Charlesworth | first = Max | year = 2017 | title = Religion In Aboriginal Australia: An Anthology | editor1-last = Charlesworth | editor1-first = Max | editor2-last = Dussart | editor2-first = Françoise | editor3-last = Morphy | editor3-first = Howard | publisher = Routledge | series = Vitality of Indigenous Religions | isbn = 978-1-351-96127-1 }} *{{cite encyclopedia| title = the Dreaming | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | url = http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171252/the-Dreaming | access-date = 26 January 2013 | ref = {{harvid|Encyclopædia Britannica}} }} *{{cite web| title = The Dreaming: Sacred sites | author = <!--not stated--> | website = Working with Indigenous Australians | url = http://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/Culture_2_The_Dreaming.html | access-date = 2 July 2020 | ref = {{harvid|The Dreaming: Sacred sites}} }} *{{Cite book| title = Storytracking: Texts, Stories & Histories in Central Australia | last = Gill | first = Sam D. | year = 1998 | publisher = Oxford University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IlfnCwAAQBAJ&q=altjira | pages = 93–103 | isbn = 978-0-19-511587-1 }} *{{cite book| title = Broken Song: T G H Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession | last = Hill | first = Barry | year = 2003 | author-link = Barry Hill (Australian writer) | publisher = Knopf-Random House | isbn = 978-1-742-74940-2 }} *{{Cite web| title = Indigenous Australians: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people | publisher = AIATSIS | url = https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/indigenous-australians-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people | date = 12 July 2020 | access-date = 2 November 2025 | ref = {{harvid|AIATSIS|2020}} }} *{{Cite book| title = Australian Dreaming: 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History | last = Isaacs | first = Jennifier | year = 1980 | publisher = Lansdowne Press | location = Sydney | isbn = 0-7018-1330-X }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Tjukurpa Time | last = James | first = Diana | year = 2015 | title = Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place | editor1-last = McGrath | editor1-first = Ann | editor2-last = Jebb | editor2-first = Mary Anne | publisher = Australian National University Press | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6nDSCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 | pages = 33–46 | isbn = 9781--925-02253-7 }} *{{cite web| title = Jukurrpa | author = <!--not stated--> | website = Central Art | url = https://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-words-glossary/warlpiri/jukurrpa/ | access-date = 18 March 2021 | ref = {{harvid|Central Art: Jukurrpa}} }} *{{cite web| title = Jukurrpa | author = <!--not stated--> | publisher = National Museum of Australia | url = https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/yiwarra-kuju-canning-stock-route/artworks/jukurrpa | access-date = 18 March 2021 | ref = {{harvid|NMoA: Jukurrpa}} }} *{{cite web| title = What is the 'Dreamtime' or the 'Dreaming'? | last = Korff | first = Jens | website = Creative Spirits | url = https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming | date = 8 February 2019 | access-date = 2 July 2020 }} *{{Cite book| title = Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal dreamtime | last = Lawlor | first = Robert | year = 1991 | publisher = Inner Traditions International | location = Rochester, Vermont | isbn = 0-89281-355-5 }} *{{Cite book| title = Exotics at Home: Anthropologies, Others, and American Modernity | last = di Leonardo | first = Micaela | year = 2000 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dt54NXnN_3UC&pg=PA377 | page = 377 n.42 | isbn = 978-0-226-47264-5 }}("Into the Crystal Dreamtime", promotional pamphlet, late 1980s; "Crystal Woman: isters of the Dreamtime" 1987; p. 36:"the prescriptive New Age genre, which sells one-hundred-proof ethnological antimodernism without overmuch worry about bothersome ethnographic facts") *{{Cite book| title = Songs, Dreamings, and Ghosts: The Wangga of North Australia | last = Marett | first = Allan | year = 2005 | publisher = Wesleyan University Press | location = Middletown, Connecticut | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oFhUE_AlE8QC&q=wangga | page = 1 | isbn = 978-0-8195-6618-8 }} *{{Cite book| title = Altjira, Dream and God | last = Moore | first = David | publisher = Routledge, Taylor & Francis | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306037801 | via = ResearchGate | date = 1 January 2016 | pages = 85–108 | isbn = 978-1-4724-4383-0 }} *{{cite web| title = Nelson Jagamara, Michael; Metafisica Australe | website = QAGOMA Collection Online Beta | publisher = Government of Queensland | quote = Simon Wright, ''Artlines'', no.2, 2018, pp.52–3. | url = https://collection-online-beta.qagoma.qld.gov.au/stories/1849/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210402045957/https://collection-online-beta.qagoma.qld.gov.au/stories/1849/ | access-date = 18 March 2021 | archive-date = 2 April 2021 | ref = {{harvid|QAGOMA Collection}} }} *{{Cite web| title = 'Dreamtime' and 'The Dreaming': An introduction | last = Nicholls | first = Christine Judith | website = The Conversation | url = http://theconversation.com/dreamtime-and-the-dreaming-an-introduction-20833 | date = 22 January 2014a | access-date = 7 January 2019 }} *{{Cite web| title = 'Dreamtime' and 'The Dreaming': Who dreamed up these terms? | last = Nicholls | first = Christine Judith | website = The Conversation | url = http://theconversation.com/dreamtime-and-the-dreaming-who-dreamed-up-these-terms-20835 | date = 28 January 2014c | access-date = 7 January 2019 }} *{{Cite web| title = 'Dreamings' and dreaming narratives: What's the relationship? | last = Nicholls | first = Christine Judith | website = The Conversation | url = http://theconversation.com/dreamings-and-dreaming-narratives-whats-the-relationship-20837 | date = 5 February 2014b | access-date = 7 January 2019 }} *{{Cite book| title = The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism | last = Povinelli | first = Elizabeth A. | year = 2002 | publisher = Duke University Press | location = Durham, North Carolina | url = https://archive.org/details/cunningofrecogni0000povi | url-access = registration | via = Internet Archive | page = [https://archive.org/details/cunningofrecogni0000povi/page/200 200] | isbn = 978-0-8223-2868-1 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = The waking dream in ethnographic perspective | last = Price-Williams | first = Douglas | year = 1987 | title = Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations | editor-last = Tedlock | editor-first = Barbara | publisher = Cambridge University Press | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eRk9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA249 | url = https://archive.org/details/dreaminganthropo0000unse | via = Internet Archive | pages = [https://archive.org/details/dreaminganthropo0000unse/page/246 246–262] | isbn = 978-0-521-34004-5 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Altjira, Dream and God | last = Price-Williams | first = Douglas | year = 2016 | title = Religion and non-religion among Australian Aboriginal Peoples | editor1-last = Cox | editor1-first = James L. | editor2-last = Possamai | editor2-first = Adam | publisher = Routledge | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Xo2iDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 | pages = 85–108 | isbn = 978-1-317-06795-5 }} *{{cite book| title = Bone #46, Tenth Anniversary | last = Smith | first = Jeff | publisher = Self-published | no-pp = true | pages = Bone-A–Fides section }} *{{cite book| title = Native Tribes of Central Australia | last1 = Spencer | first1 = Baldwin | last2 = Gillen | first2 = F. J. | author1-link = Walter Baldwin Spencer | author2-link = Francis James Gillen | year = 1899 | publisher = Macmillan & Co | url = https://archive.org/details/nativetribesofce00spenuoft | via = Internet Archive }} *{{cite book| title = The northern tribes of central Australia | last1 = Spencer | first1 = Baldwin | last2 = Gillen | first2 = F. J. | author1-link = Walter Baldwin Spencer | author2-link = Francis James Gillen | year = 1904 | publisher = Macmillan & Co | url = https://archive.org/details/northerntribesc00gillgoog | via = Internet Archive }} *{{Cite book| title = The Native Tribes of Central Australia | last1 = Spencer | first1 = Walter Baldwin | last2 = Gillen | first2 = Francis James | author1-link = Walter Baldwin Spencer | author2-link = Francis James Gillen | year = 1968 | orig-year = First published 1899 | publisher = Dover | location = New York }} *{{Cite web| title = Spirituality | website = Noongar Culture | url = https://www.noongarculture.org.au/spirituality/ | access-date = 12 March 2023 | ref = {{harvid|Noongar Culture}} }} *{{Cite book| title = White Man Got No Dreaming: Essays 1938–1973 | last = Stanner | first = Bill | year = 1979 | author-link = William Edward Hanley Stanner | publisher = Australian National University Press | location = Canberra | isbn = 978-0-7081-1802-3 }} *{{Cite book| title = After The Dreaming | last = Stanner | first = W. H. | year = 1968 | author-link = William Edward Hanley Stanner | publisher = ABC | series = Boyer Lecture Series }} *{{cite book| title = A Place for Strangers: Towards a History of Australian Aboriginal Being | last = Swain | first = Tony | year = 1993 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=B040KquZAEIC&pg=PA21 | isbn = 978-0-521-44691-4 }} *{{Cite book| title = Giuliano Ghelli. Le vie del tempo | last1 = Vanni | first1 = Maurizio | last2 = Pedretti | first2 = Carlo | year = 2005 | publisher = Carlo Cambi Editore | location = Poggibonsi (province of Siena), Italy | language = it, en, de | quote = Ghelli's work appears as an authentic initiatory experience, with important ordeals to overcome. No Aboriginal boy can be considered a man, nor can an Aboriginal girl marry, until he or she has overcome all the initiatory rituals. One of these, perhaps the most feared, is the interpretation of symbols in paintings associated with Dreamtime. | pages = 18, 70 | isbn = 88-88482-41-5 }} *{{Cite book| title = Wisdom of the Earth: the living legacy of the Aboriginal dreamtime | last1 = Voigt | first1 = Anna | last2 = Drury | first2 = Neville | year = 1997 | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = East Roseville, NSW | isbn = 978-0-7318-0569-3 }} *{{Cite journal | title = Mutilated hands or signal stencils? A consideration of irregular hand stencils from Central Queensland | last = Walsh | first = G. L. | journal = Australian Archaeology | year = 1979 | volume = 9 | number = 9 | pages = 33–41 | url = https://dspace2.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/708/1979009033041_FINAL.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200730071003/https://dspace2.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/708/1979009033041_FINAL.pdf | archive-date = 30 July 2020 | doi = 10.1080/03122417.1979.12093358 | hdl = 2328/708 | hdl-access = free }} *{{Cite book| title = The Dreaming Universe: a mind-expanding journey into the realm where psyche and physics meet | last = Wolf | first = Fred Alan | year = 1994 | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = New York | isbn = 0-671-74946-3 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Should the Subaltern Dream? "Australian Aborigines" and the Problem of Ethnographic Ventriloquism | last = Wolfe | first = Patrick | year = 1997 | title = Cultures of Scholarship | editor-last = Humphreys | editor-first = Sarah C. | publisher = University of Michigan Press | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dS5-RMhAP_QC&pg=PA74 | url = https://archive.org/details/culturesofschola0087unse | via = Internet Archive | pages = [https://archive.org/details/culturesofschola0087unse/page/57 57–96] | isbn = 978-0-472-06654-4 }} {{Refend}}
==Further reading== {{Commons category|Dreamtime}} * [https://www.abc.net.au/news/deeptime/ ''Deep Time''], an ABC News Story Lab production that covers many aspects of Aboriginal history, mythology, and places {{Library resources box | by=no | onlinebooks=no | others=no | about=yes | label=Dreamtime }} *{{cite web| title = 'Dates add nothing to our culture': Everywhen explores Indigenous deep history, challenging linear, colonial narratives | last = Clark | first = Anna | website = The Conversation | url = https://theconversation.com/dates-add-nothing-to-our-culture-everywhen-explores-indigenous-deep-history-challenging-linear-colonial-narratives-199871 | date = 6 February 2024 | ref = none }} * ''[https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496227287/ Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History]'' (University of Nebraska, 2023), edited by Jakelin Troy, Ann McGrath, and Laura Rademaker. *{{Cite journal | title = What does Jukurrpa ('Dreamtime', 'the Dreaming') mean? A semantic and conceptual journey of discovery | last1 = Goddard | first1 = Cliff | last2 = Wierzbicka | first2 = Anna | journal = Australian Aboriginal Studies | year = 2015 | issue = 1 | pages = 34–65 | url = https://14ab89e3-42eb-42e3-9a4c-28888ecb7f8e.filesusr.com/ugd/294e93_2daf4caf23cb41dfae563679a6cd06d2.pdf | ref = none }}
{{Indigenous Australians}} {{Time in religion and mythology}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreaming, The}} Category:Australian Aboriginal mythology Category:Creation myths