The Dreaming


Akino Ogawa :- The Dream“In the beginning of time, the Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground until she woke in the Dreaming and pushed her way to the surface. She then traveled the land, sleeping when she was tired, and left behind her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body. When she returned, she called to the frogs to come out, but they were very slow because their bellies were full of water. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their stomachs and when the frogs laughed, the water flowed out of their mouths and filled the tracks and hollows left by the Rainbow Serpent, creating rivers and lakes”. 
This story of the Rainbow Serpent is one of many stories told by the Indigenous Australians (Aborigines) and are known as the ‘Dreaming’. These stories tell of Ancestral Beings and pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems from generation to generation through song, dance, painting and storytelling. They demonstrate the importance of the gentle and nurturing connection between the land and the people, and the complex interrelations between people. In the Aboriginal worldview, every event leaves a record on the land. Everything in the natural world is sacred and is there as a result of the actions of the ancestors whose actions created the world. Dreamtime is the telling of the past, present and future at the same time.
Aborigines have maintained a link with the Dreaming from ancient times to today, creating a rich cultural heritage. Today the Rainbow Serpent is known to the Aborigines with the bringing of the wet season each year, and appears in the sky in the form of a rainbow. This deep connection of the Aborigines to the land and the linking together of time is something that always struck me as a child. It is an important concept we can all take from the Indigenous Australians. It displays the notion that all we do in this world is connected and has significance on a greater scale. Even a simple action can have a larger impact without us knowing because of this link. With this comes the need for awareness in the choices of what we do in our lives and why – something the Aborigines have lived by for thousands of years. This is a very holistic way of viewing the world, and is definitely relevant in the present day because of our increasingly globalised society. 

No comments:

Post a Comment