DEEP GEOGRAPHY

The Dreamtime

from aboriginalart.com.au:

    The ancestors retired into the earth, the sky, the clouds... “During the creation of our world , the ancestors moved across a barren land, hunting, camping, fighting and loving and in doing so shaped a featureless landscape. Moving from Dreams to actions, the ancestors made the ants, the emus, the crows, … They made the sun, the moon and the planets. They made the humans, tribes and clans… As the world took shape and was filled with species… the ancestors retired into the earth, the sky, the clouds, and the creatures to live within all their created in our Dreamtime.

    "The Dreaming world was the old time of the Ancestor Beings. They emerged from the earth at the time of the creation. Time began in the world the moment these supernatural beings were "born out of their own Eternity". The Earth was a flat surface, in darkness ... Then the supernatural Ancestor Beings broke through the crust of the earth form below, with tumultuous force. The sun rose out of the ground. The land received light for the first time.

    Sometimes their spirits turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places... "The supernatural Beings, or Totemic Ancestors, ... moved across the barren surface of the world. They travelled hunted and fought, and changed the form of the land. In their journeys, they created the landscape, the mountains, the rivers, the trees, waterholes, plains and sandhills. They made the people themselves, who are descendants of the Dreamtime ancestors ...They made the natural elements : Water, Air, Fire. They made all the celestial bodies : the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Then, wearied from all their activity, the mythical creatures sank back into the earth and returned to their state of sleep. Sometimes their spirits turned into rocks or trees or a part of the landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated men. These sites had special qualities."

http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/

 

 


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