A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Sydney - Australian Museum
Some day I want to go back to Australia and spend some time learning about something called "dreamtime" or "dreaming." Aboriginal people throughout the continent have a concept which is translated into English as some form or another of dreaming. Apparently it encompasses the spiritual world, creation, and daily life. Hard nosed scholars call dreaming "myth."
Dreaming is the source for the structure of traditional tribal society and provides the basis for the oral history of a people. It ties humans and the rest of nature together in a whole. A philosopher might call dreaming the source of tribal "law."
Animals are important subjects in dreaming as in Aboriginal art. Many of the representations of animals have deeper meaning for the artist and some are believed to be manifestations of spiritual entities.
