What is the Dreamtime in Indigenous Australian culture?

The Dreamtime, or Dreaming, in Indigenous Australian culture is the body of stories, law, and ceremony that explains how the country, its features, its plants and animals, and its people came into being. Different Aboriginal language groups have their own words for this concept, including Tjukurpa (in Pitjantjatjara), Bugarrigarra (Karajarri), Ngarrangkarni (Gija), and Altyerre (Arrernte). The English word Dreaming is now widely used as a general term while acknowledging the different specific traditions.

The Dreaming is not religion in the European sense of belief in a remote deity. It is a continuing reality in which the actions of ancestral beings during the creation period are still active in the landscape today. The features of country (rocks, water holes, mountains, trees, and rivers) are evidence of the journeys and actions of those ancestral beings. Aboriginal law, kinship, ceremony, and everyday behaviour all arise from the Dreaming and continue to give meaning to Aboriginal life today.

Dreaming stories vary by country and language group. The Rainbow Serpent appears in many traditions across northern and central Australia as a creator being associated with water and life. The Seven Sisters story is told across central and Western Desert country, tracing the journey of seven ancestral women pursued by a man across vast distances of country. Local stories explain the creation of specific places such as Uluru, Kata Tjuta, the Great Dividing Range, and the rivers and water holes that sustain life. Many of these stories include scientific knowledge about plants, animals, and seasonal patterns that has been verified by modern research.

Dreaming stories are owned by particular families, clans, or ceremonial groups, with strict protocols about who can tell, paint, or perform them. Public sharing of Dreaming stories is increasingly done through Indigenous-led cultural centres, art galleries, books, and schools, with the consent and guidance of traditional owners. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established in 1964, is the country's main archive of recorded Indigenous knowledge and operates under strict protocols developed with Aboriginal communities.