Explain the Centrality of the Dreaming and Its Importance for Aboriginal Spirituality
Explain the centrality of the Dreaming and its importance for Aboriginal spirituality.
The Aboriginal Dreaming refers to the religious and spiritual beliefs of the aboriginal people of Australia. The dreaming is what they base their traditional lives around, the dreaming determines their values and beliefs and their relationships with the animals, plants and environment around them. The Dreaming tells the stories that explain their views and beliefs on how the world came to be and its history and the totems which represent each historical factor of the dreaming. The dreaming stories explain how the Spirit Ancestors made the trees, rocks, waterholes, and rivers, mountains and stars as well as the animals and plants, and which spirits represent each of these things along with the other living features in the land.
Views on life and death:
The aboriginal people believe that there is no heaven or hell after death they believe that they came from the land and once they die they return to the land. Their belief system is based on past, present and future. The past makes it possible to live in the present, and without the past or present there is no future. There are two types of dreaming: ‘the’ dreaming and ‘my’ dreaming, the dreaming is the history but my dreaming is the connection to a life form or totem eg. Crocodile or eagle which connects ‘my’ dreaming to ‘the’ dreaming because of those totems being symbols in ancient rituals.
Dreaming stories:
The Dreaming stories are of great importance to the aboriginal people in terms of the dreaming because they are the history books verbally, they tell the stories in detail of how the earth came to be from the ancestors and spirits who created the land who created them. The dreaming stories tell what each spirit was able to create and how it happened for example the rainbow serpent or how the moon got in the sky. These stories have been passed on for millions of generations. These stories were either told by the elders
The Aboriginal Dreaming refers to the religious and spiritual beliefs of the aboriginal people of Australia. The dreaming is what they base their traditional lives around, the dreaming determines their values and beliefs and their relationships with the animals, plants and environment around them. The Dreaming tells the stories that explain their views and beliefs on how the world came to be and its history and the totems which represent each historical factor of the dreaming. The dreaming stories explain how the Spirit Ancestors made the trees, rocks, waterholes, and rivers, mountains and stars as well as the animals and plants, and which spirits represent each of these things along with the other living features in the land.
Views on life and death:
The aboriginal people believe that there is no heaven or hell after death they believe that they came from the land and once they die they return to the land. Their belief system is based on past, present and future. The past makes it possible to live in the present, and without the past or present there is no future. There are two types of dreaming: ‘the’ dreaming and ‘my’ dreaming, the dreaming is the history but my dreaming is the connection to a life form or totem eg. Crocodile or eagle which connects ‘my’ dreaming to ‘the’ dreaming because of those totems being symbols in ancient rituals.
Dreaming stories:
The Dreaming stories are of great importance to the aboriginal people in terms of the dreaming because they are the history books verbally, they tell the stories in detail of how the earth came to be from the ancestors and spirits who created the land who created them. The dreaming stories tell what each spirit was able to create and how it happened for example the rainbow serpent or how the moon got in the sky. These stories have been passed on for millions of generations. These stories were either told by the elders