ANIMALS IN INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN CULTURE AND THE DREAMING

The Dreaming for Australian Indigenous people (sometimes referred to as the Dreamtime or Dreamtimes) is when the Ancestral Beings moved across the land and created life and significant geographic features.

The Rainbow Serpent features in the Dreaming stories of many mainland Aboriginal nations and is always associated with watercourses, such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. The Rainbow Serpent is the protector of the land, its people, and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a destructive force if it is not properly respected.

Animals are often celebrated through Indigenous Australian art – the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the world. This is through the painting or engraving of silhouettes of animal forms, and complex figurative paintings that depict detailed figures, such as x-ray art which shows the internal organs of animals. This type of art is especially common to Arnhem Land and surrounding areas.

KEY TERMS: Dreamtime, ancestral beings, Australian Indigenous art

EXPLORE: Traditional Australian Indigenous art, rock paintings, x-ray art, creation stories