A basic understanding of the concept of "the Dreamtime" or Creation period is an important part of recognizing the inextricable bond traditional Aborigines have for the land and their culture.
Traditional Aborigines believe the earth, like the sky, always existed and was the home of supernatural beings. At the beginning of time the earth looked like a featureless, desolate plain. Nothing existed on the surface. The earth was covered in eternal darkness as the sun and moon were still slumbering under the earth's cold crust. Only beneath the surface of the earth did life already exist in the form of thousands of supernatural beings which lay dormant, along with a vague form of human life that existed in the shape of semi-embryonic masses of half developed infants.
Time began when the supernatural beings awoke and broke through the surface of the earth. The earth was soon flooded with light as the sun too rose from the ground.
Photo of the great limestone column in the Cave of...
Composite Laser scan image of Chichen Itza's Cave ...
Tales of the Dying EarthThe supernatural beings varied greatly in appearance. Some rose in animal shapes resembling kangaroos and emus, other emerged in human guise looking like perfectly formed men and women. There was an indivisible link between humans, animals and plants. Those beings that looked like animals thought and acted like humans, and those in human form could change at will into animals.
After emerging from their eternal slumber, the beings - referred to as totemic ancestors (such as Wallaby Dreaming and Emu Dreaming etc) - moved about the earth bringing into being the physical features of the landscape. Mountains, sandhills, plains and rivers all arose to mark the deeds of the wandering totemic ancestors. Not a single prominent feature was created which was not associated with an episode of the supernatural beings.
The sacred songs of their deeds were compositions by the supernatural beings themselves.