Oban's Myths & Legends
About the Aboriginal Dreamtime
explained by Oban
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous people of Australia. The word Indigenous means that historical and scientific records have proved that they were the first people to live there.
At least 30,000 years ago, Aboriginal people lived in all parts of Australia - and Torres Strait Islanders lived on the islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
There were many different communities or tribes of Aboriginal people, with their own languages and cultures. They all believed in the Dreaming or the Dreamtime, but what this meant was different for different groups of people.
The Dreamtime might mean ‘the time before time’ and ‘the beginning of time and the beginning of knowledge.’
The Dreaming might mean ‘our identity as people, or who we are.’ This includes a person’s culture and their understanding of everything around them. The Dreaming also told people how they should live and treat each other, and what ceremonies to make to look after the land.
Different communities and tribes still tell their own Dreamtime stories, including stories about how things came to be – the land, water, and stars in the sky, people, animals, trees and plants. We call these creation stories.
There are many different creation stories – here are some of them:
The Great Spirit Ancestors
Goorialla the Rainbow Serpent
The Rainbow Serpent or Mother of Life
The Great Spirit Ancestors >>>
