'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming'
The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality.
For instance, an Indigenous Australian might say that they have Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their 'country'. However, many Indigenous Australians also refer to the creation time as 'The Dreaming'.
What is certain is that 'Ancestor Spirits' came to Earth in human and other forms and the land, the plants and animals were given their form as we know them today.
These Spirits also established relationships between groups and individuals, (whether people or animals) and where they travelled across the land, or came to a halt, they created rivers, hills, etc., and there are often stories attached to these places.
Once their work was done, the Ancestor Spirits changed again; into animals or stars or hills or other objects. For Indigenous Australians, the past is still alive and vital today and will remain so into the future. The Ancestor Spirits and their powers have not gone, they are present in the forms into which they changed at the end of the 'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming', as the stories tell.
The stories have been handed down through the ages and are an integral part of an Indigenous person's 'Dreaming'.
Custodianship
Because the "Stories of the Dreaming" have been handed down through the generations, they are not 'owned' by individuals. They belong to a group or nation, and the storytellers of that nation are carrying out an obligation to pass the stories along.
The Elders of a nation might appoint a particularly skilful and knowledgeable storyteller as 'custodian' of the stories of that people.
With the discouragement and 'unofficial' banning of the telling of traditional stories, which continued well into the twentieth century, many stories were 'lost'. The custodians passed away without being able to hand the stories on. This was particularly so in the south-east region of Australia.
Today's custodians are keen to spread the stories as widely as possible. It is part of the overall effort to ensure that young people build and retain a sense of who they are.
Storytelling, while explaining the past, helps young Indigenous Australians maintain dignity and self-respect in the present.
Present-day custodians of stories play a vital role in Indigenous communities.
Secret/Sacred Stories
Many stories are considered to be of a secret or sacred nature and only to be told to certain people. For example, men have stories associated with initiation grounds that must not be revealed to any but an initiated male.
Women have stories that they tell only among themselves. Younger or unmarried women are not permitted to hear such stories, and to tell them or permit them to be told to the 'wrong' person is a serious breach of law.
The secret/sacred nature of some stories has parallels through Indigenous life; certain sites may only be visited by certain groups-women, elders, for the purposes of initiation, and so on.
All the stories contained on this site are suitable for general telling. The stories themselves were selected and presented by the various custodians or storytellers.
Why Stories are told.
My name is Beryl Carmichael and my traditional name is Yungha-dhu.
I belong to the Ngiyaampaa people, come from the Ngiyaampaa nation and the area we're in now belongs to Eaglehawk and Crow.
I'm a storyteller as well and all the stories have been handed down to me by my people. I am now custodian of about twenty-eight stories.
The stories are a wonderful and a valuable tool, an education tool in teaching our children. The 'Dreamtime' stories as they are referred to today, we didn't know that there was such names for them. Because when the old people would tell the stories, they'd just refer to them as 'marrathal warkan' which means long, long time ago, when time first began for our people, as people on this land after creation.
We have various sites around in our country, we call them the birthing places of all our stories. And of course, the stories are embedded with the lore that governs this whole land. The air, the land, the environment, the universe, the stars.
The stories that we are passing and talking on today, we are hoping that, some way, it will help our people-and our children, our young people in particular-to get a better understanding about the lore that governs our lives today.
No matter what we do, there is always guidance there for us and the guidance comes through in the stories. And the direction that we are giving to our young people on how we expect them to grow up. How to listen to the old people, but also, never to be disobedient. We must never be disobedient; we must always obey the instructions of our old people and people in authority; always do the right thing; never be greedy; never be a thief and so on.
So all these little things are embedded in the stories to our children. That's why the stories are so powerful as an education tool when we're teaching our young kids. We must always refer back to the stories because they're the ones that's going to give them the guidance that they need today.
Creation Story-
by Aunty Beryl Carmichael
This is the creation story of Ngiyaampaa country, as well as the land belonging to Eaglehawk and Crow.
Now long, long time ago of course, in the beginning, when there was no people, no trees, no plants whatever on this land, "Guthi-guthi", the spirit of our ancestral being, he lived up in the sky.
So he came down and he wanted to create the special land for people and animals and birds to live in.
So Guthi-guthi came down and he went on creating the land for the people-after he'd set the borders in place and the sacred sights, the birthing places of all the Dreamings, where all our Dreamings were to come out of.
Guthi-guthi put one foot on Gunderbooka Mountain and another one at Mount Grenfell.
And he looked out over the land and he could see that the land was bare. There was no water in sight, there was nothing growing. So Guthi-guthi knew that trapped in a mountain-Mount Minara-the water serpent, Weowie, he was trapped in the mountain. So Guthi-guthi called out to him, "Weowie, Weowie", but because Weowie was trapped right in the middle of the mountain, he couldn't hear him.
Guthi-guthi went back up into the sky and he called out once more, "Weowie", but once again Weowie didn't respond. So Guthi-guthi came down with a roar like thunder and banged on the mountain and the mountain split open. Weowie the water serpent came out. And where the water serpent travelled he made waterholes and streams and depressions in the land.
So once all that was finished, of course, Weowie went back into the mountain to live and that's where Weowie lives now, in Mount Minara. But then after that, they wanted another lot of water to come down from the north, throughout our country. Old Pundu, the Cod, it was his duty to drag and create the river known as the Darling River today.
So Cod came out with Mudlark, his little mate, and they set off from the north and they created the big river. Flows right down, water flows right throughout our country, right into the sea now.
And of course, this country was also created, the first two tribes put in our country were Eaglehawk and Crow. And from these two tribes came many tribal people, many tribes, and we call them sub-groups today. So my people, the Ngiyaampaa people and the Barkandji further down are all sub-groups of Eaglehawk and Crow.
So what I'm telling you-the stories that were handed down to me all come from within this country.
Emu and the Jabiru – Kevin Smith
Once at a place called Nurrurrumba lived a person called Gandji and his children, and a man call Wurrpan, with his children. The men were brothers-in-law.
One day, Gandji and his children went down to fish for stingray. When they got to the salt water, they saw the water was clean and clear to the bottom. It was easy to see all types of stingrays, which they started to spear as they walked through the water up to their knees.
After spearing the stingrays they went back to the shore and started gathering firewood and cooking the stingrays, separating the meat from the fat.
They grabbed some bark and wrapped up the meat and the fat and went back to the camp where Wurrpan and his children were.
When they got to the camp, they sat down and Gandji called out to one of the Wurrpan children to get their share. But when they had separated the fat and the meat, they had kept the sweet, fresh ones for themselves and gave the old bits to Wurrpan and his family.
So one of the Wurrpan children ran over and grabbed the bark parcel of stingray and took it over to his father, who quickly untied it. When he opened it he noticed that he and his family had been given old stingray pieces, and then he said, 'They must have kept the fresh, sweet ones for themselves.'
So they ate what they had been given and then afterwards, Wurrpan stood up and said, to the other family, 'You gave me and my kids old stingrays, while you and your family had the fresh ones.' So they started arguing.
Gandji said, 'You should have gone stingray fishing for yourselves.' So they argued and argued and argued until Gandji grabbed a handful of hot coals and threw them at Wurrpan. He turned around and grabbed a smooth rock called Buyburu, which he used for grinding cycad nuts. He threw it at Wurrpan and hit him right on the chest.
Then Gandji started jumping around in fear of what Wurrpan might do to him. From jumping he started flying, higher and higher. As he flew he turned into a Jabiru without a beak and flew away.
Then Wurrpan told his children to bring him his spear, which was called Wandhawarri Djimbarrmirri. He tried pointing the spear up in the air where Gandji was, but he noticed the spear was too long because it was bending backwards. So he told his children to bring a sharp rock to cut the spear shorter. The second time he aimed it was just right.
He aimed at Gandji and said to the spear, 'Please don't let me miss.'
Then he threw the spear up into the sky where Gandji was flying around. The spear went right through Gandji, from his behind through to his face, until it poked out, making a beak. Gandji fell from the sky and landed at a place called Ngurruyurrdjurr.
Wurrpan said to his children, 'Let's get out of here while we are still alive. Come on, as fast as we can. We'll head towards Milindji Dhawarri.'
As they were running, they started to change into Emus. That made them move faster. Their feathers were grey because of the ash that Gandji threw and they had a bump on their front where the stone had hit.
Today, Yolngu remember this story in the way they cook Wurrpan meat in the fire. They always half-cook it, wiping off the ash before they eat it. That's the story of the Emu and the Jabiru. Today, the Emu has eggs the same shape as the rock that hit him.
Explanation of the Emu and Jabiru Dreaming Story
G'day, my name's Bangana Wunungmurra and I'm the translator for Gapuwiyak on the animation stories from Arnhem Land.
The stories that have been told by the storytellers from up here-Arnhem Land-actually talk about the land. Yolngu land, Yolngu culture, Yolngu tradition, Yolngu way of living.
What we mean by Yolngu is an Aboriginal. It can also mean as a person whether black or white. In this case when we talk about Yolngu we're talking about the black people. The opposite we call Balanda. Balanda means the white people.
The reason why Clancy moved out here-one of the main reasons- is this is more like the main land for Gapuwiyak. The main country. Gapuwiyak is a part of this country.
So in other words, the sacred objects, the cultural stories for Gapuwiyak really come from here and Gapuwiyak is like a suburb of this land. That's why he chose to come out here, because this is where his cultural background is, here. His culture, his sacred objects and everything. That's why he chose to come out. Even though there's no facilities here, he calls it home.
For Gapuwiyak this is more a public place. This is more his backyard, you know, because of the sacred objects here.
The story about the Emu and the Jabiru, as told by Clancy Guthijpuy Marrkula talks about sharing; greed; the country here, the land here. Talks about two different people; the Dhuwa people and the Yirritja people. The countries across Arnhem Land are all sort of connected. There's always got to a be Dhuwa land and there's always got to be a Yirritja land. They always come together and the people here come under these two categories. You can only be a Yirritja and you can only be a Dhuwa.
The main reason why we like to educate our own kids, because with stories like this, it also includes the tradition, they learn about particular clans. Clancy believes that they should be told to Yolngu and Balanda, so people can have more idea about him and his land and his stories and have respect for his people and his land. And his culture.
Clancy said earlier that schools are important, a good learning place. So we believe that schools are places where kids learn a lot in the Balanda curriculum, the Yolngu way, Yolngu stories. So, yeah, imagine seeing this in schools today across Australia would be really manymak (great) for Clancy and his story. And his people and his country.
Clancy's saying that it's very important for the Western kids too, to learn about Aboriginal stories and their land and their involvement. Because they want to learn about these kinds of stories. The same way as we learnt about these stories. In other words, we're educating our kids, but through modern technology, using videos, cameras and all that.