Millie+-+KMKY+Project


 * Dreamtime Project **

I think the biggest mistake the Europeans made was, not understanding the Aboriginal culture. The Europeans arrived and seemed to have no respect for the Aboriginal culture and people. They instantly thought of the Aboriginals as being ‘brutal savages’ and they thought they were helping the Aboriginals by telling them how to live and what was good for them. In some ways the Aboriginals are more intelligent than Europeans. The Aboriginals can survive in the bush and the Europeans have already minimized Australia’s resources, they haven’t even been here for 1000 years. The Aboriginals had been here for 40,000 years before they came and they have kept Australia in perfect shape. The relation between my question and Kevin Rudd’s speech is what Kevin Rudd was saying ‘sorry’ for. He was saying sorry for past Europeans not respecting the Aboriginals and their culture. This to me is a huge mistake. The Aboriginal dreamtime is part of their culture so if someone doesn’t respect their culture they disregard the Aboriginal’s religion as well.
 * What was the biggest mistake the Europeans made? **

The Aboriginals have a special connection to the land that, even now, with all of the new technology we have today, no one can //scientifically// explain. I think it is this connection that gives Aboriginals a ‘sixth sense’. In ‘//Rabbit Proof Fence’// Molly and Daisy’s family can sense them coming home and start to sing to the gods, asking for the girls to return home safely. I think that this connection is the reason the aboriginals can sense changes in the weather before they happen and other things as well. Unlike today’s modern society, the aboriginal people have lived in harmony with the land; they have fished from its streams, feasted from its flora and fauna and in general, have been exposed to the elements for about 40,000 years. As a result of this, their connection to their land is much stronger than what it is to the Europeans. The aboriginals believe that they are part of the land and that the land owns them, they just look after it. They call themselves the custodians of the land and I think that this makes their connection even stronger.
 * How do Aboriginals sense changes in the weather before they happen? **

// ‘…We don't own the land, the land owns us. The land is my mother, my mother is the land … the land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity.’ //** - S. Knight **

I couldn’t find a direct answer for this question but I don’t know if anyone knows an answer. Because some dreamtime stories have to be kept secret from people who are not indigenous Australians and sometimes even other clans, no one really knows if all native Australian animals have a dreamtime story.
 * Is there a Dreamtime story for every native Australian animal? **

The aboriginals remember all of their Dreamtime stories in many different ways. Through art, they paint and draw pictures with meanings, almost as a prompt to help them tell the story like a picture storybook. Because the Aboriginals don’t have a written language, they obviously couldn’t read or write and so they had to have pictures describing what they were saying. Aboriginals also used music, dance and song to help them tell Dreamtime stories, aboriginals could tell their Dreamtime stories using every form of theatre known, there were no rules with performing. Telling stories verbally was also used as another way of passing stories to the next generation. The sharing of stories is such a major focus of the aboriginal culture that I think it would be very unlikely for one generation to forget their clan’s Dreamtime stories and beliefs. The stories that would most likely (if any) be forgotten would be the stories passed secretly from Tribal Elder to Tribal Elder. I think this because if the Tribal Elder forgot, and the past Tribal Elder had passed away there would be no one to remind him.
 * How do Aboriginals remember all of the Dreamtime stories, what if one generation forgot? **

There are three different types of Dreamtime stories, Creation stories, stories that are used for teaching and stories that have morals. Some Dreamtime stories fall into more than one category. All of these stories are important to aboriginals for different reasons. Creation stories are important because it is the Aboriginal belief about how the world and all creatures were created. Like the Bible is important to people who believe in God, and scientists are important to people that believe in evolution! Your belief is part of who you are and everyone has a theory. Stories with morals are important because morals are what would have kept the Aboriginal tribes running smoothly. By having morals in stories, hopefully everyone would try to follow them. Stories used for teaching are important mostly because Aboriginal children need to be taught a lot more than European children. About how to survive in the harsh bush, how to behave, what to hunt, where to go and where not to go, what was dangerous and what was safe, what to eat, which waterhole were safe to drink from, how to make fire and lots more.
 * Why are Dreamtime stories so important? **

Australian Dreaming – 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History [] [] [] [] [] Mrs. Carlson