Uluru: Fact and Fiction Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story The 'Aboriginal Dreamtime' is that part of aboriginal culture which explains the origins and culture of the land and its people. Aborigines have the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth - dating back - by some estimates - 65,000 years. Dreamtime is Aboriginal Religion and Culture. The Dreamtime contains many parts: It is the story of things that have happened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos.

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things', 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.

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story Australian Aboriginal people know that the area around Ayers Rock (Mount Uluru) is inhabited by dozens of ancestral beings whose activities are recorded at many separate sites. At each site, the events that took place can be recounted, whether those events were of significance or whether the ancestral being just rested at a certain place before going on. Around Ayers Rock (Uluru) there are many examples of ancestral sites. The Anangu explanations of these sites and of the formation of Ayers Rock (Mount Uluru) itself derive from the Tjukurpa. On the next slide are some of these stories:

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story Uluru and the Anangu People Many Aboriginal elders tell stories about special places around Uluru and animals that made them. Here is one of those stories from the Dreamtime. Long, long ago in the Dreamtime the animals gave shape to some of the Rock. At that time a young Woma Python, called Kuniya was surprised by a group of Liru, which are venomous snakes. The Liru threw spears at the python and killed him. So hard did they throw their spears, that the points made holes in The Rock. The boy's aunt, called Kuniya, was so angry that she killed one of the Liru with her stick. They made holes in the rock when the points of Kuniya's stick hit it. You can still see these holes today. Kuniya, the Woma Python can still be seen as a dark wavy line on Uluru.

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story Tjati tries to retrieve his kali In the creation period, Tatji, the small Red Lizard, who lived on the mulgi flats, came to Uluru.  He threw his kali, a curved throwing stick, and it became embedded in the surface. He used his hands to scoop it out in his efforts to retrieve his kali, leaving a series of bowl-shaped hollows.

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story The cave where Tjati died at Kantju Unable to recover his kali, he finally died in this cave. His implements and bodily remains survive as large boulders on the cave floor.

Ayers Rock - Dreamtime Story In several caves in Uluru, rock represents many stories of the Dreamtime. The paintings are regularly renewed, with layer upon layer of paint, dating back many thousands of years.

Ayers Rock - Geology Fact and Fiction Ayers Rock - A product of Noah’s Flood?

Watch http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm Dreamtime Watch http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm To get an idea of what Dreamtime stories are like, watch some of stories in the above link. Now create your own Dreamtime story to illustrate how a specific landform was created. For example, you may want to write about how an angry, sunburnt spirit tried to blow all the sand away and created sand dunes.