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What exactly is the Aboriginal dream? Are “Dream” and “Dreaming” one and the same thing?

We know that Aboriginal people, when speaking in English, refer to sacred time as “Dreaming,” meaning “the Dreamer.” This refers to an invisible, energetic, and creative space that sustains the profane world. But what about nighttime dreams?

In fact, Aboriginal people make a clear distinction between the two, but a powerful link nevertheless exists. In the languages of the Western Desert, the word Tjukurrpa is used for both, but the act of dreaming while asleep is described as “Seeing dreaming,” which could be translated as dream vision.

Seven Sisters, Aboriginal Art, Maureen Hudson — This work by Maureen Husdon Nampijinpa, entitled Dream of Fire, condenses several stories of the artist’s dreaming: Fire dreaming, Two snakes, Women ceremony, Seven sisters dreaming.

During nighttime dreaming, the mind travels outside the body and accesses a reality that is not observable through the senses. The events observed may be distant in time or space. The dreamer comes into contact with ancestral figures from the “Dreaming” (the sacred time) who can then impart specific knowledge (songs, dances, motifs, ceremonies). These elements are considered revelations of things that have always existed but of which humankind was previously unaware. Nighttime dreaming is the experience of a world parallel to, yet invisible to, daily life.

The dreamer attaches great importance to their nighttime dream. But is this importance to be taken into consideration at the group level?

Upon waking, it’s not uncommon for someone to say to those around them, “I saw something,” and then discuss what it represents and means. Most of the time, the message doesn’t seem essential to the community and, as in our own culture, it will be forgotten. But in situations of danger, uncertainty, or change (and colonization offers many painful examples), dreams take on the value of omens, support, or even remedies. They will then be considered the voice of the ancestors and will become rituals (songs, dances, and motifs), or even a true cult.

The Aboriginal Dream, — The Gurrir Gurrir (or Krill Krill) ceremonial dance, created following a dream/vision by stockman Rover Thomas, has become a cult dance across the Kimberley region as a form of redress for the deculturation of the Kidja people. This performance takes place in Sydney.

The dreamer is not credited with this contribution; he is merely a receptacle for a message from sacred time, from tutelary powers, immutable and always capable of coming to the aid of men in difficulty.