A Journey through ‘Dreamtime’

By Dr. Siri Galhenage
Retired Psychiatrist
sirigalhenage@gmail.com

PREAMBLE

With a raging pandemic, catastrophic environmental events and brutal human conflict gripping the world – due to man’s own doing – we live in a troubled present, facing an uncertain future; the past is all we have to draw on and learn from. In such a perplexing circumstance it is perhaps instinctual in man to take refuge in the wilderness – his original habitat!

Our recent sojourn in the Kakadu forest of biological and ecological diversity, at the ‘top end’ of the Northern Territory of Australia, was not only a welcome retreat but a journey into the remote past of mankind.

After arriving in Darwin, the capital of the Territory, aptly named after Charles Darwin, the Evolutionist, and enjoying the warm hospitality of expatriate fellow-countrymen, who have made their mark in this tropical city, we journeyed through Kakadu forest, which covers an area of 20,000 square kilometres – one third the size of Sri Lanka. We also ventured into Katherine and the Lichfield National Park, both with spectacular landscapes. With my wife, the safer driver, at the wheel, we traversed nearly 2000 Km. across the Australian ‘outback’.

The journey which meant to be recreational turned out also to be educational.

INTRODUCTION

Prehistoric man lived in the wilderness in harmony with nature but not without enduring the constant threats of the physical world. They were hunter-gatherers. With successive revolutionary changes – cognitive, agricultural, scientific and industrial – over centuries, man became ‘civilised’. History was written. But little we know that unwritten history existed before man was civilised!

There is no better place in the world to explore history, before history was written, than the Kakadu forest – a cultural landscape shaped by the spiritual ancestors of the Binninj/Mungguy people, a clan of the First Nations [Indigenous/ Aboriginal] People of Australia. A recent genomic study has revealed that the Indigenous Australians possess the oldest continuous culture in the world, which dates back 60,000 years. What lessons can we learn from this primordial culture?

DREAMTIME

Fundamental to the understanding of the culture of the indigenous people of Australia is the concept of Dreamtime. With the want of a better word to describe it in English, Dreamtime is a difficult concept to grasp – mysterious, yet beautiful, and to the adherents, spiritual. My understanding of it, and I stand to be corrected, is that the concept encompasses a ‘creation process’ that integrates human body and spirit with the land, its flora and fauna, and the universe at large with its celestial bodies. The early man did not differentiate between themselves and the environment. The concept is ‘all encompassing’ and ‘timeless’. It is believed that the spiritual ancestors journeyed across the country creating landforms, plants, animals and humans. They gave the people their language, their rituals, and laid down the laws about how to live and look after their country. The popular tale of the ‘Rainbow serpent’, the creator spirit, is one such dreamtime story. The resting place of the serpent is considered to be a site of spiritual significance.

‘LIBRARIES WITHOUT WORDS’

Some of the oldest historical records about humanity – extending as far back as 20,000 years – are found in the rock paintings of the Kakadu forest. The greatest concentration of such ‘libraries without words’ is located in the rock art sites of Ubirr and Nourlangie.

We arrived at the renowned Crocodile Hotel situated in the tiny hamlet of Jabiru, 250Km from Darwin, using it as our base before venturing into the art sites. We were greeted by the restaurant manager of the Hotel, the affable lad from Galle, undoubtedly the only Sri Lankan in Kakadu, who extended his ‘apey kama’ [amity], inherent in us, in treating us!

Painted by knowledgeable elders, the rock art of Nourlangie and Ubirr record narratives regarding creator ancestors who endowed First Nations People with their language, culture and codes of conduct; their relationship with the land and its flora and fauna; a range of activities of daily living such as hunting and fishing; their rituals; and even the arrival of ‘alien peoples’. Art is about sharing of knowledge: children would learn about their culture, kinship and their country while watching and listening to the elders as they painted. The artists used red, yellow and purple pigments from ochre clays and white pigment from kaolin, ground on rock shallows with water using stone pestles, in their artwork. Sticks with squashed ends were used as brushes.

ORAL HISTORY

The act of rock painting was often accompanied by ‘story-telling’ by trusted ‘knowledge keepers’. The stories were about dreamtime: how life came to be and its interconnectedness with the universe, their land and their habitat in particular, and the journeys and accomplishments of their ancestors. The purpose of story-telling was to share the ‘knowledge’ with the rest of the clan, the children in particular, to instil in them an understanding of their history and culture. Information is thus handed down generations, sometimes having to superimpose artwork over existing paintings.

In addition to storytelling, senior clan members gathered to pass down knowledge through song and dance, and hunting and food gathering expeditions. Children were taught to respect the codes of conduct and the system of punishment which enforces them.

CONNECTION TO LAND and ITS CREATURES

The indigenous people believe that they belong to the land: the soul of a person is born from the land and returns to it after death.

The art sites and oral history bear witness to their strong and ongoing connection to their land, and their association with a wide array of creatures that inhabit the land. The kangaroo, the crocodile, the goanna, the snake, the emu and the duck-billed platypus, not only inhabit their land but also occupy dreamtime, adopting human traits [anthropomorphism]. The land had a voice and they listened to it; being the custodians of the land they felt duty-bound in its care and protection.

Journeying through this ancient land at the top end of Northern Territory one could not help marvel at the vast expanse of the monsoon rainforest, the wetlands, spring-fed streams, and the sandstone gorges carved by snaking rivers that cascade into deep ravines as waterfalls. A boat cruise along the Yellow river teeming with crocodiles provides a safe platform in viewing a range of birdlife – magpie geese, sea eagles, egrets, jabiru and jacana – on display on its banks. This spectacular landscape was once the home of its original inhabitants, who spoke their language, followed their laws, engaged in their rituals, expressed themselves in Art and dance, and passed down their culture through oral tradition and lived in harmony with their environs, but true to human nature, not without occasional conflict between clans.

DISPOSSESION

Since colonisation by the British, nearly 230 years ago, migrants from around the globe arrived in this ‘sunburnt country with sweeping plains and rugged mountains’ in pursuit of a better life for themselves and their progeny. Many achieved their desired goal in what came to be known as the ‘lucky country’, but not without hard work and sacrifice. Australia is often touted as the ‘most successful multicultural society in the world’, enjoying relative harmony between communities.

But sadly, the same could not be said about the traditional owners of this land, currently not exceeding three percent of the total population. For over two centuries they have remained marginalised, dispossessed of their land and culture. They were once deemed to be ‘subhuman’ [treated as flora and fauna] and were even ‘hunted down’ by the early British settlers who advocated a policy of ‘exterminating’ them from the land they believed belonged to none [‘terra nullius’]. The celebrated English author and social critic, Charles Dickens [1812-1870] called them the ‘noble savages’, not unaware of the savagery of his fellow countrymen inflicted upon these dignified primeval people. Their children were forcibly taken away from their parents and their land with a view to ‘civilising’ them [some abused in institutional care] producing a ‘stolen generation’ harbouring significant emotional trauma. Successive governments have failed to adequately address the challenges facing the indigenous people in regard to Education, Health Care, Housing, etc. – their social disadvantage resulting in a multitude of issues such as poverty, unemployment, alcohol abuse, criminality, disproportionate incarceration, domestic violence and suicide. Against all odds, it is heartening to see the emergence of a sprinkling of young and intelligent indigenous people in a variety of fields such as medicine, law, academia, politics and the arts.

Prejudicial attitudes towards the indigenous population prevail amongst the general population, shared by less informed recent migrants, as the focus of attention is often drawn to the felony of the disadvantaged and not to their predicament, perpetuating the hurt of two centuries.

All travellers who journey through this ancient land of Kakadu, as we did, are haunted by the echo of the bellowing didgeridoo, the tap of the clap stick and the rhythmic stamp of feet, accompanying a grief stricken melody of the lives lived and a lost dreamtime.

POSTSCRIPT

It is a pity to pass through this ancient land without grasping even a modicum of Dreaming knowledge which has universal meaning. The knowledge, which may be discarded as mythical/ primitive by modern man, carries archetypal elements of great significance to the troubled world of today, such as, an appreciation of our common humanity, respect for the environment, sense of community, equity in sharing of knowledge [education], and living within the bounds of an ethical code, embodied in the concept of ‘the unity of all things’ in Dreaming. The journey towards the future includes a curiosity to track down our ancient wisdom buried in antiquity and to learn from it. It is not a call to turn back the times and return to living in the past.

[sirigalhenage@gmail.com]