Why are the Dreamtime Stories important to Aboriginal people?

Question

Why are the Dreamtime stories important to Aboriginal people? What does it teach them about the laws, behaviour and land?

All answers are appreciated.

Answer 1

To the aboriginees; their dreamland is just as important as heaven is to a Christian, or the summerlands to the Wicca.

Answer 2

This is an excerpt from ARCHAEOLOLOGY OF THE DREAMTIME, Josephine Flood, Yale, (1983)

There are two sources of knowledge about the really distant past of
Australia: archaeological evidence and Aboriginal oral traditions passed
down as stories about the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is the era of
creation, the time of the great Spirit Ancestors, who have profoundly
influenced the traditional pattern of life as Aborigines know it today.
The myths tell the story of human origins in Australia, of which much
has been substantiated by scientific investigation. Oral traditions
about events that took place many thousands of years ago have endured:
the eruption of volcanoes, the rising of the seas and the change from
lush vegetation to desert in the heart of Australia.

Answer 3

The dreamtime is known as the Tjukurpa in Central Australia is the time of creation, when giant sprit beings roamed the earth and created everything that we see today. These spirit beings often had the form of animals but could change into human form as well, hence they are both the anilmal and human ancestrys. The way that these spirit beings interacted with the land was passed down generation to generation through a series of ceremonies and sacred objects known as tjuringas. These sacred objects carry each story and these stories and the full meaning behind them is passed on to each aboriginal person at a time of initiation and these stories contain the rules and laws of the land. Only those who have been through initiation know the full meanings and rites of the law, however there are stories that are shared with children and these versions of the stories are usually what is passed on to the outside world. They are similar to parables in the bible where each story has a moral behind it but as people grow up they become mrore knowlegeable as they pass through their rites of passage, hence why aboriginal elders are considered wise old men because they understand a lot of the law and its ways.

Answer 4

The Dreamtime is the story of creation.
Most unfortunate but just as the Native American Indian the Aboriginal people were pushed into a corner and forbidden
to worship as they chose......most NA and A's have forgotten
or never learned their true heritage which can only be learned
by living it. The teachings taught how human animals inner acted with all sentient beings of the planet. Aboriginals were pure and telepathic and lived for the greater good of all.
My heart crys for a consciousness so beautiful !

Answer 5

I am an Australian with a splash of Aboriginal blood in my veins, just a touch mind you.. So I have never been really brought up to know these things as part of my culture.. The Dreamtime stories are about the Creation.. There are hundreds of Aboriginal tribes here, and they all have a different story to tell.. Why is it important to them you ask and beyond... It is as important to them as your beliefs are to you, in the USA where I assume you are from, you have your native Indians.. What a superb race of people they are, like the Australian Aborigines, they are a strong and powerful race of people with their own beliefs.. I am Wiccan and my belief system is similar to a lot of native beliefs, as we worship the Earth.. It is the oldest religion / belief system known to man.. Then the Christians and other Mob's come in and try to destroy this.. After 40,000 years (scientific fact) of having worshipped the Earth and the Elements as they did / do, your native peoples and mine had to suffer at the hands of Christianity.. How can another religion, brand new and false, justify what it has done to the native people's of the World??? Love and Light.. Blessed Be.. )O(

Answer 6

they dont have a written language so they told stories.

Answer 7

these stories are their creation myths