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Mythology

In the beginning of time the earth was flat and featureless, just a huge plain extending on all sides to the horizon, which to the Aborigines, was the edge of the world. Even the present-day tribal Aborigines belive that if they walk too far in any direction, they will be in danger of falling into bottomless space.

Then, at some remote period in the long distant past, known The Dreamtime, great semi-human beings, resembling one or another of the creatures in appearance, but behaving like human beings, rose out of the featureless plain where they had been slumbering for countless ages, and began to wander aimlessly over the countryside.

As these mythical people wandered, they behaved in the same manner as the Aborigines of the present time; they gathered their food, dug for water, performed ceremonies, rituals and so on. During the whole of this period, the country remained unchanged.

Then mysteriously, the Dreamtime came to an end, and everywhere the mythical heroes had carried out an task, some natural feature – a mountain range, an isolated hill, a river or even trees – arose to mark the place.

The aborigines look upon these creators as their ancestors. The men and women of the various totems (the kangaroo, emu, wild turkey, lizards and others) believe themselves to be direct descents of the same mystical being who created the totemic land in which they live.

Since every Aborigine claims direct descent from one or another of these mystical beings of the Dreamtime, and each person in turn lives in the land created by them, it follows that every man, woman and child is intimately linked by myth and tribal relationships with rocks, watercourses, and everything else in this tribal country.

They are his, the work of his ancestors of the dim and ghostly past, and proud he is to show them to the appreciative visitor.


Aboriginal Art & Instruments - Paleisstraat 137 - 1012 ZL Amsterdam - Tel +31 (0) 20 4231333 - Fax +31 (0) 20 4941965