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Dreamtime Songlines are a series of short verses that describe happenings or locations associated with ancestors. Ceremonial songs include portrayal of pertinent occurrences with dance movements. The songlines of the Dreaming Tracks have one characteristic melodic form throughout, even songs depicting the travells of an ancestor across thousands of miles. Today the journeys of the Spirit Ancestors are brought to life through these songlines. By performing the appropriate ceremonies and singing certain songs at precise points along the Dreaming Track, the Aboriginals gain direct access to the Dreaming. Many groups travell along Dreaming Tracks with their children, educating them by telling them stories of the Dreamtime. Through the verses of these songs, Aboriginal Australians know every part of the landscape and where to find sources of water and food. They also use the songlines when they move about within the territory of the tribe or when visiting other tribes.
The life of an individual Aboriginal, a person of the Dreamtime, is lived
according to the guidelines laid down for the ancestors by the creators. By
adhering to the traditions and beliefs practiced by the tribe for generations,
an individual fulfills the laws and spiritual expectations of the Ancestral
Spirits. At the end of Dreamtime, after the Ancestral Spirits gave form to the
land and established community relationships, they changed from human and other
forms into animals, stars, hills, and other things, enlivening the landscape
with their powers.
Dreaming Tracks delineate the area of land created by the Ancestral Spirits where a tribe was created, their belonging place. There is no agreed upon term to identify Aboriginal Australian groups. Generally they lived in small groups called clans, bands, hearth groups, family groups, or sub-tribes. A number of these smaller groups living in the same area of the land, sharing a Dreaming Track, comprised a tribe. There are many different Aboriginal Australia tribes who have their own Dreamtime folklore, customs, languages, and totems; but, there are also many commonalities they share such as: strong kinship and family structures, totems, Elders, skin names, Dreaming, territoriality, ceremonies, songs, storytelling, and strict boundaries between men's and women's business. The land is their life, their mother, their way, their nourishment, and their spiritual connectedness... Go back
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