Australian Cosmology

Most people associate “dreaming” with an unconscious state that serves no apparent purpose except to access a realm of fantasy and unreal actions.  However, the Aboriginal people of Australia believed that the Earth was actually created in a dream-like state.  Despite the fact that the Australian indigenous population is dwindling, a small percentage of the remaining Aborigines still believe in the creation legends that have been passed down through Aboriginal culture for an astonishing 50,000 years.  While the average creation story normally includes a primordial creator and a blend of religious and scientific concepts, the Australian story strays from the norm.  They do not believe a God (or multiple gods) created the earth and thus are not devoted to Him like the Hebrews, Christians, Greeks, and Norwegians.  And just as every cosmological creation story has unique elements that reflect their respective culture, the Aboriginal one is a mythological tale involving a combination of dreaming spirits, a gargantuan lizard, water-loaded frogs, and obedient animals like those below in Figure 1. Apart from a few select resemblances to other creation myths, the Australian creation story stands on it’s own.  It is a truly unique interpretation of how the Earth was created because of its original “Dreamtime” characters and dream-like state, mythical qualities, and stark contrast to the religious beliefs other non-western cosmologies have regarding creation.

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