In Aboriginal mythology, the creation of the world took place during Dreamtime - a period when supernatural beings, after sleeping beneath the earth’s surface, rose to create the world we know.
These creation stories, distinct to each tribe, are the foundation of aboriginal social and religious life. They recount the journeys of primordial beings, and show how the landscape was shaped, how fire was created, how plants, animals and humans were made, and even how weapons and tools were invented to help Aborigines in their daily lives.
Often, dreamings are depicted through dot painting – a pointallistic technique illustrating stories, characters, and landscape "in plan" (bird's eye view). Each dreaming is owned by the individual artist, and is respected and protected within and among different clans – one person is not allowed to copy another person’s dreaming without permission. Family leaders teach their children to recognize when they experience their own dreamings, so the stories will carry on. To the tunes of the didgeridoo :) students looked at examples of dreamings depicted in aboriginal dot painting, and watched a short video of how one aborigine leader depicted the creation of his own ancestral lands. We read them a section from a history series our family has fallen in love with, The Story of the World (Vol II) about Australia's first people. Room 103 kids imagined ‘landscapes’ from their own lives, drew a simple outline, and then, using q-tips(!) and acrylic paint, created colored dot patterns in the aboriginal style.
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