The Dreaming  

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In the animist framework of Australian Aboriginal mythology, Dreamtime is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings created the world.

Portrayals in media

Literature

Non-native writers and artists have been inspired by Dreamtime concepts.

• Grant Morrison's character King Mob in his comic The Invisibles visits Uluru and speaks telepathically with an aboriginal elder, he remarks that this is possible because he is a 'Scorpion dreaming'.
• Philip K. Dick uses Dreamtime, among a plethora of other concepts, to describe his breakdown in his novel VALIS.
• Bruce Chatwin wrote the fiction/ non-fiction blended novel,The Songlines in exploration of some important aboriginal concepts.
• Alexis Wright's novel Carpentaria weaves Dreaming narrative from the Gulf of Carpentaria through her stories of contemporary Aboriginal characters, a form of Australian magical realism.
• Tad Williams four-volume science fiction epic Otherland touches upon Dreamtime and other aboriginal myths.
• Spider Robinson's trilogy Stardance touches upon this in the second volume.
• Richard McKenna's 1960 speculative fiction novelette, "Fiddler's Green", also touches upon Alcheringa, or Dreamtime.
• Sam Kieth's comic Maxx relies heavily on the psychology and concept of Dreamtime.
• Neil Gaiman's graphic novels The Sandman are partially set in "The Dreaming", referred to in early volumes as "Dreamtime", and also reference "Fiddler's Green"
• Jeff Smith says that aspects of his cartoon/fantasy epic Bone were inspired by Dreamtime, amongst other things.<ref name="Smith">Template:Cite book</ref>
• Queenie Chan's manga The Dreaming takes place in Australia and deals with students from a boarding school who mysteriously go missing. Aboriginal legends feature in the series.
• Joan Lindsay's novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and its unpublished ending deal with some girls who disappear while hiking Hanging Rock, near Melbourne. It is heavily implied in the book and in the ending that the girls disappeared into Dreamtime.
• Sandra McDonald's novels, The Outback Stars, The Stars Down Under and The Stars Blue Yonder, use Aboriginal myth extensively.
• The Star Trek novel Strangers from the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno has Captain Kirk using Dreamtime to investigate an altered reality.
• Betty Clawman from DC Comics' New Guardians was an aboriginal girl chosen to be part of the next stage in man's evolution - i.e. the New Guardians. Dreamtime figured in the story.
• In issues #89-90 of DC Comics' Hellblazer, John Constantine ventures into the Dreamtime.
• Wildstorm's Planetary issue #15 briefly deals with the Dreamtime.
• In the graphic novel Y: The Last Man, the protagonist's love interest, Beth, spends time in Australia. Events in the Dreamtime are presented as a possible reason for the worldwide plague that killed almost all male mammals.
• In Patrick Skene Catling's "John Midas in the Dreamtime" the protagonist visits the site of sacred cave paintings in the middle of the Australian outback, slipping back thousands of years, ultimately finding himself among a prehistoric aboriginal tribe.
• Also, Colby Herchel's new opera "The Dreamtime" tells a story of aboriginals who dream, and the battles fought against the British.

Film

• Peter Weir's The Last Wave and Picnic at Hanging Rock dealt with Dreamtime.
• Frog Dreaming (1986) (renamed The Quest when released in the USA) included certain aspects of Aboriginal Dreaming.
• The film Australia included aspects of aboriginal Dreaming (songlines).

Other media

• Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good refers to Dreamtime throughout the play.
• Colby Herchel's new opera The Dreamtime tells a story of Aboriginals who dream and the battles fought against the British.
• "Project Alchera" from the computer game Dreamfall: The Longest Journey draws heavily from the concept of Dreamtime, as well as from other Aboriginal mythologies.
• During the 1980s, the UK band The Stranglers recorded an album called Dreamtime, with a title track inspired by the Aboriginal concept.
• In the episode "Walkabout" of the animated series Gargoyles, an Aborigine mentor to Dingo teaches him of the Dreamtime. In the same episode, Goliath and Dingo enter the Dreamtime in order to communicate with an AI nanotech entity called the Matrix.
• In Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio drama, Dreamtime, the Seventh Doctor and his companions deal with Aborigine mysticism and Uluru.
• Kate Bush's 1982 album is entitled The Dreaming. The title track deals with the upheaval of the Aboriginal people.
• The Cult's 1984 album is entitled Dreamtime. The album deals with Aboriginal themes, owing to singer Ian Astbury's interest in the book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.
• The Dreamtime Rugby League team is a team of the best aboriginal players, who play certain exhibition matches.
• The Finnish band Korpiklaani recorded a track called "Uniaika" (Dreamtime) on the album Karkelo in 2009.
• "In the Dreamtime", a song written by Ralph McTell, was used in Billy Connoly's 'World Tour of Australia'
• It can be argued that Dreamtime Partially inspired 'The Outback' in the series The Maxx due to the name of the realm, how it was conceived, and that it seems influenced by Magic practiced by Aboriginal Australians.
• In the Mass Effect video game series, there are three moons named after Uluru, Wandjina, and Baiame.
• In the third Sly Cooper game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Murray is a student of Dreamtime, and his master joins the gang as well.

See also

• Aboriginal mythology
• Apeiron (cosmology)
• Dreaming (spirituality)
• Dreamtime Village
• Minka Bird

• Palmetum
• Prehistory of Australia
• Rainbow Serpent
• Religion in Australia

• People:
  • Ainslie Roberts
  • Bruce Chatwin
  • Charles P. Mountford
  • Ted Strehlow