Australian Aboriginal mythology

Australian Aboriginal myths, also known as Dreamtime stories and Songlines, are the stories traditionally performed and told by the indigenous people of Australia.^[1] Each of the language groups across Australia has its own stories.

All the myths explain important features and meanings within each Aboriginal group's local landscape. They give cultural meaning to the Australian physical landscape. People who know these stories have access to the wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back beyond the reach of memory.^[2]

David Horton wrote in the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia that:^[3]

"A mythic map of Australia would show thousands of characters, varying in their importance, but all in some way connected with the land. Some emerged at their specific sites and stayed spiritually in that vicinity. Others came from somewhere else and went somewhere else."

"Many were shape changing, transformed from or into human beings or natural species, or into natural features such as rocks but all left something of their spiritual essence at the places noted in their stories."

Australian Aboriginal myths have been described as parts of a catechism, a liturgical manual, a history of civilization, a geography textbook, and to a much smaller extent a manual of the world and the universe.^[4]

1. ↑ Morris, C. (1994) "Oral Literature" in Horton, David (General Editor)
2. ↑ Morris, C. (1995) "An Approach to Ensure Continuity and Transmission of the Rainforest Peoples' Oral Tradition", in Fourmile, H; Schnierer, S.; & Smith, A. (Eds) An Identification of Problems and Potential for Future Rainforest Aboriginal Cultural Survival and Self-Determination in the Wet Tropics. Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation Research and Development. Cairns, Australia
3. ↑ Berndt, C. (1994) "Mythology" in David Horton (General Editor)
4. ↑ Van Gennep, A. (1906)