Tjukurrpa, Dreamtime, Dreaming
Dreamtime or Dreaming: The Struggle Between Western Linear And Aboriginal Circular Logic Systems
Examining the term "Dreamtime" as an example of the linguistic and cultural colonisation of Aboriginal peoples by western researchers.
Previously I have mentioned the word "Dreamtime" as an example of the Anglo colonisation of Australian Aboriginal culture, a colonial mistranslation of a Warlpiri language word.
That right word is "Tjukurrpa", and it is actually translated a little more accurately as "dream" or "dreaming". The suffix "time" was added by Anglo academics studying Warlpiri language and culture, to impose the Christian creationism ideology of their own culture. This was due to another mistranslation of a Warlpiri word that really meant something like "eternity", rather than the "long, long time ago" linear time concept of the western researchers that would eventually come to take over much Indigenous spirituality and lore.
Oral texts and narratives became "myths and legends", starting with "Long long time ago, in the Dreamtime..." instead of the religious, cultural, historical and legal texts which originally dealt with circular time concepts and the notion of eternity and a spiritual plane accessed through dreams, ceremony, and even just daily living.
In decolonising, sometimes it is necessary to challenge these Anglo-Christian concepts that have warped our cultures. This is why many Indigenous thinkers and leaders have declared the correct term now to be "Dreaming", rather than the erroneous and linear concept of "Dreamtime". It is also preferable to avoid terms such as "myth" when describing Aboriginal texts. This is often referred to now as "Story".
In reality, western linear time is nothing more than an illusion, a recent construct. Traditional Indigenous cultures mostly experience Dreaming as one entity - past present and future combined. Read my justifications for this in the article Linear Vs Circular Logic.
