The Religions Book

35

See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ Created for a purpose 32 ■ The spirits of the dead live on 36–37
■ Living the Way of the Gods 82–85

PRIMAL BELIEFS

Uluru holds great spiritual power,
according to Aboriginal tradition. It
is said to be the heart of the ancestral
beings’ Songlines, whose signs may
still be seen in the great rock’s features.

The origin of Uluru

According to one legend,

before the Uluru rock existed,

the Kunia, or carpet-snake

people, lived there. To the west

lived the Windulka, or mulga-

seed men, who invited the

Kunia to a ceremony. The Kunia

men set out, but, after stopping

at the Uluru waterhole, they

met some Metalungana, or

sleepy-lizard women, and

forgot about the invitation.

The Windulka sent the bell

bird Panpanpalana to find the

Kunia. The Kunia men told the

bird they could no longer

attend since they had just

gotten married. Affronted, the

Windulka asked their friends

the Liru, the poisonous-snake

people, to attack the Kunia.

During a furious battle, the Liru

overcame the Kunia, who

surrounded their dying leader,

Ungata, and sang themselves

to death. During the battle,

Uluru was formed. Three rock

holes high on Uluru mark the

place Ungata bled to death,

and the water that spills from

them is Ungata’s blood. It flows

down to fill the pool of the

Rainbow Serpent, Wanambi.

We say djang...

That secret place...

Dreaming there.

Gagudju elder

Big Bill Neidjie

First People or “the eternal ones
of the dream,” and their role in
creation. Aboriginal tradition
tells how these beings awake in a
primal world that is still malleable
and in a state of becoming. They
journey across the land, leaving
sacred paths known as Songlines,
or Dreaming tracks, in their wake.
As they go, they shape human
beings, animals, plants, and the
landscape, establishing rituals,
defining the relationships between
things, and changing shape back

and forth from animal to human

forms. Finally they transform

themselves into features of the

environment including stars,

rocks, watering holes, and trees.

The living land

Dreamings are thus intimately

tied to natural features such as hills,

rocks, and creeks, as well as the

Songlines themselves. Aboriginal

peoples revere the topography of

Australia as sacred because it offers

evidence both of their spiritual

ancestors’ wanderings, and of their

bodies. The Gunwinggu tribe

describes the land as being infused

with the ancestral beings’ djang

(spiritual power): it is this that

gives it its life and its holy power.

This sacred topography

converges on Uluru, a sandstone

rock formation in the Northern

Territory, the center from which

all the Songlines are said to radiate.

Uluru is venerated as a great

storehouse of djang, the navel

of the living body of Australia.

Aborigines consider the land

to be both their inheritance and

responsibility, and so they nurture

it, and the Dreamings accordingly.

While they may be mortal, the

djang of their ancestral beings lives

forever, and is forever in the now. ■