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Yawkyawk, Aboriginal shape-shifting mermaids who live in waterholes, freshwater springs, and rock pools, cause the weather and are related by blood or through marriage (or depending on the tradition, both) to the rainbow serpent Ngalyod. Yee-Na-Pah, an Arrernte thorny devil spirit girl who marries and echidna spirit man.
According to Australian Aboriginal mythology and the animist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land. [75]
Aboriginal specialists willing to generalise believe all Aboriginal myths across Australia, in combination, represent a kind of unwritten library within which Aboriginal peoples learn about the world and perceive a peculiarly Aboriginal 'reality' dictated by concepts and values vastly different from those of western societies: [19]
Aboriginal stencil art showing unique clan markers and dreamtime stories symbolising attempts to catch the deceased's spirit. The beginnings of Australian mythology center on the Aboriginal belief system known as Dreamtime, which dates back as far as 65,000 years. Aboriginals believed Earth was created by spiritual beings who physically ...
"The native," Strehlow concluded, "knows nothing of 'dreamtime' as a designation of a certain period of their history." [9] [c] Strehlow gives Altjira or Altjira mara (mara meaning "good") as the Arrente word for the eternal creator of the world and humankind. Strehlow describes him as a tall strong man with red skin, long fair hair, and emu ...
In North American mythologies, common themes include a close relation to nature and animals as well as belief in a Great Spirit that is conceived of in various ways. As anthropologists note, their great creation myths and sacred oral tradition in whole are comparable to the Christian Bible and scriptures of other major religions.
The Rainbow Serpent is a major ancestral being for many Aboriginal people across Australia. Baiame or Bunjil are regarded as the primary creator-spirits in South-East Australia. Dingo Dreaming is a significant ancestor in the interior regions of Bandiyan, as Dingo formed the songlines that cross the continent from north to south and east to ...
Scholars of ancient history believe that it would have been difficult for Aboriginal people to have originated purely from mainland Asia, as not enough people would have migrated to Australia and surrounding islands to fulfill the beginning of the size of the population seen in the 19th century.