Anthropology & Aboriginal Dreaming
A History of Power:
Anthropology & Aboriginal Dreaming

Abstract
On this website, I will be providing a brief historical overview of the Aboriginal concept originally mistranslated as “the Dreaming/Dreamtime” by Francis Gillen and Walter B. Spencer and the different perspectives of following anthropologists, on both what I call "English Dreaming" and the importance of a culturally-aware linguistics approach when it comes to studying Indigenous folklore. This website is not an exhibition of Aboriginal culture as, given that folklore is forms of communication between groups, the folk group of interest for this research project is anthropologists of colonial borders. Additionally, the website includes an analysis of how mistranslations, misconception, and diminishment affects power dynamics between the Aboriginal people and colonists of settled Australia today. Specifically, I hope to establish an introductory understanding of the role Aboriginal folklore plays in the preservation of Indigenous rights and the importance of anthropology work in borderlands spaces.
Context
What is the Dreaming/Dreamtime according to Aboriginal folklore vs. the "English Dreaming"?
Dreamtime, often used interchangeably with the term "Dreaming," ​is popularly known as the fantastical era of creation when ancient, ancestral beings of Aboriginal legend brought the world into existence - in the Yindjibarndi language, this period is described by a phrase...
​
​