“Contemporary Urban Indigenous 'Dreamings': Connection, Ceremony and Practice”

Abstract

Abstract The ability of Indigenous peoples in being able to transform knowledge of lost consciousness and Dreaming as contemporary art practice within a narrative accepted as viable within the domain of our oppressor is integral to our survival.

As rites of passage are stripped away and rituals and ceremonies no longer practiced writing within television, theatre and film demonstrates an understanding of the relationship between Indigenous storyteller and audience at a national broadcast level that serves as a conduit to our old people.

This paper describes the challenge set within the use of the authors Indigeneity in writing a novel that is able to share a knowledge base of Indigenous collective consciousness as span over thousands of years as a form of privileged access as gained by the author.

Written as three separate narratives; the opening narrative takes us back to the Aboriginal Genesis, a time before the beginning … the Dreamtime (Burruguu) … a time before the Dreaming (Burruguu-ngayi-li); this first narrative to be written in the traditional language of the Kamilaroi. The second narrative will be written in a past tense — the Dreaming; and the third will be written in the present, the here and now.

In this way, narrative is utilised as a creative tool which builds empathy between the Indigenous world-view and the non-Indigenous audience — the relationship of the narrated and the narration. In creation of a new discourse by means of Aesopic writing; based upon inclusive practice, mutual obligation and partnership between traditional Kamilaroi storytelling and contemporary Western creative writing practice.