The Dreaming

Welcome to A I Contemporary, uniquely dedicated to the ethical promotion of Australian Aboriginal art in North America. Welcome to the Dreamtime.

The Dreamtime is the belief of many Aboriginal groups that Aboriginal people have been in Australia since the beginning.

During this significant period the ancestral spirits came up out of the earth and down from the sky to walk on the land were they created and shaped its land formations, rivers, mountains, forests and deserts.

These were created while the ancestors traveled, hunted and fought. They also created all the people, animals and vegetation that were to be apart of the land and laid down the patterns their lives were to follow. It was the spirit ancestors who gave Aboriginal people the lores, customs and codes of conduct, and who are the source of the songs, dances, designs, languages, and rituals that are the basic of Aboriginal religious expression.

These ancestors were spirits who appeared in a variety of forms. When their work was completed the ancestral spirits went back into the earth, the sky and into the animals, land formation, and rivers. The ancestors-beings are ‘alive’ in the spirit of Australian Aboriginals.

In this painting by Shanna Wade tells the story of the Seven Sisters. Actually a star constellation very visible from the Australian desert, the seven sisters are fleeing a man from another kin who wants to marry one of the sisters. In Aboriginal traditions, there cannot be marriage between different skin names. The lone star is therefore in eternal pursuit but never reaches love.