Navigation

Recent site activity

Exercises for 'Entering the Dreamtime'

(Paper and pencil time!! Print this page, do the exercises then click here for the key.)

1. Choose the correct answer to the question.

 - Where do Aboriginals live?

A, In Lapland.                         B, In India.                    C, In Australia.

 - Who created the Songlines?

A, The Aboriginals.                B, The wind.                C, Archetypal beings.

 - What is 'Urulu'?

A, A big tree.                          B, An instrument.        C, A sacred place.

 - What is the didgeridoo?

A, A big tree.                          B, An instrument.        C, A sacred place.

 - Which animals play an important part in the making of a didgeridoo?

A, Termites.                            B, Ants                            C, Snakes.

2. Find the defined words in the text.

The basic idea without small details                   - bare bones

Not eating for a long period of time                     -

Knowledge about the true nature of something   -

Holy, worshipped                                                   -

Not solid, has a hole inside                                  -

3. Fill in the text with the words below.

A few years ago I came across a book by Bruce Chatwin titled 'Songlines'. This book introduced me to an ancient view of the world, which I found so ( enchanting ) that I decided to read a bit more about it. This system is complex, just like any system made about creation, but I will try to explain the (                           ) of it in a relatively simple way.
The Aboriginals, the (                                 
) people of Australia, have a dual concept of reality. There is the (                                     ) of everyday activity and there is another one, a parallel reality called the Dreamtime or the Dreaming. This is quite different from the Western concept of dreaming. Aboriginals believe that before humans, animals and plants came to existence, strange (                            ) beings roamed the Earth. These totems or (                                  ) appeared, travelled across the land, performed their deeds and then finally returned to where they had come from or as the indigenous people say "went back in". During their journeys, they established the Songlines, the routes that link all the significant places of creation. For example, the Rainbow Serpent, an ancestor who appears in many dreaming stories, created rivers and mountains on its way through Northern Australia.

Aboriginal people believe that with singing, dancing and (                                  ) they can temporarily reconnect to this other plane of reality and they can heal or gain important (                              ) for their lives. Walking long distances across the land is also one way to enter the dreamtime. Sometimes Aboriginals walk through the entire length of a particular Songline, the path of an ancestor. Some of the Songlines are so long that they pass through several language regions. Hills, rocks, waterholes, caves and all the other formations speak about the ancestors. Because of this, the land is extremely important for the indigenous people of Australia. In the Northern Territory, the two biggest and most (                                  ) sites are Urulu and Kata Tjuta.

An important instrument of story-telling and celebrations is the didgeridoo, the oldest wind instrument on Earth. It is a big piece of hollow wood and it is often (                                  ) with dreamtime symbols. Traditionally, the didgeridoo is made from an eucalyptus tree that the (                             ) have made (                                  ). To play this instrument you have to vibrate your lips and have to use circular breathing to make sure that the air flow remains continuous. The sound is unique and cannot really be mistaken for any other instrument.

Use these words:

hollow        indigenous        fasting        ancestors        plane        sacred        termites        archetypal        bones        enchanting        insights        ornamented



Č
ĉ
ď
Dávid Szabó,
2 Jul 2009 04:37