Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Dog Dreaming (2001)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
clip Family

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

The elder is sitting near a rock. His voice-over narration runs atop paintings depicting the relationship between people and dogs. The elder tells us the importance of dogs to the people of this area, and that in this country, the dogs are treated like human beings.

Curator’s notes

In Indigenous Dreaming stories, the Dreaming ancestors are powerful and revered beings. In this particular country, the dog is an important part of Indigenous society and is ‘like family’. The people with the dog totem cannot harm the dog or hurt it in any way, and the elder tells us the significance of dogs – not dingoes but actual dogs – in the relationships between people.