Viewing ofReference Material
Art students and others conducting research are welcome to make an appointment with us to view the works listed in the adjacent table.
It is also recommended for Europeans to use the online search system at KVK (Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog), in which all German and many European scholarly libraries list their available references. Sometimes the works are available for loan.
A list of further references about Australian art, which however are not yet in our reference collection, is also maintained and continually extended.
Literature in our Collection
(A-L)
Cowan, James: Mysteries of the Dream-Time. The Spiritual Life of Australian Aborigines, Lindfield 1989, ISBN 1853270385
Table of Contents ¦ Cover Text ¦ Book Review
Table of Contents
Introduction -1-
Spiritual Discipline and Psychic Power -5-
Landscape as Tradition and Metaphor -23-
The Dream Journey -43-
Pilgrimage of the Soul -57-
Nature as Numen -71-
The Metaphysics of Space -87-
The World of Totems -105-
Towards a New Dreaming -117-
Select Bibliography -127-
Cover Text
For centuries, the mysterious spiritual life of Aboriginal Australians has lain concealed behind a veil of misunderstanding and prejudice. Whether making a Dream Journey in search of his ancestral roots, or painting his body in order to recreate his culture heroes, the Aborigine partakes of an intense spiritual reality that can only be expressed through a complex calendar of ritual and ceremony. The Dreaming - that mythical time when the world was first created - became the embodiment of this world. The Aborigine was able to invest this heraldic event with a luminous beauty that gave his life purpose and meaning for over 50,000 years. Now, the world's oldest religion is brought to life in all its breathless majesty. Men of Power, celestial journeys, meditational techniques and the role of the body as a spiritual icon are all explored.