The Secret of Dreaming, Quilt by Peggy Williams

(Based on a poem by Jim Poulter from his book, The Secret of Dreaming, Templestowe: Victoria: Red Hen, 1998. The poem, in turn is based on an aboriginal creation story,)

Once there was nothing but the Spirit of Life (The Great Spirit); and in the mind of the Great Spirit, a dreaming began. The Spirit dreamt of fire, and wind and rain, earth and sky and land and sea.

The Spirit grew tired of dreaming, but wanted the dream to continue and so he sent the secret of dreaming into the world to the Spirit of the Barramundi (Fish) who dreamt of waves and wet sand, but did not understand the dream; Barramundi wanted to dream only of deep still water, so he passed the secret of dreaming to the Spirit of the Currikee (Turtle) who dreamt of rocks and warm sun. But Currikee did not understand the dream and wanted to dream only of waves and wet sand. And so it went from Barramundi to Currikee to Bogai (Lizard) to Eagle to Coonerang (Possum) to Kangaroo. Each animal wanted to dream only of his or her own reality and so each passed the secret of dreaming on.

Finally, after the secret of dreaming had been passed on, it returned to the Great Sprit who then dreamt all the dreams and also dreamt of music, dancing, laughter and children. The Spirit dreamt that all creatures were spirit cousins - each in all and all in each. As long as we honor that Great Spirit's ongoing dream, the secret of dreaming is safe.