AustLit

'This article contemplates the possible relationship of Central Australian "Dreaming," or Tjukurrpa, to symbol and thought formation in desert Aboriginal culture. Acknowledgement is given to the diversity and complexity of descriptions ofTjukurrpa. The author is concerned with how thoughts are made, what they are made of, and how thinking might go wrong, that is, how disorders of thought in the intercultural matrix might arise. Thinking as a form of mental activity may be deeply related with the ontopoetic ancestry of language and locations of human movement and activity. The author suggests that through an analysis of detailed, grounded, intercultural conversations and an understanding of the structure and content of Tjukurrpa, non-Indigenous people working in health and law might appreciate and comprehend Aboriginal thinking and behaviour (and thus be more effective in various aspects of mutual engagement). The challenge is mutual and reciprocal.' (Source: Editor's abstract)