Alcheringa

See also: alcheringa

English

Alternative forms

• alcheringa

Etymology

Borrowed from Eastern Arrernte.

Proper noun

Alcheringa (uncountable)

1. Synonym of Dreamtime.
   • 1909, William Isaac Thomas, Source Book for Social Origins, page 245:

     Sometimes the spirit child which goes into a woman is associated with one of the sacred Churinga, numbers of which every Alcheringa individual carried about with him or her (for in those days the women were allowed to carry them just as the men were), and then, in this case, the child has no definite name, but of course it belongs to the same totem as did the individual who had carried the Churinga about in the Alcheringa; that is, if it were a kangaroo man or woman, so of course must the child be, and then the old men determine what shall be its secret or sacred name.

   • 2012, Judy Hall, Crystals and Sacred Sites:

     Amulet stones are traditionally carried for protection and good luck, but Alcheringa Stones have a much deeper property: that of connection to the land, the spirit of the ancestors, and the dreamtime.

   • 2023, T. Inglis Moore, Social Patterns in Australian Literature, page 303:

     Some writers tried to recreate the mythology of the aboriginals, and the Jindyworobaks in particular endeavoured, with small success, to recall Alcheringa.