In Stanner’s 1956 essay, “The Dreaming”, he attempted to tease out a translation of Indigenous temporality. “The Dreaming conjures up the notion of a sacred, heroic time of the indefinitely remote past, such a time is also, in a sense, still part of the present”, he suggested. “One cannot ‘fix’ The Dreaming in time: it was, and is, everywhen.”
‘Dates add nothing to our culture’: Everywhen explores Indigenous deep history, challenging linear, colonial narratives
Meet Everywhen, my new favorite word.
I was thinking recently that there is only ever one moment – this moment right here. We cannot really experience a so-called timeline starting at one time point and progressing into the “future”. It’s all right here now.
It was as I sat in the audience Saturday at Popejoy Hall, soaking in Ottmar’s music, that I saw something about that moment which was much like all the moments I have spent doing this over many years, yet that moment was brand new and fresh, as if there were no such thing as time. I think “Everywhen” is the best word I have ever heard to attempt to describe this. It’s so difficult to capture in words, but it is a wonderful thing to feel.