journal · August 19, 2026 · Alice Springs, Australia

Everywhen and belonging through dreams

The Arrernte have this concept called The Dreaming (Altyerre), which embodies a concept of "everywhen." Everywhen is a view that time is non-linear, that everything that has happened and will happen exist simultaneously.

And some people don't like that it's called The Dreaming, because they feel it disenfranchises an entire population's legibility on the premise that dreams are not real.

But I find this fascinating, as someone who thinks non-linearly, associatively, who has a wide catalog of memories of thousands of dreams that I have had over the span of decades. And while some of, many of, those dreams are not factually real, they are representations, links to things that are real, and I would never claim my dreams as fiction for that reason: they are symbolic representations of realities that my brain struggles to look at and my subconscious picks the most accessible path towards them. And as someone who has PTSD, sometimes what happened thirty years ago... still feels like it just happened yesterday.

The Dreaming, to the Arrernte, is ancestral, woven through generations, passed through lore and stories--giving each person who belongs to the group their identity, their place, their awareness of who they are and when they are.

And while I won't pretend I fully understand it, as a neurodivergent person who struggles to belong in any space, I think that's kind of beautiful.