For Aboriginal people the creative and life giving forces are still very much alive. The land is full of the spirits, thoughts and deeds of the creative forces. The spirits of the ancestors of all human, plant and animal life are represented in the land forms. This extends to celestial forms such as the planets and the stars, the moon and the sun. There are stories and songs throughout the land which relate these things.
Some places are so important that their story can only be told by initiated people.
It is from those life forces that Aboriginal people get their identity. In this way they are oriented towards what is meaningful and good. Their complex family kinship system is intimately tied into the Dreaming stories and into the land, plants and animals that give the Dreaming physical shape. There are Aboriginal people, for instance, whose family story is linked to the story of the formation of mountain ranges, trees and so on. Aboriginal people who are responsible for sacred sites are required to protect them according to 'The Law'.