When white anthropologists began studying Aboriginal culture, they came up with the term "Dreamtime" to describe the mythology and history of Indigenous Australians.

But they couldn't have been more wrong.

What they were trying to define is too complex a concept, considered almost impossible to be captured by a single word in the English language.

For Curtis Taylor, a Martu artist from the Western Desert of Western Australia, his people call it "Marngunyi" or "Jukurrpa".

"Everybody has their own interpretations … and I have mine," he said.

"For me Marngunyi means that time before — so a time when a lot of information, knowledge, songs and stories were stored that's unchanged … but still to this day added onto.

"The wider term is known as 'Jukurrpa'.

"But it all connects in a larger sense in a bigger creation story of this continent and regions."

Unlike the anthropologists' definition, it isn't a concept that simply belongs in the books of our history.

Kate Alida Mullen is the curator of DREAM MINE TIME, an exhibition bringing together work from some of WA's most significant Indigenous contemporary artists. ( ABC News: Briana Shepherd )

"It's described as an 'everywhen'," said art curator Kate Alida Mullen, who has spent extensive time travelling across WA.

"It's in the now and in us living here today and we are all a part of that.

"And so rather than seeing it as something that is mythological, or in the past or sleeping, it is very much a present, living, breathing reality on this country."

Dreaming that crosses generations

These many interpretations of "dreaming" are the inspiration behind Dream Mine Time, an exhibition in Perth showcasing some of WA's most significant Indigenous contemporary artists.

Curated by Mullen, the artists involved come from across the state and from across generations.

Mabel Juli and Phyllis Thomas, both respected artists from the Warmun Art Centre. ( Original portraits by Thom Rigney in front of painting by Thomas, My Stolen Sisters from Gija Country. )

Among the senior artists showing their works are Mabel Juli, Phyllis Thomas and Nancy Nodea from Warmun Art Centre, along with Nodea's son Gabriel Nodea.

"I was really conscious of exhibiting some of these very senior elders alongside this younger generation of more mid-career artists who are embodying two worlds with a lot of integrity in their work and in their life," Mullen said.

Phyllis Thomas in front of one of one of her paintings at Tarnanthi, a festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held at the Art Gallery of South Australia. ( Supplied )

"Like Charmaine Green, Curtis Taylor and Gabe Nodea — they're true leaders."

While each artist's portrayal of dreaming varies, their work demonstrates a common desire to continue their ancestors' traditions.

Gabriel Nodea, Chairman of Warmun Art Centre, who has his work displayed alongside his mother, Nancy Nodea. ( Supplied: Warmun Art Centre )

Each artist is capturing their memories, their stories and their dreams, adding them to the tales they were told before passing them onto the next generation.

For Gabriel Nodea, whose own dreams have revealed new details in ancient stories told to his ancestors, it was about balancing the old and the new.

"I try and make a picture more clear to the knowledge they [ancestors] share — but it [dreaming] changes a lot," he said.

"We still honour and tell the same stories but in different ways."

Sorry, this video has expired Stop-frame animation brings new life to Aboriginal art

Charmaine Green, a Yamaji artist based in Geraldton, turned to newer technologies to share her dreaming.

She uses stop-frame animation and iron ore dust to bring her poem, Dream Mine Time Animals, to life.

For 31-year-old Taylor, an already established filmmaker and artist, it meant going back to more traditional mediums.

Indigenous artist Curtis Taylor has used wood to tell the stories of his grandfather. ( ABC News: Briana Shepherd )

"I got wood from my country and on the wood I inscribed songs, stories that my grandfather composed," he said.

"And so those stories [are] specific to that country and specific to his dreams and his events during the days that he had.

"I really wanted to find myself in some of the songs … and work with wood and work with his stories to … bring myself closer to that country, because even though I now reside here in Perth, a long way from the Western Desert, I still feel that connection back to my country through those songs."

Dream Mine Time is open at the FORM Gallery in Perth until July 28.