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Indigenous art continues a tradition that stretches back many thousands of
years. Etched or painted onto rock they depict a range of Aboriginal iconography
with distinctive imagery and symbolism, some so old that the meanings have long
been forgotten.
Australian Indigenous art is the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the world, representing a culture that
still exists today, from a lineage that weaves its way
through an ancient landscape with its roots in the dreaming and the dreamtime
stories. It is tradition that even today, strives to keep hold of its historical
roots, still being passed orally in story telling, or drawn on the ground, in
family gatherings or ceremonial rituals and initiation. The original imagery of the
Aboriginal culture, depicted in ceremonial body art and many of the sacred
sites, rock and cave paintings, used very few colours, as they were often made
from what was available locally. The colours were often mined from ‘ochre pits’,
being used for both painting and ceremonies. The ochre was even traded between
clans and at one time could only be collected by specific men within the clan.
Some of the ochre pits can be viewed today as tourist attractions.
The art and culture of the local Aboriginal people was researched and
recognised by many people such as Charles Mountford, who from the early 1930s
undertook many excursions through vast regions of South Australia, Western
Australia, Central Australia and the Top End, recording the life and culture of
the Aboriginal people. Today, it is accepted that the widespread recognition of
‘Aboriginal art’ by the western world was in the 1970s when a local school
teacher, Geoffrey Bardon (1940-2003), introduced paints and canvas to the
Papunya community in Central Australia (located about 230 km from Alice Springs).
The community had a population of about 600 people, most were Pintupi from
the Central Desert, although there were also a number of Arrernte, Anmatyerre,
Luritja and Warlpiri people. This community of the Western Desert were use to
doing body painting and telling stories by drawing on the ground. With the
introduction of this new medium, the locals began to adapt their styles to work
with this new medium. Thus was born the famous ‘Western Desert Artist of
Papunya Tula’.
The modern world had now intruded and woven itself into the process where
art, culture and tradition is told in current tools such as acrylic and canvas,
as well as other mediums including batik, pottery, just to name a few.
This flourishing art movement throughout the region, saw the emergence of
many individuals and communities, continuing their age old tradition of passing
along their culture through the intricate paintings of ‘dot art’. The iconic
status of the dotted motifs of much of today’s Aboriginal modern design
work has become the trademark of the contemporary Aboriginal Art movement. The
use of dots and the modern abstract equivalent was to tell a story, more often
then not, a physical representation of an oral tradition that is passed down
from generation to generation. Of course, some of these stories told in the
paintings have many layers of meaning, some of which are not for the
uninitiated, and although they may be depicted in the paintings, they are not
revealed to the non-initiate. It has been discussed in publications elsewhere
that:
As the Papunya painting movement developed in the 1970s,
dotting was increasingly used to obscure meanings and to hide some of the
symbolism that was not meant to be exposed to the un-initiated.1
With
the development of the modern Aboriginal art movement, symbols took on a variety
of colours, with some symbolic representation taking on a more realistic
rendering. New generations of Aboriginal artists were developing their own style
of painting, which saw whole communities producing abstract works that fit well
with many modern galleries and museums.
Some of these works will have things in common, whilst others depict
variation in the symbolic representation, depending on the tribe
or region of Australia that the artist belongs to. Already the influence of
artist on each other, the ease of travel, the ready access to knowledge through
books and the internet has seen the overlapping and blurring of art that could
once be clearly identified as coming from a specific community or region. But
Indigenous artists continue to surprise, with new works telling the traditional
stories from the dreamtime, whilst other works telling stories of the recent
past and the present. Many current artist develop their own style with their
works easily recognisable, although the style may have developed from the
influenced of the artist own extended family and clans. Typical, many Aboriginal
painters doing stories that are not their own, would seek permission from the
Elders. Some dreamtime stories are taboo, whilst other would require the
permission of the Elders. > Aboriginal Symbols and their Meanings |
