Aboriginal History

History of Aboriginal Art

Art is an important part of Aboriginal Life it connects the past and present, the land, law and spiritual belief.  Aboriginal Art is about their myths, rituals, beliefs and spirituality.  It tells the story of the Dreaming which is about the ancestral spirits who came to a land devoid of anything and created the animals, rivers, mountains, plants, people and the relationships between them.  When they had created everything they changed into hills, animals, stars etc.

Humans first arrived in Australia between 60,000 – 65,000 years ago.  With Archaeological evidence suggesting the early occupation sites at the entry areas of the Kimberley’s, Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula.  The oldest Aboriginal Rock Art has been dated at between 30,000 and 40,000 years old with the earliest evidence of human occupation found in two rock shelters in Arnhemland approximately 60,000 years ago.  These shelters lie at the foot of the Western Arnhemland escarpment in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory.

The oldest rock paintings consist mainly of large naturalistic animals commonly kangaroos and wallabies.  This was followed by human figures becoming the focus, Legend is that they were made by the Mimi, an indigenous group befriended by their ancestors, who inhibit Arnhem land in spirit form.  Mimi are tall, thin beings that have to protect themselves from strong winds.  They live in a rock world and because they are so thin they slip through cracks and crevices to move from one world to another.  The Rainbow Serpent-mother created the first People, the Mimi already inhabited the real world landscape. They taught Aborigines how to hunt, cook and gave people a number of songs and ceremonies.  They also did the rock paintings and instructed Aboriginal men in their arts.

Traditional art also started with sand and body painting made for ceremonies. 
Body decorations are made from ochres ground to a paste with water then applied in striped or circular designs to the face and torso. Also weapons such as spears and clubs, utilitarian objects such as coolamons and the sacred wood or stone men’s message boards’ were engraved for either decorative or ceremonial purposes.

Traditional Symbols are used in sand and body painting; these ancestral designs are an important part of ceremonies. 

Some symbols used in Central and Western Desert Paintings:

The modern acrylic paintings of the Central and Western Desert are based on these designs.  Ironically the dots were developed as a technique to mask the more sacred symbolism and stories which were inappropriate for general viewing.

The Western Desert aboriginal art movement originated in the small community of Papunya, and has placed Aboriginal art in the international arena.  Papunya Tula Art was established by a small group of Aboriginal artists in 1971, after being encouraged by school teacher Geoffrey Bardon to create art using the motifs and symbols of their own traditions.
                     
Over the next decade individual aboriginal artists began to emerge as major creative forces. Following the outstation movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of the aboriginal artists moved to their traditional homelands, to country as far west as Kintore and Kiwirrkura.

In the 1980s the aboriginal art movement flourished and other desert communities such as Utopia, Yuendumu and Balgo also began to produce works of art.

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