Aboriginal Art of Australia DOT PAINTING Art Around the World

Australian Aborigines Aborigines have lived in Australia for thousands of years. They are the natives of Australia, just like Native Americans are the natives of the U.S. Prior to European settlement in 1788 it is estimated that there were more than 600 groups of Aborigines. Each group had its own distinct language and cultural identity. Aboriginal people do not refer to themselves as Aborigines but instead refer to themselves according to their specific language group such as Ajabatha, Urmitchee and Badtjala.

Australian Aborigines Aboriginal people live all around Australia so the lifestyle differences between groups reflect the geographical differences. For example, coastal inhabitants live very differently from inland or desert groups. Many groups share similar characteristics or customs because they share similar regions of land. Aboriginal people are hunters and gatherers. The Aboriginal women are the principal food gatherers and caregivers for the young children while the Aboriginal men are the hunters. When a boy is around six, he joins the men to learn the hunting skills while the girls remain with the women to learn the skills of food gathering.

Aboriginal Art Aboriginal art is a broad category which includes many different kinds of artwork, including dot painting on canvas, bark painting, body painting, batik, wood carving, decorative and wearable arts, and more. Historically, the Aborigines have painted on cave walls, bark and rocks, and also decorated some of their everyday utensils with art.

Rock Painting

Rock painting

Aboriginal Art Today, Aboriginal paintings represent one of the most vital art forms in Australia. The contemporary Aboriginal paintings use acrylic on canvas. The paintings are an adaptation of an artistic tradition that can be traced, uninterrupted, for over forty thousand years, making it the oldest living art movement in existence. The materials have changed but the stories and designs are often traditional.

Aboriginal Dreamtime Like the early cave painters, Aborigines use art as a way to communicate. Aborigines have a long history of creating beautiful art that tells their stories and shows their beliefs, know as “dreamings”. The Dreamtime (or Dreaming) is a term used to describe the accumulated knowledge and philosophies that guide Aboriginal people. The Dreamings are passed on from generation to generation to connect their history with the present. Dreamings are stories (like myths or folktales) that teach Aboriginal beliefs about why things happen the way they do. For example, some Dreamtime stories include topics covering: land maps of the region, animal behavior, hunting & gathering skills, cultural customs, spiritual beliefs and moral behaviors.

Examples of Dreamtime Stories The stories tell us things about the land, animals and birds, the trees, waterholes, rivers, sea life, the stars, culture & behavior. The Eagle & The Crows – teaches responsibility within the kinship and the effects of jealousy & revenge. The Seven Sisters – teaches about hibernation patterns of reptiles and constellations in the sky. How the Moon Got in the Sky– teaches about greed and marriage. The First Platypus – teaches about stranger danger. The Mother’s Helper – teaches the importance of family The Rainbow Serpent – teaches about the formation of hills, rivers and formation of land.

Dot Painting Aboriginal people communicated their Dreamings through art – a visual language. In addition to cave and bark paintings, soil would be cleared and smoothed over as a canvas and Dreaming designs were outlined with dancing circles and often surrounded with a mass of dots. Dot paintings though simple, in technique and style, are full of detail and story. There can be thousands of dots and many symbols, most often animals, all in one painting. Symbols and animals were used to indicate sacred sites, the location of a waterholes, and places inhabited by animals as while also illustrating Dreamtime stories.

More Dot Painting Aboriginal paintings often look like a maps of circles, spirals, lines, dashes and dots. And often include animals because many of the Aborigine stories are about animals.

Elements include snakes at waterholes

These lines convey the movement of natural watercourses, creeks and sand hills all near a special ceremonial site.

Elements include Dreamtime Sisters floating above the special sacred areas.

More Dot Painting Historically Aborigines used the traditional colors of red, yellow, black and white produced from ochre, pipe clay and charcoal. mixed with a number of fixatives, such as bee's wax, honey, juices of orchid bulbs or egg yolk. Brushes were made simply, mostly from strips of stringy bark or pliant green twigs which were either whittled or chewed and then shaped to make the bristles. Today, painters have the use of all colors and an array of brushes. Overlaying dots and superimposing patterns cause objects and shapes to merge in and out of one another. The dot technique offers a sense of movement and rhythm causing a flat canvas to look as though it is moving, jumping or dancing with energy.

The wavy lines represents the snakes, the straight lines represents the journey path, and the half circles represents specific ceremonial sites.

Image of snake around a campsite or waterhole

Symbols & Their Meaning

This is a story of men hunting for kangaroo and emu by following their tracks in the sand. The men (U shaped icons) hunt with spears, woomera's and boomerangs. The circle represents a camp-site or waterhole and the dotted lines represent the path to the camp-site or waterhole.

Elements include dreaming sites, waterholes, tracks, bush seeds, landscape forms and patterns

Elements include wild flowers, bush seeds, and dreaming sites

This special tree is grown in the southern part of Central Australia. It is significant because the stone and flesh of the fruit can be eaten & the wax can be used as hair oil.

The background reflects the desert landscape, the circles represent waterholes, and the black lines (vertical) represent rain.

The painting narrates the Dreamtime story of two snakes growing up together, marking the land and creating meaningful ceremonial sites. The dots represent Mulga seed and bush plum.