1. Australian Aboriginal Art
Has anyone studied Aboriginal Art before?
What can we learn about a culture by studying the art they create? (Way of life, History, Value, Beliefs)

2. Who are the Aborigines? Aborigine means “native”
Original people of Australia
Traveled in canoes from SE Asia
Lived there at least 40,000 years as the only people
Developed unique beliefs about creation
Survived as hunters and observers
Many died from disease or starved when their land was taken from them by the Europeans in the 1770s
The term Aborigines was given to the original people of Australia by the British, but they prefer to be called by their individual clan names.

3. What is Aboriginal Art? Last traditional art form to be appreciated
To understand Aboriginal Art we first need to learn about Dreamtime
Dreamtime refers to their beliefs of how the land and its people were created
Believed supernatural beings with magical powers created the land’s features, animals and plants during dreamtime
Art is a way to stay in touch with their ancestry and be a part of the natural world

4. Dreamtime Stories Passed down through generations by word of mouth
Artworks depict deep meaning told through dreamtime stories
Basis of value and belief system, affects their interaction with the land and animals
Land is sacred because it contains their heritage, history, and powerful ancestors or spirits
Belief in safeguarding the land sometimes clashes with construction projects that would change the landscape (Uluru or Ayers Rock, bottom right, is the rock ancestors pushed up out of the Earth when they rose to create animals and landscape

5. In Aboriginal culture everyone is an artist because everyone participates in activities such as dancing, singing, body decoration, sand drawing and weaving baskets.

6. How did Aboriginals create art?
Unique subject matter and style
Known for their rock paintings, bark paintings, sand (or dot paintings), and body decoration
Brushes made from bark, plant fibers, twigs, hair or feathers
Also used fingers or sticks to paint
Used natural ochers (minerals) or clay to make red, yellow, and white paint
Black was made from charcoal
Show students natural ocher from Georgia and pass around

7. Aboriginal Rock Art
Longest continuously practiced artistic tradition in the world.
Ubirr, located in North Australia, has very impressive rock paintings.
What do you see in this rock painting? What else do you see? What do you think the overlapping of images means? Images have been painted in the earliest periods and repainted over and over even into modern times.

8. "One old man in Arnhem Land remembered being carried as a child on his father's shoulders as his father climbed up a log leaning against a rock wall. His father then sprayed his hand with red ochre against the rock, leaving a stencil he could still recognize many years later. The main function of the stencils was to record people's presence and association with a site."

9. How are these two paintings similar? How are they different?
   
What do you see that makes you say that? Art is a very important part of religious life and maintaining tradition, still practiced. Gives them pride and is a way to make living.

10. Bark Painting Tradition for thousands of years
Bark is cut into a rectangle, after the wet season, when it’s soft
Placed on warm coals, pressed flat with weights and sticks tied to both ends with string
Painted with natural pigments mixed with a natural fixative: sticky gum from trees
Style is similar to rock paintings and illustrates stories
Painted on bark for ceremonies, burials, and everyday objects such as baskets and belts

11. Dot Painting Traditional dot paintings were made in sand
Contemporary dot paintings are on canvas with acrylic paint
Depict a story using Aboriginal symbols
When you understand the symbols it gives a whole new meaning to a dot painting
What do you think the concentric circles represent?

12. Aboriginals used symbols to represent natural surroundings.
They are shown as tracks left in the ground and look like they are seen from a plane.
Represent recent tracks left by animals or tracks made in the past by ancestors.
Students will receive a handout of these symbols
Thunder & Lightening

13. Goanna (lizard) dragging tail, footprints on side Footprints
Kangaroo tracks & tail
Emu
Goanna (lizard) dragging tail, footprints on side
Footprints
Concentric circles can represent a water hole, campsite, fire, meeting place, stone
Women’s Ceremony
Snakes
Frogs (black)
Water holes (blue)
Men Hunting

15. X-Ray Style Painting Developed around 2000 B.C.
Found in shallow caves or rock shelters particularly in Western and Northern Australia
Simple exterior animal shapes that depict internal organs, bone structure (ribs, back bone), or baby animal inside
Created by painting the animal’s silhouette in white and using red or yellow for the inside
Contemporary artists continue to paint in X-Ray tradition

17. Body Decoration Traditional practice for ceremonies
Includes scarring, smeared clay or ochres on face, wearing ornaments and headdress
Deep spiritual significance
Geometric designs
Use respected patterns of an ancestor to take on their living appearance
Designs may also reflect their role in the family or important role in their community
Scarring creates raised pigmented patterns on the skin to mark age or becoming an important member in the community. Scarring is rarely practiced but body decoration remains an important part of their culture

18. Resources:
Carol, Finley. Aboriginal Art of Australia. Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis: 1999.
Petersen, David. Australia. Children’s Press, New York: 1998.