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In the beginning there was the
Dreamtime, a period in the creation of the world where mythic beings formed
the places, natural forces, animals, and people of the earth. Sometimes
creating their surroundings and sometimes changing into animals or people,
the mythic beings participated in a drama hat is reflected in the events
and characters of daily life in the Australian desert.
The first people of Australia, the Aborigines, created stories to teach
each other about the Dreamtime. The existence of geographical markers (such
as rock bluffs and ravines), indigenous animals (like the emu or the kiwi
bird), and even the Aborigines themselves was explained by the stories.
Some stories were told by men in the company of men; some by women with
women listening only. Aboriginal stories taught about life's lessons in
all areas of human existence, including birth, love, food gathering and
hunting, warfare, marriage, and death.
Aboriginal storytelling was and is a multi-sensory event. Traditionally,
people telling a story could use the haunting and expressive sounds of the
didgeridoo, their bodies in dance movements, their voices and words, and
images created in the sand or on rock walls.
Dot paintings are the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines in Western
Australia. Dot paintings are named after the patterns created from small
dots of paint, which cover the entire surface of the painting. These dots
create patterns, many of which are symbols easily recognized by those familiar
with the legends and stories they illustrate. Symbols for campfires, walking
paths, animal tracks, fertile soil for wild yams, and water sources are
common elements of Aboriginal paintings, each created in colored dots. Bright
colors are now more common, but traditional dot painters used pigments made
from natural materials, giving their paintings an earth-toned palette.
Dot paintings made by the Aboriginal people of the central desert are based
on a thousand-year-old tradition of sandpainting. Therefore, there is no
"right" way to view the piece: no horizontal, no vertical, no
up or down. This art may be hung any way that the viewer wishes, even placed
flat, which was the artist's perspective when it was painted. In this way,
one can imagine how the artwork used to be made: near the campfire, with
the clan gathered around, while listening to the story being told, and watching
its image take shape.
X-Hatch or Rarrk Paintings
Aboriginal people have inhabited Australia for more than 40,000 years. During
that time they have recorded the stories of the land and their environment
through the medium of painting. Painting on cave walls, on bark
and more recently on canvas. The stories portrayed in the paintings are
of every day life, figures such as kangaroos, crocodiles, snakes, lizards,
fish, birds etc. and activities such as hunting and food gathering.
Also some paintings tell stories of how these animals are viewed in traditional
rituals such as corroborees.
X-hatch paintings, as they are commonly known, are derived from artists
in the "Top End" of Australia. The name comes from the distinctive
crosshatched designs, called rarrk, which are used on the bodies of animals
and other figures in the paintings. These crosshatched designs are
particular to the clan of the artist, or to the individual artist, some
designs are sacred and may only be used or viewed by certain people.
The paint pigments are derived from naturally occurring materials: ochre
stones provide red and yellow; pipe clay and gypsum provide white; manganese
ore or charcoal soot provides black. The use of these pigments and
the colors they provide, has been passed down from generation to generation,
establishing a tradition of a limited palette of colors used in these paintings.
Only shades of red, yellow, white and black are used. "Brushes"
to apply the paint are traditionally made from sticks, leaves and pieces
of bark.
Over the last 50 years some more modern materials have been adopted to improve
the durability and longevity of the paintings. Ochre based paints
rub off easily and any contact with water can easily damage the painting,
the use of acrylic paint overcomes these problems.
Dot Paintings
"Dot" paintings are derived from ancient
ceremonial sand paintings. These ceremonies and their sand paintings
were performed and 'painted' by the men of the tribe. They related
to the Dreamtime and gave power and strength to the members of the tribe.
The ceremonies and their sand paintings are still used today. However,
modern materials are also utilized to produce dot paintings, acrylic paint
on canvas is the artist's choice today. The land is very important to Aboriginal
people, all things relate to the land. The land is the keeper of the
Dreaming stories, simultaneously it is the subject of the story and the
stage. The paintings are a means of communicating the dreaming stories and
a means of recording and preserving them.
A painting tells a story that belongs to the artist's particular "Dreaming"
as passed down by his ancestors. Paintings may refer to witchetty
grubs, bush potato, bush banana and honey ants as well as other ancestral
beings that formed the land in the Dreamtime.
Each person has a particular dreaming to which they belong and they have
their own special ceremonial dances and songs that combine together with
the paintings to form their religion, their way of life. Every symbol used
in dot painting has a particular meaning, some symbols are so sacred that
only certain members of the tribe may use them.
Oenpelli X-Ray Art
Oenpelli or Gunbalanya is an area in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory
of Australia. It is approximately 300 kilometers east of Darwin, adjacent
to the Kakadu National Park and at the base of the Arnhem Land Escarpment.
The area includes the flood plains of the East Alligator River, which are
covered by water during the wet season (December - April). The area
also includes a rocky sandstone plateau rising up to 200 meters above the
plains. The plateau and escarpment country is covered with spinifex
and other light timber.
Oenpelli is home to approximately 1,000 Aboriginal people of the Kunwinjku
Tribe and a further 150 white people. In the past the Kunwinjku people have
been prolific and accomplished painters, many large galleries in the area
attest to their skill and productivity. Rock painting has fallen into
disuse, however, the Kunwinjku people now paint on bark and water color
paper in a similar style to the rock art. This style of art is unique
to Oenpelli, it is generally figurative and often shows internal organs,
it is known as X-ray art.
The Oenpelli area is also a center of pandanus weaving. |
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