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An Introduction To Indigenous Art & Culture
Aboriginal Art
Prior to European arrival there were some 600 distinct tribal groups located within Australia. Each lived a nomadic existence within its own country. The Australian continent was at the time of Aboriginal arrival, some 40,000 years ago, much larger; land extending well into what is now the oil fields of the north-west shelf - off the coast of Western Australia. Since that time there have been significant changes in the climate and topography. According to Aboriginal culture, the continent was criss-crossed by totem ancestor spirits during their mythological journeys, the stories of these journeys of creation, link the different tribes along their routes. The powers of these journeys are what are often referred to as songlines or dreaming tracks. Each tribe knows intimately the specific stories relating to their own part of the spirit journey and generally about the places visited before and after the mountains, hills, valleys, watercourses and ochre deposits were created in the country they are charged with protecting. This is why the land is sacred. Aboriginal people believe that the spirit lives in the land and it is there sacred duty to protect and nurture it. Theirs is a culture passed on through song, ceremony, dance and storytelling.
These ancient songlines, became the trade routes along which, people from different tribes communicated and passed artifacts, tools and weapons made by renowned artisans.
The Dreaming
When Aboriginal people refer to the dreaming it can have many different levels of meaning and interpretation it is the spiritual space from which one comes and which one returns. It is both the totality of Aboriginal mythology and the many and various individual stories that it encompasses, it is a state of being in which the individual is attuned to and in harmony with the natural world, it should not be confused with the Jungian notion of dreaming and its association with the unconscious.
The Getting Of Wisdom
In traditional society, knowledge is gained through a process of initiation and ritual. All aboriginal children are initiated into adulthood and though this initiation are taught the basic knowledge that will enable them to survive within their society and the specialized environment in which there born. The location of sacred places and the stories associated with it contain not only cosmological information, but knowledge of waterhole soakages, underground water sources and natural resources important for survival. Later a person maybe identified as worthy of gaining greater and greater knowledge from the elders, if so they will advance in knowledge throughout their lives by participating in higher levels of initiation until they become a person of high degree, an important cultural custodian, a living treasure.
Eldership
While the relationship by blood is an important one, in aboriginal society people are related in a different way to outside society. In Arnhem land all people belong to either of two moieties or affiliated groups (Dhewa, Yiritja) and a number of related skin groups. In the desert there are 8 male and 8 female skin groups to which you belong, strictly depending on the groups to which you mother and father belong. All women of the same skin group irrespective of parentage are considered sisters. All men of the same skin group as ones father are treated as a father.
For example, the son of a man of the Tjakamarra skin group is a Tjupurulla and his sister is a Naparulla. Therefore, all Naparulla's are his sisters and he must marry a Napananka female and no other. There daughter is a Nakamarra and all Nakamarra women are considered, and must be treated as if they were there own blood daughter, it is as forbidden for a Tjupurrlla male to have sexual relations with any Nakamarra female, as it is for him to have sex with his own blood daughter such is the nature of eldership and interrelationship amongst all Australian aboriginal people regardless of there particular tribe and particular customs.
Totems
Aboriginal people are given a totem at birth according to their clan group, it is a spirit drawn from nature, an animal like a kangaroo or a phenomenon like the wind. Other totems may be given if and when various attributes are recognized in the recipient by family members in the group. A totem may come to a person's aid during physical or mental duress. Totems are a persons key to the natural world, by understanding and adopting the physical, physiological and behavioral attributes and characteristics of ones totem a person comes to identify with and actually become that totem, by doing so one can be said to be "Living the Dreaming"
The Role Of Art In Aboriginal Society
Every clan and tribe throughout Australia has its own particular designs both sacred and secular. These designs were traditionally painted on bodies of young inites at their induction into adulthood; painted and engraved onto ritual objects and specific locations for use during ceremony (rock engraving, boomerangs, dilly bags, carved into trees or painted on rocks at particular sites where ceremonies take place). During initiation ceremonies it is forbidden for members of other clans or tribes to use these designs as it is for a westerner to infringe another's copyright. In this way, every tribal country throughout Australia "has its own symbols" which make the art produced by its members unique and regionally specific. While each specific tribal group has its own individual regional style, every artist within this group is able to develop an individual style of their own.
With the advent of the contemporary art movement, each individual artist within a tribe, as the co-owner of these designs, uses them as the basis of their art practice. It is considered as offensive for an aboriginal person to use another's clan designs as it is for a non-aboriginal person to do so. When looking at aboriginal fine art it is important to recognize that the artist is not appropriating imagery that belongs to another moiety, skin or tribal group and that there work whilst being a unique individual expression, has as its wellspring the artistic tradition of there own position within tribal society.
To EG, paintings usually depict a wealth of social and ritual obligations and relationships in particular areas of the land.
Ethnographic Art Objects
This term is used to refer to objects made and used for a particular purpose as a result of living a traditional life style. Objects that fit into this category include tools and weapons, ceremonial regalia, and utilitarian objects that were not made originally for the purpose of sale. These objects appeal to those whose interest in indigenous culture is a romantic attachment to a tribal existence the occurred before European contact. Objects of this nature, are selling though major international auction houses and tribal art galleries for ever increasing prices. For example the 18th century west Australian fluted and incised wunda shield recently sold by sotheby's for more than $15,000.
Ochre Paintings
Traditional artists from Australia's far north paint figurative, minimalist and abstracted work on bark, art papers and canvas as well as making sculptures and decorated in ochre's, utilitarian items and ceremonial regalia. The work which emanates from Arnhem lands classic X-ray art and other styles derived from cave paint, to the ochre canvases and boards originally carries in ceremonies in the Kimberley, has often been characterized as ethnographic, but is as contemporary in it's rendering of ageless mythological images and stories as any western art. By creating effects of sharp brilliance the artist attempts to evoke the living spirit of ancestral power.
Sand Paintings
Desert sand paintings, often generically referred to acrylic dot paintings because of the medium and there pointillist style , are derived from body painting and low relief ground constructions created as ceremonial grounds for corroobarry. They are painted on canvas or high quality Belgium linen by tribal people throughout the central and western deserts. Like Arnhem Land art, they are referred to as traditional because they come from communities where aboriginal people continue to lead a relatively traditional life style.
Urban Art
While the best urban aboriginal artist may use a variety or media and make references in these work to traditional themes, politics, or contemporary issues, they work in much the same way as their European counterparts. As it is improper for any aboriginal artist to appropriate tribal imagery that they do not own the very best urban artists develop an individual style which reflects aspects of there own individual heritage.
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