Australian Aboriginal Art -

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Australian Aboriginal Art - Dreamtime
Australia Unit
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Dreamtime

• The expression Dreamtime is often used to refer
  to the time before time, or the time of the
  creation of all things.

The Australian Aborigines believe that long, long
ago the earth was soft and had no form. The
features of the landscape were created as the
result of the heroic acts of ancestral spirits,
who often assumed the form of animals.
The origins of land shapesmountains, deserts,
and water holesecho these events, which the
Aborigines refer to as Dreamtime. For at least
fifty thousand years, the Aborigines have
maintained the traditions of Dreamtime through
stories, music, dance, art, and ceremony. And in
the land around Kakadu, this tradition is honored
today.
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Dreamtime Stories

• Australian Aborigines created stories to teach
  each other about the Dreamtime. These stories
  taught about life, birth, love, food gathering,
  hunting, warfare, marriage and death, but also
  about the Creation.

The traditional Aboriginal way to educate about
history, culture and laws was through
storytelling. They used a combination of arts
form such as painting, singing, music and dancing
to illustrate the ancient "Dreamtime Stories".
Because the Dreamtime Stories" have been handed
down through the generations, they are not owned
by individuals. They belong to a group. The
storytellers are chosen by the Elders, and have
the obligation to pass the stories along,
ensuring that young people build and retain a
sense of who they are.
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Aboriginal Art
Today, paintings are created using modern-day
materials, but the use of traditional symbols and
art styles helps to keep this ancient culture
alive. The symbols used in contemporary
Aboriginal paintings are the same as those found
on cave paintings and rock Art.
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Dot Paintings
Dot painting are the traditional visual
art form of the Aborigines in Western Australia
Central Desert. The canvas is covered in small
dots of paint which create patterns and symbols.
These symbols can easily be recognized by those
familiar with the Dreamtime Story illustrated.
Bright colors are now more common with the
use of acrylic paint, but traditional dot
painters used natural pigments such as crushed
seeds.
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Dreamtime Symbols
Certain symbols are used often in aboriginal art
to depict reoccurring objects and themes.
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Dreamtime Symbols
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Dreamtime Symbols