Australian Aboriginal Art

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Australian Aboriginal Art
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• 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

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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 lands 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

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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

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

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• Aboriginal Rock Art
• Longest continuously practiced artistic tradition
  in the world.
• Ubirr, located in North Australia, has very
  impressive rock paintings.

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"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."
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How are these two paintings similar? How are they
different?
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Bark Painting

• Tradition for thousands of years
• Bark is cut into a rectangle, after the wet
  season, when its 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

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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

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• 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.

Thunder Lightening
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Kangaroo tracks tail
Emu
Goanna (lizard) dragging tail, footprints on side
Footprints
Womens Ceremony
Frogs (black) Water holes (blue)
Snakes
Men Hunting
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• 2nd Grade Objectives
• Learn how dreamtime beliefs and the Australian
  landscape inspired the creation of Aboriginal
  artwork.
• Create an interesting way to use your space
  through size, placement, overlapping, use of a
  border or background.
• Illustrate movement using the technique of
  Aboriginal dot painting.
• Discuss the purpose of art in Aboriginal culture.

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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 animals silhouette in
  white and using red or yellow for the inside

• Contemporary artists continue to paint in X-Ray
  tradition

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3rd Grade Objectives

• Draw an Aboriginal animal of your choice in the
  X-Ray style using anatomy resources.
• Vary the value (lightness and darkness) of at
  least one color when you paint your X-Ray
  drawing.
• Create an area of emphasis (center or focus) in
  your artwork using size, color, and line.
• Associate which artworks from the Aboriginal
  culture were done in the X-Ray style.

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• 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

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Student Objectives for 4th Grade

• Produce an exaggerated close-up portrait of
  yourself inspired by the tradition of body
  painting.
• Discuss how Aboriginal art reflects the
  relationship between artists and their beliefs
  and values.
• Analyze how Aboriginal art serves a function (or
  purpose) in their culture.

Student Examples
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Todays Objectives

• Dip and dot for rich color
• Dot over the entire work, space dots clear and
  consistent
• Paint black areas for the eye to rest
• Each line or shape should have only one color,
  unless its a pattern
• Try to keep colors balanced and expressive

Student Examples
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• What medium is this an example of?
• What symbol do you see? What do you think it
  represents?
• How is this artwork related to the building
  behind it?

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• Resources
• Carol, Finley. Aboriginal Art of Australia.
  Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis 1999.
• Petersen, David. Australia. Childrens Press, New
  York 1998.
• http//66.113.241.131/lessons/envs/live/htdocs/les
  son107.htm
• http//www.bardaglea.org.uk/aboriginal/index.html
• http//www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/xray/hd_xray.htm
• http//www.astonmanor.bham.sch.uk/learningzone/art
  /movements/aboriginal/aboriginalart.htm
• http//goaustralia.about.com/library/graphics/tjap
  ukai1.jpg
• http//www.aboriginalartonline.com/art/body.php
• http//www.bvdrangs.com/dreamtime.html
• http//www.aboriginal-art.com/desert_art_toc.html
• http//www.dickblick.com/multicultural/aboriginal/
  
• http//people.hws.edu/mitchell/oz/Carnarvon96.html
  Art
• www.lclark.edu