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AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ART

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Australia

The country of Australia consists of six states and two on-shore territories: Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory.

Aboriginal means “indigenous to an area”. Australian Aborigines were the first people to live in Australia, probably arriving from Asia about 40,000 years ago. Over 300,000 of them were in Australia when Europeans arrived in 1788. They originally lived all over the continent, and the groups that lived in the Central and Western Desert regions were nomadic hunters and gatherers.

Most of the well-known Australian Aboriginal artists live in the Central and Western desert areas located in the Northern Territory and Western Australia (point out these areas on the maps).

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Aboriginal Dancers during Ceremonial Dance

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Symbols in Aboriginal Art

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Paddy Stewart Japaljarri

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Pansy Napangati �

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Carpet Snake Dreaming

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Bark Paintings: Fish & Black Headed Python and Fruit Bats

Painting on canvas is relatively new for Australian Aborigines. Other art forms have existed for much longer. Aboriginal people were painting on bark when the Europeans arrived, and may have been painting on bark for thousands of years, using paint colors available from the natural things around them. Many bark paintings were in rock shelters where people passed a lot of time during the rainy season, and depicted stories that were told during these times of confinement.

Bark paintings are painted on the smooth inner bark of the stringybark eucalyptus trees. The bark is stripped off the trees during the wet season. Contemporary bark paintings often depict cultural subjects, and many are made with the intention to sell.

The bark painting on the left is of a fish. The one on the right shows fruit bats hanging above a black headed python. The fruit bats are known as “flying foxes” in Australia. They are some of the largest bats in the world.

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Boomerangs & Didgeridoos

Boomerangs are traditionally hunting tools and weapons, and are non-returning ones. Returning boomerangs are for recreation. A good hunting boomerang is delicately balanced and much harder to make than a returning one. The oldest boomerangs found in Australia are more than 10,000 years old.

These 16 inch boomerangs are painted by Aboriginal artists and have designs with native Australian animals on them. Most of them are purchased by tourists or art collectors.

The didgeridoo is an Australian instrument that is described as a wooden trumpet or a “drone pipe”. It was developed about 1500 years ago. Traditional didgeridoos are often made from the wood of the eucalyptus tree, but modern ones can be made from a wide variety of materials, including PVC pipes.

The didgeridoo is played by continuously vibrating your lips while using a special technique called circular breathing- breathing through your nose while blowing out air that you have stored in your mouth. A skilled player can breathe in more air without stopping playing, and some players have been recorded playing a sustained note for 50 minutes.

These didgeridoos are heavily decorated for purchase by collectors and tourists.