Indigenous Australian art

Aboriginal hollowed log coffin

Indigenous Australian art (also known as Aboriginal art) is art made by Indigenous Australians, covering works that pre-date European colonization as well as contemporary art by Aboriginal Australians based on traditional culture. These have been studied in recent decades and gained increased international recognition. Aboriginal Art covers a wide medium including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, sandpainting and ceremonial clothing, as well as artistic decorations found on weaponry and also tools.

But the importance of art to traditional Indigenous life is difficult for non-Indigenous people to understand. To quote Howard Morphy (1991): "Art was, and is, a central component of the traditional Yolngu way of life, of significance in the political domain, in the relationships between clans, and in the relations between men and women. Art was and remains an important component of the system of restricted knowledge, and at a more metaphysical level is the major means of recreating ancestral events, ensuring continuity with the ancestral past, and communicating with the spirit world. For example, a rock painting of a Rainbow Serpent is not just a picture of a 'Rainbow Serpent'. It is a manifestation of the Rainbow Serpent - she resides in the painting, and will come out and devour you if you behave inappropriately towards the painting."

To quote Morphy (1991) again: "Paintings as ancestral designs do not simply represent the ancestral beings by encoding stories... As far as the Yolngu are concerned, the designs are an integral part of the ancestral beings themselves... The designs themselves possess or contain the power of the ancestral being."

Traditional Indigenous art

Body painting

Perhaps one of the earliest forms of Indigenous art, and one which is still very much alive, is body painting. For example, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land cover their bodies in elaborate and exquisite designs for ceremonies or traditional dances. The preparation can take many hours, and the finest artists will be sought after for this. The designs drawn on the body are traditional designs, often involving fine cross-hatching and lines of dots, which are owned by the clan of the person who is being decorated.

Body painting is thought to have been the inspiration for many of the designs now found in Bark Painting.

Rock painting

Aboriginal rock painting at Namadgi National Park featuring a Kangaroo, Dingoes, Emus, Humans and an Echidna or Turtle

Indigenous art includes a range of styles of rock painting:

• The cross-hatch or X-ray art from the Arnhem Land and Kakadu regions of the Northern Territory, in which the skeletons and viscera of the animals and humans portrayed are drawn inside the outline, as if by cross section.
• Dot-painting where intricate patterns, totems and/or stories are created using dots
• Stencil art, particularly using the motif of a hand print.

Wiradjuri painting of Baiame, near Singleton, New South Wales. Note that his arms extend to the two trees either side.

A particular type of Aboriginal painting, known as the Bradshaws, appears on caves in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are named after the European pastoralist, Joseph Bradshaw, who first reported them in 1891. To Aboriginal people of the region they are known as Gwion Gwion. Traditional Aboriginal art is composed of organic colours and materials, but modern artists often use synthetic paints when creating aboriginal styles.

Aboriginal rock art has been created for a long period of time, with the oldest examples, in West Australia's Pilbara region, and the Olary district of South Australia, estimated to be up to around 40,000 years old. Rock art gives us descriptive information about social activities, material culture, economy, environmental change, myth and religion. This is an Aboriginal way of showing recognition and wisdom-to be open to the environment.

Bark painting

Main article: Bark painting

Bark paintings are paintings made by Australian Indigenous artists on pieces of flattened bark taken from trees such as the stringybark. The designs seen on authentic bark paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his or her "skin", or clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. While the designs themselves are ancient, the means of painting them on a piece of flattened bark is a relatively modern phenomenon, although there is some evidence that artists would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters.

Bark paintings are now regarded as "Fine Art", and the finest bark paintings command high prices accordingly on the international art markets. The very best artists are recognized annually in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Bark painting is also quite popular in some

Aerial desert "country" landscapes

From ancient times, Australian aboriginal culture also produced a genre of aerial landscape art, often titled simply "country". It is a kind of maplike, bird's-eye view of the desert landscape, and it is often meant to tell a traditional Dreaming story. In the distant past, the common media for such artwork were rock, sand or body painting; but the tradition continues today in the form of paintings on canvas (see section Papunya Tula and "Dot Painting" below).

Rock engravings

Engravings at Terrey Hills, near Sydney, NSW. The two kangaroos suggest this was used for an increase ceremony, whilst the well-endowed man may be Baiame. More details are in Sydney Rock Engravings.

Petroglyph at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, near Sydney, NSW.

There are several different types of Rock art across Australia, the most famous of which is Murujuga in Western Australia, the Sydney Rock Engravings around Sydney in New South Wales, and the Panaramitee rock art in Central Australia.

The rock art at Murujuga is said to be the world's largest collection of petroglyphs and includes images of extinct animals such as Thylacine. Activity prior to the last ice age until colonisation are recorded.

The Sydney Rock Art has its own peculiar style, not found elsewhere in Australia, with beautiful carved animals, humans, and symbolism.

Stone arrangements

Stone arrangements in Australia range from the 50m-diameter circles of Victoria, with 1m-high stones firmly embedded in the ground, to the smaller stone arrangements found throughout Australia, such as those near Yirrkala which depict accurate images of the praus used by Macassan Trepang fishermen.

See Aboriginal stone arrangements for more details.

Carvings and sculpture

• Carved shells - Riji
• Mimih (or Mimi) small man-like carvings of mythological impish creatures. Mimihs are so frail that they never venture out on windy days lest they be swept away like leaf litter. If approached by men they will run into a rock crevice, if no crevice is there, the rocks themselves will open up and seal behind the Mimih.
• Necklaces and other jewellery, such as those from the Tasmanian Aborigines

Weaving and string-art

• Basket weaving- see Australian Aboriginal fibrecraft

Ochre Pits in central Australia where a variety of clay earth pigments were obtained.

Iconography and symbols

The imagery of the Aboriginal culture, as can be seen in many of the sacred sites, rock and cave paintings, used few colours as they were often made from what was available locally. Some colours were mined from ‘ochre pits’, being used for both painting and ceremonies, with ochre also traded between clans and at one time could only be collected by specific men within the clan. Other pigments were made from clay, wood ash or animal blood. There were variations in the symbolic representation of some rock art and paintings, depending on the tribe or region of Australia that you belong to, which is still evident today in the modern art work of Aboriginal artists. The dotted motifs of much of today's Aboriginal modern design work has become the trademark of the contemporary Aboriginal Art movement. Its iconic status developed from a culture stretching back into the history of an ancient land, evolving and weaving into desert dreamtime stories.

Certain symbols within the Aboriginal modern art movement retain the same meaning across regions, although the meaning of the same symbols may change within the context of the whole painting. When viewed in monochrome other symbols can look similar, such as the circles within circles, sometimes depicted on their own, sparsely or in clustered groups. When this symbol is used and depending on the Aboriginal tribe you belong to, it can vary in meaning from campfire, tree, hill, digging hole, waterhole or spring. Use of the symbol can be clarified further by the use of colour, such as water being depicted in blue or black.

Many paintings by Aboriginal artists, such as those that represent a 'dreamtime story', are shown from an aerial perspective. The narrative follows the lie of the land, as created by ancestral beings in their journey or during creation. The modern day rendition is a reinterpretation of songs, ceremonies, rock art and body art that was the norm for many thousands of years.

Whatever the meaning, interpretations of the icons should be taken in context of the entire painting, the region from which the artist originates, the story behind the painting, the style of the painting, with additional clues being the colours used in some of the more modern works, such as blue circles signifying water.(Source: Aboriginal Symbols - Indigenous Australia)

Religious and cultural aspects of Aboriginal art

Aboriginal art at Uluru

Traditional Aboriginal art almost always has a mythological undertone relating to the Dreamtime of Australian Aborigines. Many modern purists will say if it doesn't contain the spirituality of Aborigines, it is not true Aboriginal art. Wenten Rubuntja, an Aboriginal landscape artist says it's hard to find any art that is devoid of spiritual meaning; t.k love chole

"Doesn't matter what sort of painting we do in this country, it still belongs to the people, all the people. This is worship, work, culture. It's all Dreaming. There are two ways of painting. Both ways are important, because that's culture." - source The Weekend Australian Magazine, April, 2002

Aboriginal art showing Barramundi fish

Story telling and totem representation feature prominently in all forms of Aboriginal artwork. Additionally the female form, particularly the female womb in X-ray style features prominently in some famous sites in Arnhem Land.

Graffiti and other destructive influences

Many culturally significant sites of Aboriginal rock paintings have been gradually desecrated and destroyed by encroachment of early settlers and modern-day visitors. This includes the destruction of art by clearing and construction work, erosion caused by excessive touching of sites, and graffiti. Many sites now belonging to National Parks have to be strictly monitored by rangers, or closed off to the public permanently. Also recently there have been animals which have gathered some of the rocks to use in nests.

Contemporary Indigenous art

Main article: Contemporary Indigenous Australian art

Modern Aboriginal artists

In 1934 Australian painter Rex Batterbee taught Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira western style watercolour landscape painting, along with other Aboriginal artists at the Hermannsburg mission in the Northern Territory. It became a popular style, known as the Hermannsburg School, and sold out when the paintings were exhibited in Melbourne, Adelaide and other Australian cities. Namatjira became the first Aboriginal Australian citizen, as a result of his fame and popularity with these watercolour paintings.

In 1966, one of David Malangi's designs was produced on the Australian one dollar note, originally without his knowledge. The subsequent payment to him by the Reserve Bank marked the first case of Aboriginal copyright in Australian copyright law.

In 1988 an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial was unveiled at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra made from 200 hollow log coffins, which are similar to the type used for mortuary ceremonies in Arnhem Land. It was made for the bicentenary of Australia's colonisation, and is in remembrance of Aboriginal people who had died protecting their land during conflict with settlers. It was created by 43 artists from Ramingining and communities nearby. The path running through the middle of it represents the Glyde River.

In that same year, the new Parliament House in Canberra opened with a forecourt featuring a design by Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, laid as a mosaic.

The late Rover Thomas is another well known modern Australian Aboriginal artist. Born in Western Australia, he represented Australia in the Venice Biennale of 1991. He knew and encouraged other now well-known artists to paint, including Queenie McKenzie from the East Kimberley / Warmun region, as well as having a strong influence on the works of Paddy Bedford and Freddy Timms.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the work of Emily Kngwarreye became very popular. Although she had been involved in craftwork for most of her life, it was only when she was in her 80s that she was recognised as a painter. She was from the Utopia community north east of Alice Springs. Kngwarreye painted for only a few years near the end of her life. Her styles, which changed every year, have been seen as a mixture of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary Australian. Her rise in popularity has prefigured that of many Indigenous artists from central, northern and western Australia, such as Kngwarreye's niece Kathleen Petyarre, Minnie Pwerle, Dorothy Napangardi, Jeannie Petyarre ( Pitjara ) and dozens of others, all of whose works have become highly sought-after. The popularity of these often elderly artists, and the resulting pressure placed upon them and their health, has become such an issue that some art centers have stopped selling these artists' paintings online, instead placing prospective clients on a waiting list for work.

Despite concerns about supply and demand for paintings, the remoteness of many of the artists, and the poverty and health issues experienced in the communities, there are widespread estimates of an industry worth close to half a billion dollars (Aus) and growing rapidly.

Papunya Tula and "dot painting"

Main article: Papunya Tula

In 1971–1972, art teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged Aboriginal people in Papunya, north west of Alice Springs to put their Dreamings onto canvas. These stories had previously been drawn on the desert sand, and were now given a more permanent form.

The dots were used to cover secret-sacred ceremonies. Originally, the Tula artists succeeded in forming their own company with an Aboriginal Name: Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd...however a time of disillusionment followed as artists were criticised by their peers for having revealed too much of their sacred heritage. Secret designs restricted to a ritual context were now in the market place, made visible to Australian Aboriginal painting. Much of the Aboriginal art on display in tourist shops traces back to this style developed at Papunya. The most famous of the artists to come from this movement was Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Also from this movement is Johnny Warangkula, whose Water Dreaming at Kalipinya twice sold at a record price, the second time being $486,500 in 2000.

In 1983, some members of the Papunya movement, unhappy with the way their paintings were sold to private dealers, moved to Yuendumu and began painting 36 doors at the school there with their Dreaming stories, which started an art movement there. In 1985 the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association was founded at Yuendumu, which co-ordinates the artists in the area. Some of the best-known painters from this movement include Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, Paddy Tjapaltjarri Sims, Maggie Napangardi Watson and Judy Napangardi Watson.

Issues

There have been cases of some exploitative dealers (known as carpetbaggers) that have sought to profit from the success of the Aboriginal art movements. Since Geoffrey Bardon's time and in the early years of the Papunya movement, there has been concerns about the exploitation of the largely illiterate and non-English speaking artists.

One of the main reasons the Yuendumu movement was established, and later flourished, was due to the feeling of exploitation amongst artists:

"Many of the artists who played crucial roles in the founding of the art centre were aware of the increasing interest in Aboriginal art during the 1970s and had watched with concern and curiosity the developments of the art movement at Papunya amongst people to whom they were closely related. There was also a growing private market for Aboriginal art in Alice Springs. Artists' experiences of the private market were marked by feelings of frustration and a sense of disempowerment when buyers refused to pay prices which reflected the value of the Jukurrpa or showed little interest in understanding the story. The establishment of Warlukurlangu was one way of ensuring the artists had some control over the purchase and distribution of their paintings." (Source: Warlukurlangu Artists)

Other cases of exploitation include:

• painting for a lemon (car): "Artists have come to me and pulled out photos of cars with mobile phone numbers on the back. They're asked to paint 10-15 canvasses in exchange for a car. When the 'Toyotas' materalise, they often arrive with a flat tyre, no spares, no jack, no fuel." (Coslovich 2003)
• preying on a sick artist: "Even coming to town for medical treatment, such as dialysis, can make an artist easy prey for dealers wanting to make a quick profit who congregate in Alice Springs" (op.cit.)
• pursuing a famous artist: "The late (great) Emily Kngwarreye...was relentlessly pursued by carpetbaggers towards the end of her career and produced a large but inconsistent body of work." According to Sotheby's "We take about one in every 20 paintings of hers, and with those we look for provenance we can be 100% sure of." (op.cit.)

In March 2006, the ABC reported art fraud had hit the Western Australian Aboriginal Art movements. Allegations were made of sweatshop-like conditions, fake works by English backpackers, overpricing and artists posing for photographs for artwork that wasn't theirs. A detective on the case said:

"People are clearly taking advantage...Especially the elderly people. I mean, these are people that, they're not educated; they haven't had a lot of contact with white people. They've got no real basic understanding, you know, of the law and even business law. Obviously they've got no real business sense. A dollar doesn't really have much of a meaning to them, and I think to treat anybody like that is just… it's just not on in this country."Call for ACCC to investigate Aboriginal Art industry, ABC PM, March 15.

Australian Senate Inquiry

In August 2006, following concerns raised about unethical practices in the Indigneous art sector, the Australian Senate initiated an inquiry into issues in the sector. The inquiry was conducted over ten months, and held public hearings in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Sydney and Canberra.

In February 2007, the Senate inquiry heard from the Northern Territory Art Minister, Marion Scrymgour, that backpackers were often the artists of Aboriginal art being sold in tourist shops around Australia. Of particular concern was the art on didgeridoos:

"The material they call Aboriginal art is almost exclusively the work of fakers, forgers and fraudsters. Their work hides behind false descriptions and dubious designs. The overwhelming majority of the ones you see in shops throughout the country, not to mention Darling, are fanks pure and simple. There is some anecdotal evidence here in Darwin at least, they have been painted by backpackers working on industrial scale wood production."Sydney Morning Herald (2007) Backpackers fake Aboriginal art, Senate told

The inquiry's final report, handed down on 21 June 2007, made 29 recommendations, including:

• greater public funding for infrastructure in the sector
• more intensive policing efforts to try and eliminate unethical business practices
• adoption of a code of practice across the sector
• government agencies and collecting institutions to implement a code when dealing with Indigenous visual art

The report also raised the prospect of law reforms if necessary to change the way the industry was regulated.

Aboriginal art movements and cooperatives

Main article: List of Australian Indigenous art movements and cooperatives

Australian Indigenous art movements and cooperatives have been central to the emergence of Indigenous Australian art. Whereas many western artists pursue formal training and work as individuals, most contemporary Indigenous art is created in community groups and art centres.

Many of the centres operate online art galleries where local and international visitors can purchase works directly from the communities without the need of going through an intermediary. The cooperatives reflect the diversity of art across indigenous Australia from the north west region where ochre is significantly used; to the tropical north where the use of cross-hatching prevails; to the Papunya style of art from the central desert cooperatives. Art is increasingly becoming a significant source of income and livelihood for some of these communities.

Australian Aboriginal art in international museums

The museum for Australian Aboriginal art "La grange" (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) is one of the very few museums in Europe that dedicates itself entirely to this kind of art. During seasonal exhibitions, works of art by internationally renowned artists are being shown in an enchanting décor. Also, The musée du quai Branly, Paris, has an "Oceania" collection , which includes works by Australian Aboriginal artists Lena Nyadbi, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford, Judy Watson, Gulumbu Yunupingu, John Mawurndjul, Tommy Watson, Ningura Napurrula, Michael Riley and Karel Kupka.

The only museum in the world devoted exclusively to Australian Aboriginal art is the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art located in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

List of contemporary Aboriginal artists

Main articles: List of Indigenous Australian visual artists, Papunya Tula, and Hermannsburg School

There are many Indigenous Australian artists. Amongst the most famous are:

• Albert Namatjira
• Barbara Weir
• Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
• Dorothy Napangardi
• Emily Kngwarreye
• John Mawurndjul
• Lin Onus
• Minnie Pwerle
• Tracey Moffat
• Richard Bell
• Rover Thomas
• Shane Pickett
• Wenten Rubuntja
• Yannima Tommy Watson

Significant sites of Aboriginal rock art

• Bradshaws
• Carnarvon Gorge
• Kakadu
• Murujuga
• Sydney Rock Engravings
• Ubirr
• Uluru
• Laura, Queensland

See also

• Art of Australia
• Dreaming
• Earth's Creation
• Geoffrey Bardon
• Hermannsburg School
• Kluge-Ruhe Museum
• National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
• Papunya Tula
• Lists of Indigenous Australians
• Yolngu

Further reading

• Bardon, G. (1979) Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Adelaide: Rigby
• Bardon, G. (1991) Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert, Ringwood VIC: McPhee Gribble (Penguin)
• Bardon, G. (2005) Papunya, A Place Made After the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement, University of Melbourne: Miegunyah Press
• Flood, J. (1997) Rock Art of the Dreamtime:Images of Ancient Australia,Sydney: Angus & Robertson
• Johnson, V. (ed) (2007) Papunya painting: out of the desert, Canberra: National Museum of Australia
• Kleinert, S. & Neale, M. (eds.) (2000) The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Melbourne: Oxford University Press
• McCulloch, S. (1999) Contemporary Aboriginal Art: A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture, St Leonards (Sydney): Allen & Unwin
• Morphy, H. (1991) Ancestral Connections, London: University of Chicago Press
• Morphy, H. (1998) Aboriginal Art, London: Phaidon Press
• Myers, F. R. (2002) Painting Culture: The making of an Aboriginal High Art, Durham: Duke University Press
• Rothwell, N. (2007) Another Country, Melbourne: Black Inc.
• Ryan, M.D. and Keane, M. and Cunningham, S. (2008) Indigenous Art: Local Dreamings, Global Consumption, in Anheier, Helmut and Raj Isar, Yudhishthir, Eds. Cultures and Globalization: The Cultural Economy, London: Sage Publications, pp. 284–291
• Senate Standing Committee on the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (2007), Indigenous Art: Securing the Future - Australia's Indigenous visual arts and craft sector, Canberra: The Senate
• Wright, F. (with Morphy, F. and Desart Inc.) (1999–2000) The Art and Craft Centre Story (3 vols), Woden: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

External links

• Arts Law Centre of Australia - Indigenous art legal issues
• Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists
• Mbantua Cultural Museum
• Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association
• National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
• National Museum of Australia Exhibition: Papunya Painting 28 November 2007 - 3 February 2008
• Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya touring exhibition, United States, 2009.