Aboriginal Art is primarily a form of religious expression

Occasionally I will post a thread on Indigenous Australia, which admittedly doesn’t attract lively debate, but that’s not its purpose.  Let’s just say it’s a forum in which I am able to impart much of my knowledge on the least understood culture in our own country.

Today I want to talk about art.

An Aboriginal elder once said: ‘Our painting carries the spirituality of who we are’.  This beautiful description inspires the novice such as myself to seek an understanding of Aboriginal art, and guided with the signpost ‘spirituality.’

This is what I learnt.

Every aspect of Aboriginal culture was born in the Dreaming, and this is reflected in the art, itself an expression of the Dreaming.  But further, the art is an extension of how the Aboriginal people relate to their position in the world.  As change swept across their culture with the arrival of Europeans, so too did the art, yet it still retained the thread of spirituality.  This thread can even be found in the reproductions of the contemporary artists who have benefited by the popularity of Aboriginal art.

Art could be rock art, ground art, body paintings, bark paintings, weapon decorating, and the sculptures of Northern Australia.  Works of art, whether they be painted on canvas or crafted in bronze, signed by a master or be of lazy scribbles, are all of one purpose: They capture a moment or a meaning and freeze it in time.  Aboriginal art is different.  Aboriginal art is holistic, as is ‘time’ to the Aboriginal people.

To fully appreciate and interpret Aboriginal art one must have an understanding of the hand that creates it.  This hand would belong to a person who lives by the law of the Dreaming; who knows that the Dreaming is as it was lived and that how it is still lived; and who knows that the Dreaming is an erasable map of the past, the present, and the future.  The Dreaming is in the art, and art is an expression of ceremonial and religious life.

My old university lecturer said that the various art forms of Aboriginal society were attributed to the Dreaming.  Ancestral Beings had painted the original design and the artist who painted on bark or drew in the sand was copying the designs inherited from the ancestors.

It is not hard to imagine that the Ancestral Beings watch over the artist at work, ensuring that the events of the Dreaming are perpetuated in today’s culture.  That perhaps art itself is a religious activity.  Or perhaps, too, that art is a visual language.  In essence, that the permanence of Aboriginal life is ensured by the invoking of powerful forces through the symbolism of art.  It reflects a concern with the questions of origin and purpose, as interpreted in the Dreaming.

I have introduced Aboriginal art as a religious and traditional expression.  Since 1788 the Aboriginal people have been embattled with changes in their customs and cultures.  Does the work of the contemporary artist reflect these changes?  Has the religious significance been diminished?  And what too of the commercial interest that Aboriginal art now attracts, does this affect the cultural integrity of the work?’  Read on, dear bloggers, as these formative questions will be considered.

Some recent works of traditional art, (recent being post 1788) clearly do not depict what could be perceived as being of any religious significance.  These works for example, include depictions of European invaders.  My old lecturer, however, explained that sorcery has long been an element in Aboriginal culture, and this may have been the underlying inspiration in the artists’ attempts to deal with the intruders.

In this context it could be taken that art, as a traditional medium in the perpetuation of culture, had perceived and recognised the intruders as the carriers of change in the cultural landscape.

Aboriginal art has recently gained a worldwide audience, which has brought financial rewards to many artists.  (There are an estimated 6,000 artists who produce works for the local or overseas markets).  The traditional values of these contemporary works are questioned as is their religious portrayal.  As art was traditionally a function of ritual life, many non-Aboriginals view that the economic motive may have isolated it from this context.  What is ignored, however, is that the hands that create this art are driven by the same forces that inspired the artists of 40,000 years ago.  The reasons for making art do change, yet they have not lost their Aboriginal identity.

Aboriginal art takes on many forms and numerous mediums can be used.  Two of the most recognisable are the rock art found in Northern Australia, and the abstract imagery found in Central Australia and other desert regions.

Rock art is predominantly found on the walls of shallow caves or on the faces of rocky outcrops in either paintings or engravings.  The latter style was produced deep into the mythical past, believed in tribal lore to have been created by a race of long ago.  Some of these engravings have been dated to 35,000 years.  Engravings usually constitute figurative representations of men, women, animals and mythical beings.

Rock paintings – again primarily of humans and animals – were coloured from materials such as clays, ochres, plants and charcoal applied with brushes made of twigs or hair.  Many of these paintings, whilst originally created thousands of years ago have been preserved for their cultural value: If these figures are renovated by their tribal leaders at the beginning of the wet season, it is believed these paintings have the power to bring rain and cause the animals to increase.

Two of the more distinctive forms of rock paintings are the x-ray style of paintings and the stencilled images of human hands.  The other form of art given I have mentioned – that of Central Australia – is not as naturalistic as the rock art, consisting of concentric circles, dotting, tracks and meandering lines.  These abstract forms however, are symbols that represent an aspect of daily life.  A circle for example, would represent a waterhole.

The art of Central Australia is popular among contemporary artists who reproduce the designs or stories on canvas.  This is a world away from the resources employed by the traditional artists.  The dry, sandy deserts allowed no better medium than the ground itself, and sometimes the paintings would cover several hectares and take months to produce.  Often these paintings would be prepared for ceremonial ritual or for storytelling, and as with the abstract markings, the colours too were symbolic.  Red ochre, symbolic of blood and therefore the life-force of man, was highly prized.  People travelled great distances to obtain the correct colour for their artistic needs.

I have commented on the religious expression contained in Aboriginal art in both its traditional and contemporary form.  This expression is an echo from the Dreaming, which is evident on a rock painting dating back thousands of years to a reproduction on canvass of modern times.

Amid the changes that Aboriginal culture has contended with, the art has incorporated these changes while still retaining its spiritual message.  Aboriginal art is as much alive today as it was 40,000 years ago.  As in that ancient past, the art – significantly – is not easily separable from everyday life.

Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, Canberra, Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)