Aboriginal Art
Janie Ward Nakamarra
Aboriginal Artist
Aboriginal art is art made by indigenous Australian people. It includes work made in many different ways including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpting, ceremonial clothing and sand painting.Aboriginal art is closely linked to religious ceremonies or rituals.
Art critic Robert Hughes described Aboriginal Art as the “last great art movement of the 20th Century” and can be likened to other ground-breaking art movements such as the impressionists in Paris in the late 19th Century. Unlike art movements of the past, Aboriginal art shows no signs of abating in the 21st Century.
Indigenous Australian art is the oldest ongoing form of artistic expression in the world. The earliest forms of Aboriginal art were rock carvings and paintings, body painting and ground designs. There are engravings on cave walls in Arnhem Land dating back at least 40,000 years - quite amazing when the cave art in Dordogne’s Vézère valley in France is roughly 12,000 years old. The ancient rock art and engravings depict figures, birds, animals, mythological creatures and non-figurative designs. Paintings and engravings of more recent origin sometimes lie next to these ancient paintings, or even partly cover them.
Throughout history, Indigenous Australians have adapted to a range of changes, including the end of the ice age about 10,000 years ago! Therefore, Aboriginal art and culture is organic and constantly evolving. Today, Aboriginal art ranges across a wide variety of media and reflects the richness and diversity of Indigenous culture and the distinct differences between the language groups and geographic landscapes.
Artists may base their contemporary designs on ancient forms of artistic expression, such as body painting, which is still practised throughout Aboriginal Australia and remains an important part of cultural and ceremonial practice. Other artists may wish to paint and interpret their Dreaming stories, which they have inherited and earned the right to portray, and others may wish to depict a more recent history such as ‘first contact’, the affects of colonisation, or their own incredible life story and topics that are important and impinge upon their life.
Aboriginal art is incredibly captivating, expressive and much more than just dots!
