Without a doubt, Australian Aboriginal Art is a form of art with huge significance. Renowned art critic and long time writer for Time Magazine Robert Hughes described Aboriginal Art as “the last great art movement”.
What makes his statement so significant is Australian Aboriginal Art in fact is one of the oldest forms of Art anywhere on the planet yet as an commercially art style it happens to be one of the newest.
Ancient Rock Art in remote parts of Australia dates back approximately 30,000 to 40,000 years. However, as a saleable commodity, this form of art has only really been available since the 70’s.
The union between ancient custom and practice and the originality of Aboriginal Art emerging on the international art market, has brought a huge reaction through the art world as it is realized as a discovery that will never be seen again.
Aboriginal Artists have actually been selling their unusual artwork since before the 1930’s, not yet known to the international market it remained contained within Australia seen only by those who happened to be travelling through the remote parts of the country and discovered it for themselves.
Generally back in these days the Aboriginals created their artwork on bark. It is generally accepted that Aboriginals began painting on canvas in an organised manner in the early 1970's when a school teacher and graduate of the National Art School by the name of Geoffrey Bardon took up a posting to teach at the primary school at Papunya, a remote Aboriginal settlement 250 km west of Alice Springs.
Bardon noticed that the Aborigines at Papunya would tell their stories by images and stories in the sand. He persuaded young as old to do the same but to record it various materials, such as paper, the doors at the school and eventually canvas.
Bardon worked alongside the Aboriginal painters and, in the early 70’s, the Papunya Tula painting movement was founded. Bardon dedicated many years of his life to recording and supporting the art he respected so much. He had an active role in setting up the art centre at Papunya and with and it is from here that the last great art movement began.
The artistic movement unleashed at Papunya spread over Central Australia as well as the Kimberley region of Western Australia and throughout the north of Australia in Arnhem Land as well as the Tiwi Islands. Now recognized all over Australia, Aboriginal communities all over the country share their history and culture through art to anyone who is interested.
There is a huge difference in Aboriginal Art styles as each area of Australia is distinctive and totally separate from other parts of the country, each community has their own unique history, traditions, culture and stories to tell.
Aboriginal Art is not only the leading art style in Australia today, but also one of the most significant globally with major works of art by Aboriginal artists hanging in famous art galleries, auction houses and private collections.
Since its emergence commercially in the 70’s, Aboriginal Art has burst onto the international Art landscape.
As demand rises and international art fanatics start to understand its unique history as one of the oldest and youngest styles of art at the same time, the realization that it just may be the last great art movement ever discovered is remarkable.
About The Author: Michiel van Kets provides article services for Scott Linklater, one of four family members who make up the team from Artlandish Aboriginal Art gallery in Kununurra Western Australia. The company has the largest online Aboriginal Art gallery in the world. For information on Aboriginal artists and paintings please visit the website.
Article Source: AfroArticles.com - Article Marketing Directory
The Dreamtime - Australian Aboriginal Storytelling
By Helen F McKay
Dreamtime is a word, first used by a European anthropologist, in the early 1900's, to define what he perceived, as a religion. He used this word to describe the all-encompassing mystical period of Aboriginal beginning.
However, the Aboriginal people do not worship any single Deity or other Gods. They built no monoliths, memorials or idols, nor did they have an organized religion. They lived by the lores of the Creator and Ancestral Spirits of the diverse landscapes, sky, creatures and plants of Australia.
The art, stories, songs and dances, became well known as part of the Dreaming, but it is still little understood. The Dreamtime is part of the oral tradition, and is only one aspect of a very complex spiritual belief system, the Dreaming.
The Dreamtime stories, are the oral form of the spiritual Dreaming, which comprises: Art - the visual form, Customs - the practical form, Music - the acoustic form, Totems - the spiritual forms, Lore - the cultural form, Lands - the physical forms.
Altogether, they form an all-encompassing, mystical whole. Over the last 220 years, since colonization of Australia, non-indigenous people have perceived these art forms as separate entities, rather than as part of a whole. The result has been a fragmented overview of the Aboriginal culture.
The Stories of the Dreaming are more than myths, legends, fables, parables or quaint tales. They are definitely not fairytales for amusement of children. Down through generations, the Aboriginal people's stories, were told orally, but were never written down. They were the oral textbooks, of their accumulated knowledge, spirituality, and wisdom, from when time began.
The structure and form of a traditional Dreamtime story is quite unique and cannot easily be copied. An oral Dreamtime story of ten minutes' length, can cover several topics and subject matters, and be suitable for all age groups. They are structured with valuable lessons for children, or for bringing a renewed understanding to older people.
For instance twenty or more lessons can be found in one story, teaching such topics as: The spiritual belief system, Customs, Animal behaviour, Animal psychology, Land map of the region, Hunting and gathering skills, Cultural norms, Moral behaviors, Survival skills, Food resources.
In the book, Gadi Mirrabooka, the stories: "Brolga" and "First Platypus" are excellent examples of Stranger Danger and "The Murray Cod", is a Creation Map story. Every genre of storytelling and hundreds of categories are used, within The Dreamtime stories.
When the Aboriginal community regularly sat round the campfire following their evening meal and listened to storytellers unfold the stories from the Dreamtime, or tell of daily happenings, such as hunts, battles, etc., the storyteller custodian's role was really that of cultural educator.
As the Aboriginal culture was an oral one, the written word was unknown to these people. The storyteller's role was not just to entertain, but also to preserve their culture while educating the growing generation of children and young adults in the history, traditional values and lore of their people.
Often the `aunties' (older women), told the children stories, to help protect them from dangers - both inside and outside the boundaries of the camp - and to enforce the taboos and traditions of the clan.
Women took girls approaching puberty aside and taught them secret "women's business", preparing them for their roles as wives and mothers, to the next generation. There were many "secret women's" stories, passed on at this time, which men could not be told.
The men told stories of hunting, teaching the young boys vital information. Stories about survival and bushcraft, were embedded in the stories they told. Storytelling played its part in the sacred initiation ceremonies where "secret" information was passed on to young boys approaching manhood. Women were not allowed to know these stories.
When telling the children stories, the storyteller gave no explanation of the meaning of them. All the stories they told carried hidden knowledge that reached down to a much deeper level of understanding. Aboriginal storytelling was similar to our peeling of an onion. Familiarity with the story peeled away different levels of knowledge, until finally the vital information contained in the story would unfold.
When the people heard the stories again, they were asked to repeat them to one another, and gradually with repetition, understanding came.
Some stories passed on information, about their heritage of lands from the Dreaming, the song-lines. Through story, they learned vital survival information, such as how people found the sources of water and the mythology associated with it.
Often a storyteller would tell stories of the night sky and how the figures of animals and people they could see in the collections of stars above them came to live in the sky. Through stories, they learned to identify important stars, which could help them navigate their way around the country, helping them survive when in unfamiliar territory. There were space stories, which explained the arrival of showers of meteorites from outer space.
They learned the habits of all living creatures, animals, birds, fish, insects and plants and were told stories that explained the creatures' behaviour in certain seasons. This information given in the form of oral stories taught them how these creatures fed and how to track them when out hunting for food. They were taught which berries and fruits were safe to eat and when they were ripe for harvesting.
Stories were told that warned listeners of the dangers of witchcraft, magic and poison, of the wild forces of nature, such as the "whirlie whirlie" winds, violent electric storms, floods, and bushfire and how best to survive them.
There were stories that told of battles and the heroic achievements of their ancestral warriors, while other stories, told of sorcery and duplicity. All the stories had to be entertaining, so that Aboriginal storytellers could hold the attention of their audience. In this way, the storyteller custodian held a highly respected place in Aboriginal society.
Storytelling seems complicated when one is searching for a particular Aboriginal story, because there may be 700 ways of telling the story, depending on the people, land region, type of country and the creature's habitat. For instance: there are as many different versions of "How the Kangaroo Got Her Pouch" as there are of "Cinderella" in the European culture.
Some early European anthropologists who'd arrived to study the Aboriginal people, brought some of the "secret men's and secret women's stories", and "secret, sacred stories", back with them and published them. An unfortunate lack of understanding by outsiders of the significance of these special stories, which the Aboriginal people regarded as sacred and part of their cultural property, greatly offended the Aboriginal people. They had shared their deepest secrets with these men and their permission to share, or publish them, had not been sought!
Note: It is courteous, if you find an Australian Aboriginal story you wish to tell to always attempt to find the source and ask permission from the Aboriginal Elders, to tell it.
Helen McKay is an Australian author of four published books and many articles. Gadi Mirrabooka was written and edited by Helen F. McKay. Aboriginal Elders, Storytelling Custodians, June Barker, Francis Firebrace, and (the late) Pauline McLeod, told the authentic stories included in the book. See http://www.gadimirrabooka.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Helen_F_McKay
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