HOW ABORIGINAL ART CELEBRATES THE CULTURE OF THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Posted by Tamara Piller on November 28, 2011 0 Comments
The indigenous people to Australia, the Aborigines, are a storied people because of the trials and tribulations that they have had to go through. They have lived in the land that was later coined as Australia for more than 40,000 years, as rock paintings that have been discovered in regions throughout the country show. These people lived and worked on the land, they ate the creatures that roamed among them and the berries and vegetables that grew there as well yet had a deep respect for the environment and all living creatures. The Aboriginal people focused heavily on myths and spreading their stories orally as well as through Aboriginal art. The art that they created consisted of carvings in the rocks throughout the areas that they lived, as well as stone arrangements, rock paintings and weavings. The Australian Aboriginal art that was produced in the last 40,000 years and is still created today helps us to understand the deep culture of these indigenous people.
When studying these ancient works of art, what can clearly be observed is the respect and reverence that the Aboriginal people showed for the land they lived on and the living creatures that surrounded them. Much of these ancient Aboriginal paintings and other art forms feature such animals as lizards, kangaroos, birds and fish. They often painted aerial views of the beautiful Australian landscape, which enables us today to see how the Australian landscape looked thousands of years ago.
Dreamtime was and still is a common theme in Australian Aboriginal paintings and other artworks. Again, aerial views depict the tales of the Aboriginal people as they went about their daily business, hunting, planting and raising their families. In fact, most artists considered the works that they created to be their “Dreaming.” Those who are Aboriginal art purists believe that if the works of art created today do not have some form of dreaming represented, then they are not true, authentic Aboriginal paintings.
In the late 1700s, the Aboriginal people lost their political autonomy in Australia and were forced off of their precious land by British settlers. By the late 1800s, a large majority of the Aboriginal people had lost their lives and massive depopulation had begun. Because of these horrible hardships that this culture faced, many works of art from this time period on seek to reestablish the culture of the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal art and Australian Aboriginal Fabric showcases the many intricacies of the belief system of these people.
The current surge in popularity of Aboriginal art is seen as vindication by some people, but to the Aboriginal people it is merely a chance to show that their culture should be valued and preserved. Aboriginal clothing and accessories sell out frequently and Aboriginal artifacts and paintings are highly sought after for decorative purposes, as well as to feature in museums and exhibits. More and more people in every country of the world are finally getting a chance to see and appreciate the art of the indigenous Aboriginal people today.
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