traditionally the colours used were only earth colours
taken from naturally occuring pigments in the soil
such as red, brown and yellow ochres.
black came from the charcoal of burnt sticks and
white from pipe-clay.

the painted design is sometime done in the famous
'dot painting' or ‘cross hatch ‘styles.
aboriginal artwork includes naturalistic paintings of
spirits, plant and animal figures, such as turtles, snakes,
fish, goannas...

its non-naturalistic, or abstract design often employs
geometrical figures and lines (to represent landscape),
swirls or concentric circles (often stand for a watering hole),
u-shapes (people or breaks in the clouds) and dots (rain).

the designs are also representative of nature
from ‘the dreaming', a spiritual concept of being.

'the dreaming' or ’dreamtime’ is, according to
aboriginal belief, that all life as it is today is part of one
vast unchanging network of relationships which can be
traced to the great ancestors of the dreamtime (tjukurpa).
the space between nature and man, life and death,
and the past, present, and future is seamless.

all time is related and everything exists for a reason.
there are no accidents – only misunderstandings
and mysteries not yet revealed to mortal humans.
the dreamtime legends tell of the time of creation when
the world and all the features of the land were formed by
ancestral beings. these beings sometimes assumed animal
or human form or appeared as forces of nature.
they interacted with one another and left their distinctive
tracks in the form of hills, rivers, waterholes and other
features of the landscape, wherever they travelled.
the areas are places of reflection today for anyone wise
enough to learn from them. ancestral beings also
established laws for human relations and proper conduct
in aboriginal society. stories of the ancestors have been
passed down for countless generations in song and dance.

everything in the aboriginal world contains an essence or
spirit that had its beginnings in the dreamtime. each person
descended from one of these spirits and possessed some
of its life force. the spirit they are descended from is their
totem. images of totems make up a large part of indigenous
art – they were painted on cave walls (rock art), drawn on
the interiors of huts, drawn on people’s bodies, and carved
in wood. totemic spirits are celebrated in ceremonies and
rituals, and played a prominent part in aboriginal myths.

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see


what is a didjeridu



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how to play a didjeridu



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