Images of Indigenous Australia
Introduction
Visual arts and crafts are probably the most dramatic illustration of the breadth, strength, richness – and durability – of Australian Indigenous culture.
The enormous development in recent years of Indigenous art is just the latest chapter in the world's oldest continuous artistic tradition. Cave paintings in northern Australia probably date back 40,000 years ago: Western Arnhem Land, in particular, has been described as ‘one of the great rock-art provinces of the world’.
Cave paintings and engravings, which are widespread across Australia, are complemented by artistic expression in other media. These include sand and bark art and body painting, the antiquity of which are less clear.
Most Indigenous art, at least until comparatively recently, has been enmeshed in religious performance and the social networks and territorial groupings of its practitioners. A common aspect of most traditional Indigenous art has been its link to the ‘Dreamtime’ – the time of creation and the underlying essence of Indigenous life and nature. The form of artistic expression varied widely across the country, reflecting not only the variety of Indigenous cultures, but also the medium on which the ‘dreaming’ could be represented.
Apart from rock paintings and engravings, the best known expressions of Indigenous art are probably bark paintings and the modern versions of Central and Western Desert sand art.
Bark painting is mainly associated with northern Australia, particularly Arnhem Land, and extends from the Kimberley region of Western Australia in the west to Mornington Island in the east.
The adaptation of traditional Central and Western Desert sand art using acrylic on canvas and board has been a dramatic stimulus for Indigenous art – and has led to a growing appreciation by non-Indigenous people of the depth and meaning of Australian Indigenous culture.
Most attention about Indigenous art has been directed to that of Australian Aboriginal people, but Torres Strait Islander people also have a rich artistic tradition. This tradition has also undergone a revival in recent years, and is now thriving.
As with other aspects of Indigenous life, some people had doubts in the 19th and early 20th century that Indigenous art would survive the coming of non-Indigenous people to Australia. Most Indigenous people, particularly those living in more remote parts of the country, did manage to maintain cultural continuity, however. This continuity provided the foundation for what has been termed a ‘cultural revitalisation’ that began spreading from the 1960s.
Today, Indigenous visual arts and crafts (and other art forms) are important expressions of the continuing strength of Indigenous culture, one of the cornerstones of Indigenous health and an important contributor to the total wellbeing of the Indigenous community. In this section of the site, we celebrate this strength. In the months and years ahead, the HealthInfoNet will bring you more examples of Indigenous visual arts and crafts, and gradually include other aspects of Indigenous culture.
Current exhibition
Listen to the Land
Listen to the Land is presented by Curatorial Services and Kurongkurl
Katitjin, School of Indigenous Studies, of Edith Cowan University.
Click here to view
the exhibition
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This brief summary of Australian Indigenous art draws heavily on ‘Dreamings : the art of Aboriginal Australia’ (edited by Peter Sutton and published in 1988 by Viking (Ringwood, Victoria) in association with the Asia Society Galleries, New York). It is an excellent book, available from leading bookstores and the South Australian Museum . |
Indigenous art websites
Aboriginal Art of Australia
The Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery is an Aboriginal owned art gallery
based in Darwin, Northern Territory. The website gallery focuses
on work by prominent artists from Central and Western Desert regions
of Australia as well as Arnhemland in the Top end of the Northern
Territory. Sections of the website include: bark painting; special
works of interest; a private collection; and didgeridoos.
View website
Aboriginal Art Online
Aboriginal Art Online offers Aboriginal art for sale plus information
about the land and culture of Australian Aboriginal people. The
website has a wide range of Aboriginal art, a selection of books
and CD-ROMs. It also provides information, comments and a newsletter
about Aboriginal art and artists.
View
website
Aboriginal Art Prints
Aboriginal Art Prints promotes and sells limited edition fine
art prints by Aboriginal artists. Many of the artists tell stories
of Aboriginal creation, myth, spirits, ceremony and the dreaming
in their art work. The Aboriginal artists come from regions all
across Australia.
View
website
Aboriginal Australia Art and Culture Centre
The Aboriginal Australia Art and Culture Centre is an Aboriginal
owned and operated organisation and exhibits a variety of Aboriginal
art from Central Australian Aboriginal communities which is available
for purchase.
View website
Aboriginalartwork.com
Aboriginalartwork.com is a gateway to internet sites on Aboriginal
art and provides a search facility to narrow searches.
View
website
Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists
The Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal
Artists (ANKAAA) is a support agency for Aboriginal artists located
in 32 arts and crafts centres in the Tiwi Islands, Darwin/Katherine,
Kimberly and Arnhem Land regions.
View
website
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts (ATSIA), The Australia
Council
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board assists Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people to claim, control and enhance
their cultural inheritance by providing grants in all artforms ,
and through the implementation of the Australia Council's National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Policy (NATSIAP).
View
website
Australian Indigenous Art
The objective of the Australian Indigenous Art website is to offer
for sale Australian Aboriginal art including: original paintings;
a selection of high quality prints; etchings; linocuts; and textiles.
It also includes a section for resellers where owners of Aboriginal
art can list works for sale.
View
website
Australian Rock Art Research Association
The Australian Rock Art Research Association, Inc (AURA) is one
of the world's largest rock art organisations. The website details
the association's promotion of this heritage and research in the
field of palaeoart studies. Rock art includes naturalistic paintings
of human, plant and animal figures and paintings in rock shelters
which can date back 20,000 years.
View
website
Berndt Museum of Anthropology
This vast collection of Aboriginal art and Aboriginal cultural
materials from Arnhem Land, Kimberley, South-West, Western Desert,
and Asia may now be viewed in this Virtual Museum. The collection
is housed at the University of Western Australia.
View website
Birrung Gallery
Birrung Gallery is a World Vision Australia initiative for providing
exclusive Indigenous artwork to collectors around the world. The
gallery raises funds for Indigenous community development through
the sale of fine arts.
View
website: Birrung Gallery
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative
This website provides information on the work of the Boomalli Aboriginal
artists who promote Aboriginal culture and independence through
the visual arts. The artists work in a range of mediums of art practice
including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, fabric
design and mixed media.
View website
Bula'bula Arts
Local artists from Ramingining, which is a small, remote community
in Central Arnhem Land located some 400 kms east of Darwin and nearly
30 kms from the Arafura Sea, are featured on this website. Their
art includes: painting; sculpture; fibre art; printing and batik.
View website
Central Art: Aboriginal Art Store
Central Art is located in Alice Springs and features contemporary Australian Central Desert and Aboriginal art for online purchase. Local resident, Sabine Haider, established the online store with the encouragement of the Aboriginal Artist Ada Bird Petyarre, one of the famous Petyarre sisters from Utopia.
Each work is purchased directly from the artist , catalogued, photographed, and the context and the content of each work documented through personal interview.
View website
Desart
Desart supports the Central Australian Aboriginal Art Centres and
fosters community development, cultural maintenance and economic
growth. The website provides links to the art centres and includes
a members' portal. The art works come from very old stories that
were told by ancestors and passed down to the next generation.
View website
Djeetgun Kurnai
Djeetgun Kurnai is a women's business and training centre, operated
by the Traditional Kurnai Women of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.
The website offers arts and crafts for sale including hand crafted
dolls.
View
website
Kaltjiti Arts and Crafts
Kaltjiti Arts and Crafts is a community based, Aboriginal owned
art-centre at Fregon in the remote north-west of South Australia.
The website provides information about the artists, exhibitions
and the artwork of Fregon which has been strongly based in the medium
of fabric, such as batik, screen-printing and silk painting. Artists
also make hooked rugs from handspun sheep's wool, leather moccasins
and hand-painted cards.
View
website
Keringke Arts
Keringke Aboriginal Arts Centre is Aboriginal owned and operated
with all the profits going back to the community via the Artists.
The website provides insights to the works of the Keringke artists
which are inspired by age old motifs, landscape forms and patterns
of movement. Artwork is advertised for purchase.
View website
Papunya Tula Artists
This website showcases art by Aboriginal people from the Western
Desert, predominantly of the Luritja/Pintupi language groups. Owned
and directed by traditional Aboriginal people, the company represents
around 90 artists with aims to promote individual artists, provide
economic development for their communities and support and assist
in the maintenance of a rich cultural heritage.
View website
Spirit of Yarramunua
This website showcases unique gifts designed and made by Aboriginal
people using traditional methods. Articles for sale include: didgeridoos;
boomerangs; clap sticks; trinket boxes; frog callers; jewellery;
Aboriginal masks; fruit bowls; and wooden plates and vases.
View
website
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts is a wholly Aboriginal owned art centre specializing in contemporary collectible Indigenous art of the east Kimberley region. The art centre operates as an artists' studio and gallery selling ochre paintings, limited edition prints, engraved boabs, traditional artifacts and didgeridoos. Waringarri Aboriginal Arts supports almost 50 artists, proudly employs Indigenous staff and supports ethical trade practices, with 100% of income from sales returned back to the community.
View website
Warlayirti Artists
Warlayirti Artists is an artists' cooperative, located in the small
community of Balgo, Western Australia. The artists produce distinctive
artworks that tell the stories and mark the land from the sand dunes
of the Great Sandy Desert to the waters of the Kimberley. In addition
to artworks for sale the website provides exhibition dates.
View website
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