Aboriginal art is about more than paintings

What is Aboriginal art?

When you think of Aboriginal art you think immediately of paintings. But Aboriginal art comprises so many more facets, all of which belong to Aboriginal cultural practice:

• dance, enthused audiences around the world by the world-class Bangarra Dance Theatre or the Northern Territory Chooky Dancers' interpretation of Zorba the Greek,
• visual arts and craft, including pottery, shell stringing and movies,
• theatre,
• language, which includes Aboriginal music and storyteling,
• lore, the 'body of knowledge' passed on through story telling,
• ceremony, both traditional and contemporary for tourists (see Welcome to Country).

Visual arts and crafts are the most popular Indigenous art form, followed by dance and then theatre [1].

"When we talk about story, just remember that even though buildings might sit on country, our country is still the same underneath and those stories are still the same," says Seith Fourmile from the Djumbunji Press in Cairns (Queensland).

"They'll never die, they've been there a long time and they'll still be there when we pass on. The thing is trying to keep that tradition going and that culture and stories strong."

The experience of [taking part in a men's ceremony and] sitting down, recuperating, looking at and being told about the landscape in a totally different way changed me as an artist... I found new significance in all of those [natural] elements and how they relate to us as people. Everything has significance. —Sam Juparulla Wickman, Aboriginal artist [2]

But Aboriginal art does not stop with cultural practices. Contemporary, young Aboriginal artists take it into the new millennium and become Indigenous new media artists.

Karen Casey is such an Indigenous new media artist. Descended from the Pydairrerme people of the Tasman Peninsula, she created Art of Mind in 2004. A computer program lets the audience see the artist's brain activity. "In Art of Mind, I focus on my inner connection with the land and with others and on promoting reconciliation and people coming together. People genuinely want to make a connection, to be on the same 'wavelength' and this is what we explore," says Karen [3].

Fact The didgeridoo is known by over 200 names. Yidaki is the first and oldest name whose origin is Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. 'Didgeridoo' is the name white people gave the instrument after hearing its sound.

Tjuringas: sacred objects for the initiated

In September 2011 the sale of a tjuringa at an auction house in Britain made headlines in Australia.

Tjuringa is a term generally meaning 'sacred object' and 'sacred practice' [7]. It was used by the Central Australian Arrernte people as a prefix when speaking about many sacred items, including headdresses, poles, bullroarers, earth mounds, ground paintings and incised stones and wooden boards. They also used it in reference to traditions, rituals, ceremonies, songs and stories.

In its broad sense tjuringa (also spelled 'churinga') is mostly used for sacred incised and/or painted boards or stones many Aboriginal groups (not only the Arrernte) have made.

Tjuringas may be used in rituals to represent ancestral beings or protect the carrier from harm. Others are deeply personal objects symbolising the essence of the owner's individual spiritual being. If the owner dies their family stores the tjuringa in a safe place. Death was the punishment if someone broke a tjuringa, or let unauthorised people (for example women) see one [7]. Only initiated, long-term male members of a clan were allowed to see and handle tjuringas.

After protests the auction house withdrew the tjuringa from sale. However, several wooden tjuringas were still on sale on eBay [8].

Aboriginal artist designs coins

Aboriginal artist Darryl Bellotti designed the Perth Mint's Dreaming coins, a series of 45 coins which the mint issues from January 2009 to 2011.

The gold, silver and platinum coins feature different interpretations of Australian animals like kangaroo, dolphin, king brown snake, brolga and echidna. It is the first time one artist has designed an entire coin series.

"In ancient times boya, or money in Nyoongar culture, represented the tradeable commodities of rocks, stones of quartz and granite, and naturally occurring specimes of precious metals," explains Perth Mint Chief Executive Ed Harbuz [4].

The dying art of shell stringing

Shell stringing, along with mutton birding and basket weaving, is one of the few Tasmanian Aboriginal traditions that has continued unbroken [9].

But only a handful of Aboriginal artists continue the practice of stringing tiny, brilliantly coloured maireeners and other shells.

The highly-prized necklaces grace Aboriginal displays in museums around the world and come with four-figure price tags in galleries [5].

To create a necklace from shells Aboriginal artists require intimate knowledge of shell locations and the tides. After collection the shells are prepared over six to nine months; cleaned, dried, sorted and holes put in them—a tedious process, given their size.

Then comes the stringing of up to 700 maireeners, a time-consuming process. Each shell is handled eight to nine times.

One shell stringing artist is Aunty Corrie Fullard, from Hobart, Tasmania. Her necklaces are displayed in museums and private collections throughout Australia.

Pukomani poles

Aboriginal artists create Pukomani poles from wooden logs. They carve and paint them with red, yellow and white ochre.

Traditionally Pukomani poles were created after the death of a person and used for ceremony (dancing, singing and crying). The in-laws of the person who died commissioned and paid for them with ornaments and food, more recently with money.

Pukomani poles act as headstones around the grave. A figure at the top of the pole represents the spirit who did the first ceremony.

Today artists create Pukomani poles only for galleries. They are no longer part of contemporary Aboriginal life. [6]

[1] 'Indigenous arts - a growing enterprise', Koori Mail 472 p.18 [2] 'Artist is a busy man', Koori Mail 436 p.50 [3] 'Karen's brain art makes waves', Arts Yarn Up, summer 2008 p.11 [4] 'Art in Mint condition', Koori Mail 444 p.35 [5] 'Fears held for shell stringing', Koori Mail 458 p.35 [6] Art & Soul newsletter, NSW Art Gallery, 2/10/2010 [7] Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, David Horton (ed), IATSIS 1994, Vol 2 p.1080 [8] 'Sacred Aboriginal tjuringas for sale', Koori Mail 510 p.35 [9] 'Workshops help to keep a Tasmanian tradition alive', Koori Mail 517 p.7