Australian AboriginesTheir Art and Culture

Learning Outcomes

Some will be able to give an historic account of the Aborigines and explain a number of their cultural customs.

Most will be able to describe where the Aborigines live and one of their cultural customs.

All will be able to recall 3 facts about the Aborigines of Australia.

The word “aborigine” comes fromthe Latin – ab origine – meaning“from the beginning”. We usuallythink that Aborigines come from Australia, but in fact the first people of any land are Aborigines.

However, we ARE looking at the Aborigines from Australia, who first inhabited the land 40,000 years ago.

For most of this time they lived by gathering food, hunting and fishing.

They also have a great love of art and music.

Captain James Cooklanded in Australiain 1770 – and lifechanged for theAborigines forever.

He arrived from Britain with many settlers, whoforced the native Australians into the hottestand driest parts. Here the land was hard and dryand difficult to grow crops or keep animals. Life became very tough for the Aboriginal people.

Captain Cook’s first voyage 1778-1771

For 40,000 years the Aborigineshad hunted their food.

When the European settlers started sheep farming, if theAborigines hunted the sheepthe farmers shot them.

Thousands of Aborigines died ofEuropean diseases, such as smallpox, measles and ‘flu.

There were massive fightsbetween the natives and thesettlers, but as the settlers had better weapons, more Aborigines died. In 150 years, 80% of the Aboriginal people were killed. It would not be until 1967, theywould be accepted as havingfull citizens rights.

Many Aboriginal people nowlive in the towns or cities, butothers still remain in settlementsscattered around Australia.

Although most no longer live off the land, most still try to retain their culture through art and music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o221noLANYw

Boomerangs were invented byAborigines and used for hunting,fighting, as tools for cutting or digging, and as aPercussion instrument to accompany dancing & singing.If correctly thrown,its special design means it returns to the thrower!

They have beautiful designs & are now sold as Souvenirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYmk9Qb9Dc

The Aborigines believe that theirancestors created everything in theworld during “dreamtime”.

They believe their Ancestor spiritstook many forms – animal, human and plant – and often transformedfrom a swimming fish, to a jumpingkangaroo, to a singing human, to a rock or a tree.

They believe that each person is guarded by a personal spirit.

They believe that their Ancestorswalked the Earth creating all thingson Earth and in space.

Certain places are considered to besacred sites.

The most famous sacred site of the Aborigines is Uluru (Ayers Rock).It is believed to be the camp of the Carpet Snake Spirits who lived therefor thousands of years before they were turned to stone. The spiritsfought a great battle to defend their camp, spilling large quantities ofblood, and this legend explains why the rock turns blood red at sunset.

The Morning Star Ceremony traces the journey that a person’sspirit must take after death. It also shows how – even though we may fall out with people in life –we often join together when someone close dies – BECAUSE – we needthe support of other people.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtnBm8glPE

It is believed that the AncestorSpirits journeyed across theLand leaving many DreamingTracks, and creating thelandscape as they travelled

Every now and then they stopped, to make a new animal,plant or physical feature, such asa river, lake or rock like Uluru.

Not only did the Ancestor Spiritsmake everything on Earth and inspace, but they also taught theAboriginal people how to leadtheir lives. They made patterns for every aspect of life – hunting,cooking, marrying and bringingup children.

Early Rock Paintings and Carvings are over 20,000 years old. They usually show a variety of Animal forms. 10,000 years later they started to show some human figures and their activities.

Dynamic Style Paintings were created in theIce Age. They depicted stick like figures shownhunting and fighting, because more people hadto compete for the land.

Aborigine sand drawingsoften show life as itunfolds. Here, a drawingof a pregnant womanshows the importanceof what will be – a NEWlife.

The picture below shows the beliefs ofthe Aborigines, of how human life is entwined with nature.

They believe that it is vital that there is aharmony between the two!

Some of Australia’s EndangeredSpecies.......

The Gilbert’s Potoroo (below) is anendangered species of Australia.It can now only be found in twoparts of Australia, due to the loss ofhabitat. Also, its main predators arethe domestic cat and foxes – both ofwhich are increasing, because theirhabitat now has humans living there.

The Mountain Pygmy Possum(above), is a victim of globalwarming, and has becomeyet another endangeredspecies.

The Short-tailed hopping mouse is one of the many mammals that have become extinct in Australia since the settlers arrived there 200 years ago. This meant that native creatures lost their natural habitat and diseases and non-native predators were brought by the settlers to the ‘New World’. Another victim was the ‘Tasmanian Wolf’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-YI44XYjI

Emu Salt water crocodile

Koala

Dingo

The Aborigine people share their home with an incredible variety of wildlife.

Budgerigars

Aboriginal Flag

Boomerangs were invented byAborigines and used for hunting,fighting, as tools for cutting or digging, and as aPercussion instrument to accompany dancing & singing.If correctly thrown,its special design means it returns to the thrower!

They have beautiful designs & are now sold as Souvenirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYmk9Qb9Dc

Aboriginal Art

From Australia

   

Aboriginal people are indigenous (the first) Australians. They tell stories in words and pictures about how the world began. They call this Dreamtime. Their stories are called ‘Dreamings’.

Can you point Australia on the map?Quick recap

Australia’s deserts

Aboriginal Art technique

They used their fingers or sticks for painting.There weren’t any art shops where they could buy brushes!

Aboriginal art includes lots of symbols for the natural things around them.

Aboriginal art uses 'Earth Colours'.Why?

 

 

These are the colours of the desert. Aboriginal artists made their paints from

natural materials.

Aboriginal paintings also use lots of dots.

ABORIGINAL COLOURS

Black represents the night and the aboriginal people.

Yellow represents the sun, it is the sacred colour.

Red is the colour of the land and the blood.

White is the spirit colour

LET’S WATCH A VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b-vI3Nf50g

Let’s create a dot painting.

Watch the following video.Pay attention to the technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgwtBYbUDc

• Now use your imagination and create your own aboriginal painting.

• Choose one of the aboriginal symbols that you like best.

• Use your pencil for drawing it and colour with dots.

Can you answer the following questions?

1. Where did the aboriginal people live?2. Where does the aboriginal art come from?

From which continent?3. The aboriginal told stories. What do they call

these strories?4. Can you name some of the deserts in Australia?5. What technique did they use for their paintings?6. Can you draw some of the aboriginal symbols?7. What are the main colours of aboriginal art?8. Where did they get the materials for their

paintings? A) from the sea. B) from the nature C) from the desert

How much can you remember?