5 Facts About Aboriginal Art

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Aboriginal art is based on important stories and symbols centered on 'the Dreamtime' the period in which Indigenous people believe the world was created. The Dreamtime stories are up to and possibly even older than 50,000 years old, and have been handed down through the generations virtually unchanged for all those years. Aboriginal art has a special language. Aboriginal art is a major part of the unwritten knowledge about being an Aboriginal person. This means it may have many different meanings. Australian Aboriginal people have no written language of their own, so telling stories through artworks is important. Paintings are also used for teaching others. A painting (which is like a visual story) is often used by the aboriginal people to tell others about something. They use special symbols in their artwork to show different things. The stories to by artworks usually tell about behaviours. They tell us what is ok and not ok to do. Lots of paintings focus on good or bad behaviour and their consequences. Painting on Bark is the oldest form of Aboriginal art but many bark paintings have been damaged and wrecked over time. Not only does bark decay and disintegrate, but the ochre paints that are used do not last very long as they need a stable base to make them last longer. Artists need permission to paint a particular story. Where ancient and important stories are concerned, like those that contain secret or sacred information, an artist must have permission to paint the story they want to paint. Traditional Aboriginal artists cannot paint a story that does not belong to their tribe.