Emily Paul

Palcsey

Honors English 10

1 May 2018

The Meaning Behind the Australian People

Aborigines are the native people to Australia, also known as Oceania. They are known to

be the oldest living human population on Earth. Their art and culture are upon one of the most

diverse of all. From experience, Danielle Mate is a rare kind of Aboriginal artist. Unlike most

Aboriginal artists, she paints in relation to her family and where her life has taken her with

vibrant, different techniques. Her art is based off of the oldest style of art, but with a modern and

personal twist. As the oldest living population in human history, the Aboriginal people of

Australia have brought about a new way of looking at life and the world through their art and

culture due to their history and beliefs.

The continent of Australia originated from a supercontinent that broke apart into many

smaller continents. Australia broke off of the original landmass, Pangea. Pangea was then split

up into two masses, Laurasia and Gondwana. India, Africa, South America, and New Guinea

broke off of Gondwana and drifted north. Eventually, Australia broke off of New Guinea and

became the present-day continent. (Macintyre 6) After this separating of land masses, people

began coming into the world. The original Aboriginal people are the first people to roam the

earth. These people came to Australia between 10,000 and 40,000 BC (Marshall 9). The Latin

term “Ab origins” means, “those who were here from the beginning” (Macintyre 5). Many

theories are laid out about how they first came to Australia. The first theory is that they came

from India using rafts and canoes. This was possible because sea levels were low, due to the Ice
 Paul 2

Age, and it allowed for a shorter distance from Asia to Australia. The second theory is that a

bridge of land formed between Asia and Australia because of the extremely low water levels.

The last theory is that the Aboriginal people always lived in Australia and never came from

another land. (Marshall 4-5) Also, the vessel that brought the original Aborigines had to have

been able to withstand monsoons as well as months, weeks, or possibly years at sea. (Strong and

Strong 9-10) The traveling of these people has evidence that supports the idea that the Aboriginal

people traveled to other countries besides their own. According to blood test and the discoveries

of skeletal bones, original Australians are more closely related to Caucasians than Africans as

well as the fact that they were present in the United States of America. (Strong and Strong 6, 21)

These tests and discoveries prove that the original Australians migrated and did not come from

an African descent, but from their own lineage.

The ““Creative period,” “Ancestral times,” “Dreaming,” “Dreamtime,” “Eternal

Dreamtime,” and so forth” (Price-Williams and Gaines 374) all coincide to the same period of

time in Australian history and culture. The Dreamtime has several segments that it refers to,

including the Ancestral period, Ancestral beings as a whole, specific myths or Dreamtime

stories, specific actions of an Ancestral being, and night dreaming, which takes place whilst one

is asleep. (Price-Williams and Gaines 375-376) All of these topics correspond to the Dreamtime

of the Aboriginal people. “The events that occurred during the Dreamtime or the Dreaming…

created the hills and creeks, plants and animals, and imprinted their spirit on the place”

(Macintyre 9). Not only was it a significant time period for the Australians, it continues on into

present day through night dreaming. There are two different types of dreams, ordinary and

specific. Specific dreams are a special type of night dreaming that “enables the dreamer to reach

a place and time called The Dreamtime” (Price-Williams and Gaines 381). Also, specific dreams
 Paul 3

are only told to a community’s elders (Price-Williams and Gaines 379) and do not happen very

often, but when they do take place, these dreams are taken very seriously. The process and

telling of a specific dream is absurdly strict. It is this way so that the people do not lose any

important information that a dream could withhold (Macintyre 10). The frequency and

occurrence of having special dreams concurs with the age of the dreamer and status of the

community or tribe (Price-Williams and Gaines 380-381). Because of the strictness and low

frequency of these dreams, those who experienced specific dreams were not open to discuss the

topic. Aboriginal women artists are not very susceptible to talking about how their dreams

inspire their art, some even deny the action and knowledge of dreaming completely. (Price-

Williams and Gaines 382-384) “Thus, it appears that the dream experience is an art tool that

could be general to many societies and not only that of Australians Aborigines” (Price-Williams

and Gaines 387).

Art originated from Australia; its diversity from other types of art is what reveals it

creativity and uniqueness (Strong and Strong 124). The oldest known and most common type of

art in Australia is rock art (Mulvaney and Kamminga 357). Hundreds of thousands of rock art

designs are still holding up in Australia as “paintings, drawings, and pecked and abraded

‘engravings,’ on open and sheltered rock surfaces” (Mulvaney and Kamminga 31). For example,

the Victoria River District (VRD) “comprises one of the great rock art regions of the world,

exhibiting engraving and succession of two painting styles” (Mulvaney and Kamminga 399).

Those two paintings styles are applying the material, or paint, on the rock surface, or pounding

into the rock to formulate an engraving. The pigment that was used to make paint was either

made out of a dry substance, from plants and minerals, and mixed with water to form paint, or a

rock-like crayon was used for drawings. The paint was sometimes heated to change the color or
 Paul 4

hue. There were a range of colors that included reds, oranges, browns, yellows, whites and

sometimes blacks if aged long enough. Red, yellow, and brown pigments would usually be made

from iron-rich minerals. Also, paint brushes included twigs, feathers, or finger-painting.

(Mulvaney and Kamminga 362) Australian rock and dot artwork was not just meant as a hobby

or as something appealing to the eye, it was meant to be used to tell stories and sometimes

communicate. These stories were inspired by night dreaming, sacred places, and the landscape

and nature of the Australian land. Each motif had a different meaning. For example, “A large

circle with smaller circles inside. This pattern would usually represent a campsite or house. A

squiggly wave was used to represent water” (Marshall 19). The main canvas used for Australian

artwork was a rock surface and sometimes bark, but there are many different styles of painting

performed additionally. Such as, “X-ray” painting was a form of art where artists would paint the

skeleton of a creature (Marshall 18). “Earthworks, wood carvings, and bark paintings told the

stories of the spiritual and natural worlds” (Marshall 18). The Australian Aboriginal art is

different from any type of art in the world because it has deep and well-thought meanings behind

every single sketch. Those implications are the essence to the Aboriginal people. “These

drawings reveal the history, laws, and beliefs of the Aboriginal Australian society” (Marshall

19).

Culture and traditions of the Australian Aborigines are very carefree, yet compelling. It

focuses on religion, one that “encompasses all aspects of life” (Macintyre 14). Aboriginal

Australians live to spread their tradition and live as their ancestors did (Marshall 16). The heart

of their culture begins with ceremonies constructed with music and dance. Most music, stories,

rituals, and art are based off of the beauty of the land and landscape (Macintyre 9). During the

night celebrations, men would paint their bodies and wear emu feathers while telling stories
 Paul 5

through singing and dancing (Marshall 18). Headgears, some shaped like a cone with feathers,

were made and used in ceremonies. Every headgear style was different between tribes and

symbolized beliefs and traditions. (Marshall 21) Rituals were very important, but there are many

other aspects of the Aborigines culture. Children’s activities included climbing trees, jumping,

racing, ball games, playing with dolls made out of twigs and clay, and skipping. Some contests

performed were animal tracking, boomerang throwing, swimming, tree climbing, and wrestling.

Crafts comprised of the making of body decorations like headbands, bracelets, necklaces, and

pendants. These crafts were made using teeth, bones, feathers, shells, and woven fibers.

(Marshall 23) In addition, the people were very comfortable about their bodies and their

nakedness, they were not ashamed. They did not wear clothes in the summer, they used animal

skins as blankets, and when hunting, they would cover themselves with ashes, mud, branches,

and paint to mask their scent and camouflage themselves. (Marshall 21) To stay warm during the

harsher temperatures, the people used oil to contain the heat and withstand the cold (Strong and

Strong 117). Furthermore, scars were made to decorate their bodies for the purpose of

scarification, communication, and recognition (Marshall 21). The rising in Aboriginal culture

brings together both traditional and new forms of culture that brought in an audience of music,

cinema, theatre, dance, art and literature (Macintyre 289).

The Aboriginal people began a society and the age of art. Its culture and history brought

up what is known as the Aborigine society. The Australian culture and art is the foundation of all

Australian life. Because of their diversity from other societies, their art and culture opened the

eyes of other societies and still does so today just how Danielle Mate does in her artwork. She

has opened the eyes to whomever encountered her amazing works of art. The art and culture of

Australia is extremely diverse and anyone who has the chance to experience it would agree.
 Paul 6

Works Cited

Macintyre, Stuart. A Concise History of Australia. Third Edition, Cambridge University Press,

2009.

Marshall, Diana. “Aboriginal Australians.” Indigenous Peoples, Weigl Publishers Inc., 2004,

New York, New York.

Mulvaney, John, and Johan Kamminga. Prehistory of Australia. Smithsonian Institution Press,

1999, New South Wales, Australia.

Price-Williams, Douglass, and Rosslyn Gaines. “The Dreamtime and Dreams of Northern

Australian Aboriginal Artists.” Ethos, vol. 22, no. 3, Sep. 1994, pp. 373-388., Wiley.

Strong, Steven, and Evan Strong. Out of Australia: Aborigines, the Dreamtime, and the Dawn of

the Human Race. Hampton Roads Publishing Company Inc., 2017, Charlottesville,

Virginia.