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Introduction • They say we have been here for 40 000 years, but it is much longer - We have been here since time began We have come directly out of the Dreamtime of our creative ancestors - We have kept the earth as it was on the first day.Our culture is focused on recording the origins of life. We refer to forces and powers that created the world as creative ancestors. Our beautiful world has been created only in accordance with the power, wisdom and intentions of our ancestral beings. • Poem from Aboriginal art and culture website. • Indigenous Australians are recognized by scientists to have arrived between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago, but Aboriginal history says that “we have been here since time began.”
Basic information • The groups of indigenous people were of many and overall it was believed that there was over 200 different languages spoken. Today all but 20 of them are in danger. • The combination of disease, loss of land and direct violence reduced the Aboriginal population by an estimated 90% between 1788 and 1900. Small pox, being the worst. • Basically moved out, like the United States did to the American Indians.
What they believed • People were divided up by tribes and believed they were all related by their creator. • Would meet together within tribes for trading, rituals and marriages. • They were hunter/gatherers. • Women were primarily the gatherers of vegetables, roots, herbs, fruits and nuts, eggs and honey, and small land animals such as Snakes, Goannas. Men were the hunters of large land animals and birds and also co-operated to organize large-scale hunting drives to catch Emu's and Kangaroos.
Aboriginal art • Also called Indigenous Australian art • It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sand painting. • Traditional Aboriginal art almost always has a mythological undertone relating to the Dreamtime of Australian Aborigines. Many modern purists will say if it does not contain the spirituality of Aborigines, it is not true Aboriginal art. • WentenRubuntja, an Aboriginal landscape artist says it's hard to find any art that is devoid of spiritual meaning;
Early aboriginal art • Early aboriginal art, featuring a turtle, a dingo and a kangaroo. Painting inside a cave. • Early paintings were done using organic colors, or paint made of objects from the environment. • Aboriginal rock art has been created for a long period of time, with the oldest examples, in West Australia's Pilbara region, estimated to be up to around 40,000 years old. • Rock art gives us descriptive information about social activities, material culture, economy, environmental change, myth and religion.
Later works • Later works became about dreams and ones inner spirit/story telling.
Modern influences • Many culturally significant sites of Aboriginal rock paintings have been gradually desecrated and destroyed by encroachment of early settlers and modern-day visitors. This includes the destruction of art by clearing and construction work, erosion caused by excessive touching of sites, and graffiti. Many sites now belonging to National Parks have to be strictly monitored by rangers, or closed off to the public permanently
