Aboriginal Art

A detailed Summary of Aboriginal Art


"The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming, is crucial to the understanding of Aboriginal art. Art is a means to the Dreaming, a way of making contact with this spiritual dimension, and yet in turn it is the product of the Dreaming ." Howard Morphy opens with these words to his chapter called Foundation: Art, Religion and the Dreaming, in his book, Aboriginal Art. His words not only carry an extreme amount of truth and legitimacy they also signify something that is sacred to the fascinating community, we call the Aborigines.

Before analyzing the art created by these people, background must be introduced to understand more clearly the meanings and influences behind their creations. Religion and the Aboriginal concept called Dreamtime are two main influential factors behind the art that is constituted by the Aborigines. Dreamtime, (or wangarr, which is the Yolngu word for Dreamtime,) like most religious concepts, is something that can't be translated by a short phrase. It involves much, much more, including exploring Aboriginal ideas about the nature of the world. It is a very complex concept and sometimes hard to interpret for people not living within this community.


Not only did the ancestral beings provide the landscape of their homeland; they instituted many of the rules and procedures by which humans in this as area still live by today. The mythological beings of the Dreamtime also created the human beings who were to succeed them on the earth.

As the art of the Yolngu has moved through time, the gap it has filled has changed. It is quite unfeasible to analyze the art of the Yolngu without taking account the recent desirability of this ancient art form in the European marketplace. The art of the Yolngu now exists as two realms and though it may be framed differently from the viewpoints of the Yolngu and the European Australians, members of both societies live in the same "art world".

ng within the Yolngu tribe, who inhabit the eastern part of Arnham land, have their own concept of Dreamtime. They feel the word or connotation; 'Dream' is quite inappropriate. They believe wangarr goes farther than just a dream, they believe it is part of their reality.

Morphy sums up the true reality that Dreamtime represents to the people of the Yolngu tribe in the quote below:

This concept of Dreamtime, or wangarr, is the basis behind the aboriginal religion. These powerful processes of producing new lives from

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Approximate Word count = 850
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts

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