Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There are a number of cultural tours owned and managed by local traditional custodi-
ans, such as Magela Cultural and Heritage Tours in Kakadu National Park. Key visual
arts communities across Arnhem Land include Gunbalanya/Oenpelli in western Arnhem
Land, Maningrida, Milingimbi and Ramingining in central Arnhem Land, and Yirrkala in
northeast Arnhem Land. The Tiwi Islands of Bathurst and Melville Islands are also home
to a number of art centres.
There is a plethora of publications on the market but a key resource is
One sun, one
moon: Aboriginal art in Australia
(2007, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales).
Dot Painting
Western Desert painting, also known as 'dot' painting, evolved from 'ground, or sand
paintings', which formed the foundation of ceremonial practices. These were made from
diverse media including pulped plant material, natural pigments and feathers, with the
designs created on the ground and/or body using particles (dots) of this material. Dots, or
stippling effects, were also used in other ways: to outline objects in rock paintings and to
highlight geographical features or vegetation.
While these paintings may look abstract, they depict ancestral Tjukurrpa/Jukurrpa
(Dreaming) stories, and can be read in many ways, including as aerial, topographical and
underground geographical maps, though not always literally. Many paintings feature the
tracks of birds, animals and humans, often identifying key ancestral beings. Subjects may
be depicted by the imprint they leave in the sand - a simple arc depicts a sitting person, a
coolamon
(wooden carrying dish) is shown by an oval shape, a digging stick by a single
line, a campfire by a circle. Men or women are identified by the objects associated with
them - gathering tools and objects for women, hunting tools and objects for men. Con-
centric circles generally depict ancestral sites, or places where ancestors paused in their
journeys.
Although these symbols are widely used, only the artist knows their meaning in each
individual painting and the people closely associated with his or her story - either by
clan or by the Tjukurrpa/Jukurrpa - since different clans apply different interpretations to
each painting's subject matter. In this way sacred stories can be publicly portrayed, as the
deeper meaning is not revealed to uninitiated viewers, but coded by layers of stippled ac-
rylic paint, literally and metaphorically concealing sacred information from uninitiated
people. Many recent works are far more coded in their imagery with few or no figurative
symbols, using colour and application to achieve optical effects denoting the power in-
herent in the stories portrayed.
