Symbols

The more indigenous artworks I look at the more intrigued I get about all the symbols so I did some research and found out some of there meanings.

Different indigenous cultures use different symbols to tell stories and keep their stories for future generations. Singing, dancing, body paint and art drawings all contain different meanings and symbols to continue telling their stories.

Courtesy of What is Aboriginal Art? By Margo Birnberg

In the desert the symbols are simpler and the human figures were not very represented. In the north of Australia the symbols of shapes of humans and animals and their internal organs and x-ray styles.

Ngarlu Tjukurrpa by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
Courtesy of What is Aboriginal art? By Margo Birnberg

This painting tells the story of two people who broke a marriage law. As you can see there are a lot of symbols in this painting such as honey ants nest, footprints, a women, ceremonial belt, a windbreak and a camp site.

The story in this painting is of a man who fell in love with a women from the Napangardi group. She was forbidden to him as a wife but they still became lovers. They were punished for breaking their traditional laws. Ngarlu was a place where the lovers spent the night, it is also a ceremonial place where the elders teach the younger men of the group how to get a wife.

Indigenous artists looked to the land and nature for there inspiration to paint and draw. The lakes and rivers, footprints of animals, the clumps of bushes all are seen to be represented in artworks.  The symbols are a visual language and depending on how they are placed they can tell a story.

                   Birnberg M, 2011, What is Aboriginal art?, J.B.Publishing Pty Ltd, Marleston