Dreamings, Through Indigenous Art

Dreamings, Through Indigenous Art is an excerpt from the film Dreamings – The Art of Aboriginal Australia (30 mins), produced in 1988.

The art of Aboriginal Australia is celebrated in Dreamings as we journey into the sacred heartland of Australia to see traditional artists at work. The artists talk of their work, its association with the land and its spiritual connection with their people, the animals and plants. The film explores the meanings behind the works, from acrylic dot paintings of the Central Desert to cross-hatched bark paintings and burial poles of northern Australia, as it allows the viewer access to the oldest continuous art tradition in the world.

Dreamings – The Art of Aboriginal Australia is a Film Australia National Interest Program.

Reading standard: Students read and view imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that explore ideas and information relating to challenging topics, themes and issues.

Writing standard: Students produce, in print and electronic forms, texts for a variety of purposes, including speculating, hypothesizing, persuading and reflecting.

Speaking and listening standard: Students critically evaluate the spoken language of others and select, prepare and present spoken texts for specific audiences and purposes. They use a variety of multimodal texts to support individual presentations in which they inform or persuade an audience.

The activities in this learning module are relevant to the Interdisciplinary Learning strand of Level 5 Communications (Listening, viewing and responding standard; Presenting standard) and Thinking Processes (Reasoning, processing and inquiry standard; Creativity standard).

The activities are also relevant to the Physical, Personal and Social Learning strand of Level 5 Interpersonal Development (Building social relationships standard; Working in teams standard) and Personal Learning (The individual learner standard; Managing personal learning standard).

There are several different major Aboriginal art styles, including X-Ray and cross-hatching, and the one seen in this film, the dot style from Central Australia.

Aboriginal art was traditionally created on bodies, in the dirt, on trees or artefacts, and on rocks. In the 1970s school teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged the Papunya Tula people of Central Australia to use acrylic paint on canvas, boards and cloth, which triggered an explosion of traditional and new Indigenous art and an increasing respect for and recognition of it among non-Indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal art works reflect *culture and environment and are often created as a co-operative work.

Dreaming stories tell about how and when the earth, as Aboriginal people know it, was made. Dreaming stories are passed from one generation to the next through songs, dances and art.

*culture – (distinctive) practices and beliefs of a society or group of people

1. 1. Before viewing the video clip discuss the following questions about paintings.
      Why do people do them? What is their purpose? What are painters trying to communicate? What does the viewer need to know to understand a painting?
   2. View the video clip then dicuss and write answers to the following questions.
      What does the video clip show?
      What are the messages of the video clip?
      What is the artist’s aim or purpose in creating the painting?
      What is its meaning to him and to others?
      How does it reflect nature?
      Why is it so important to this artist that his culture is passed on in this way?
2. 1. Sketch and write a brief explanation of what concentric circles represent.
   2. Sketch and write a brief explanation of what the U shape symbol represents.
   3. Write brief notes explaining how Indigenous art uses colour and what these colours mean.
3. Aboriginal paintings are not all the same style. Research to find at least three different styles – including dot style, and X-Ray style.
   1. Prepare a five minute lesson on the differences and the similarities in Aboriginal paintings. Be sure to explain the techniques and symbols and to include some visual examples.
   2. Present your lesson to the class.

Natalie Bateman
Aboriginal Education