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Published On: Aug 17, 2007 05:04 PM
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History of the Western Desert Art Movement
In 1971, a young school teacher named Geoff
Bardon arrived at a remote Government settlement north-west of Alice Springs,
called Papunya. Papunya was established to enable government agencies to provide
essential services to various language groups of Aboriginal people, increasingly
dispossessed by the incursion of white invasion, and struggling to maintain the
hunter-gatherer way of life they had pursued for some 50,000 years.
Geoff Bardon at Papunya, 1971 Listen to
my 1990
interview with Geoff Bardon.
Completely lacking in any understanding of
Aboriginal culture, their relationship to their land, and the complex rules for
living and relating to each other, the Government built rows of tin huts for the
people to live in, mess halls, workshops, and a school. Language groups which
would rarely associate with each other except on ceremonial occasions, were
thrown together. 'Avoidance' relationships and traditional family groupings were
placed under extreme pressures.Out of
this unhappy beginning, Geoffrey Bardon helped to begin a movement in artistic
expression which is today very much the face of Australia to visitors and
collectors from around the world. Bardon's stay was relatively short, in no
small measure because of the opposition he encountered from those who lacked his
caring and inquisitive nature, but his legacy is enduring, and the Papunya Tula
Artists organization he established flourishes to this day. Importantly, and to
some extent because of the 'evidence' of the art proving relationship to the
land, the Aboriginal people are increasingly moving back onto their traditional
country, and establishing 'out-stations', more in keeping with the family
groupings of the past.An artist and an
art teacher, Bardon encouraged his pupils to draw on their own culture for
artistic expression, rather than imitating the 'white-fella' in style and
content. As the children began to use symbols, tracks and circles to portray the
stories of the creation and in particular their own ceremonial attachment to
particular regions, he became increasingly excited. He encouraged the children
to paint a mural on the school building, but this was too large a scale for
them. It did however, attract the attention of the older men, who were intrigued
by this strange white man who showed an interest in their ways. Delighted by the
results of the mural painting, and fascinated by the accompanying stories which
explained it, Bardon began supplying the men with acrylic paints and canvas
boards. From this inauspicious beginning, the art of the western desert emerged
to educate the wider society about Aboriginal culture and lifestyle, in a manner
which far surpassed previous efforts to bridge cultural chasms formed during the
preceding 200 - odd years.The western
desert art, encompassing a wide area of central Australia, is an extension of
ceremonial expression, with ancient symbols representing the Tjukurpa, or
Dreaming; the time of creation when ancestral beings rose from the featureless
earth, and wandered across its surface. The adventures of these ancestors, who
displayed all the traits of human frailty and heroism as they fought, hunted and
made love, not only established the Law, under which all of life was structured,
but physically shaped the landscape. Although without the written word to pass
on these laws, the Aboriginal people had their songs, ceremonies and oral
traditions. They also had the land itself, with every feature, from the loftiest
mountains to the tiny honey-ants, as evidence of the ancestor's travels and as
'tablets of stone' to ensure correct
living.These creation stories were
executed as rock art, with ochres, clays and charcoal. The same materials were
used to decorate the body during ceremonies, or to adorn weapons, shields, and
sacred objects. The stories were also
depicted during elaborate ceremonies, including initiations, as huge 'ground
paintings' , were created using the same colouring ingredients, mixed with
feathers, tufts of grass, and sand. The elaborate configurations, carefully
prepared over many days, were used during song and ritual to pass on knowledge
of the Dreaming, and would be effaced by the dancing, and eventually, the forces
of nature. It was this art, omnipresent for the Aboriginal people throughout
their lives, which was first put into a portable form by the far-seeing Geoff
Bardon, and which has given the artistic expression of Australia its unique
face.'TJukurpa' translates as 'dreams'
in the Pitjantjatjara language groups, but while it is said that much sacred
knowledge is passed on during dreams, there are many other language groups which
use a word which does not translate directly as 'dreaming', but still refers to
the creation period. Although the artistic depiction of this period is expressed
differently in other regions, the cross-hatching and the x-ray depictions of
fish, birds and animals of the northern coastal areas for example, the Dreaming
binds each person to particular parts of the land, and to particular plants and
animals.In the desert regions, the place
where a person is conceived or probably more correctly, where the woman realises
she is pregnant, determines that person's totem. A person conceived in a region
created by the kangaroo ancestor for example, will be related to the kangaroo in
spirit and in ceremonial responsibilities. There are other ways in which people
relate to the land. The 'skin grouping' of the tribe in some regions, also
passes on direct responsibilities via the father/son line. A Jabaldjardi man has
a Jungarai son, who has a Jabaldjardi son and so on. Thus Ngarlu, Old Cassidy's
country, is referred to as Jabaldjardi/Jungarai
country.There are eight 'skin'
groupings, Jabaldjardi/Jungarai, Jabanardi/Jabanunga, Jambajimba/Jungala,
Jabarula/Jackamara. Every inch of country is covered by one of these father/son
lines. These skin groupings also relate to women, but with an N depicting women
as against a J for men. A Jabaldjardi man has a Nabaldjardi sister for
example.Also crucial are correct
relationships. If the Jungarai man does not marry a Nungala woman (a Jungala's
brother) their offspring will not be of the Jabaldjardi (male) or Nabaldjardi
(female) skin, and the complex ceremonial webs will
disintegrate.The physical sites of the
landscape depict the journeys of the ancestors during the Tjukurpa. These
stories are usually told in song, in which every detail of the the part
/animal/human/plant creature's journeys are repeated. It is not surprising that
these 'songlines' can last for days. These songs are so evocative, that people
could find their way across country hundreds of kilometres away, which they had
never seen, but which they knew about because it was linked to their country and
depicted in the songs. It is these epic journeys, sites and spiritual symbolism
which is encompassed in the magnificent paintings which have emerged from the
desert. The art is the very soul of this ancient
continent.The last of a group of the
Pintibi tribe who had never seen a white man emerged from the western desert in
1984.
Posted: Thu - September 21, 2006 at 04:22 PM
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