Aboriginal

Art

A Journey Down
Under

Aims of todays Lesson

Today we are going to
discover a little bit about Australia and the
Aboriginal People
learn about aboriginal culture and art
study the symbols used in aboriginal art
and put them into our sketchbooks to use
at a later date to create our own artwork
And we will look at colour and understand
how different colours may have different
meanings

Introduction to Australia
The country's largest & best known
city is Sydney but the capital is
Canberra.
The Gold coast is a seemingly
endless stretch of beaches.
Australia is the size of western
Europe.
When you leave the cities, Australia
is open and almost empty, you can
go days without seeing a person.
In the centre of the country is the
great Ayers Rock (Uluru), it rises
1400 feet from the desert plane &
is 5.5 miles round its perimeter.
The rock is considered sacred and
spiritually significant to the
Aboriginal people (red sandstone).

Famous images of Australia

Sydney Opera
House

Ayers Rock

Bush Fires

Australian Flag
Outback
Bondi Beach

Animals

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL FLAG

FORM & SYMBOLISM
The Aboriginal flag is divided
horizontally into halves. The top half is
black and the lower half red. There is a
yellow disk in the centre of the flag.
The meaning of the three colours in the
flag, are
Black - represents the Aboriginal people
of Australia.
Red - represents the red earth, the red
ochre used in ceremonies and Aboriginal
peoples spiritual relation to the land.
Yellow disk - represents the Sun, the
giver of life and protector.

Sources say that the Aboriginal culture

settled in Australia around 50,000 years
ago. After settling in Australia they told
stories about visions and rituals by painting
with pigment found naturally in the outback.
The method they used for painting is
referred to as bark painting. The process
involved cutting bark from trees during the
wet season and placing it in a fire to cure.
When the bark was taken out of the fire it
was flattened with stones or logs. This was
then used as the painting canvas. Finally
they would apply paint or pigment using a
technique called dotting. Brushes, sticks
and fingers were used to create designs
that reflected dreams, rituals and a rich
cultural history. Some researchers say that
most of the paintings had some sort of
mythological undertone.

Aboriginal People
Aboriginal Facts.
Aboriginal people told stories
about their life and history in
their paintings.
They would dot their paintings
using brushes, sticks and fingers.
They tell stories in words and
pictures.
The stories are called Dream
time stories.
Aboriginal art uses Earth colours
(colours of the desert) such as
browns, reds
Symbols are used to tell stories
The canvas is covered in small
dots of paint
The dots make patterns or
symbols
Frogs are respected in Aboriginal
culture because they lead to
water.

Aboriginal Art
Aboriginal Colours
Black
Black stands for the
colour of the Aborigine
people and night.
Yellow
Yellow is the sacred
colour. The colour of the
sun.
Red
Is for the colour of the
land and for blood. We
are all of one blood, from
the land we come and to
it we will all return.
White
White is the spirit colour,
like smoke, wind and
lightning.

Aboriginal Symbols
Meeting

Emu

Man

Witchetty
grubs

Child

Coolamo
n

Campfir
e

Woman

Yunde
e

Kangaro
o

Bushbanna
na

Fire
sticks

Goann
a

Dingo

Aboriginal Symbols

Aboriginal images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj0iJll-Hug&feature=rela
ted
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXjpWUDvO4&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1JQD4jRluE

Aboriginal Artists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8z8rAYLHw&feature=related

Examples of Artwork

Digital Aboriginal Art

By the end of this

Project

We will have a better

understanding of
Aboriginal Art
Have learnt about the
symbols used in Aboriginal
Art
We would have
experimented with paint
and used dot art like the
Aboriginal Artist maybe
using tools like sticks and
pen lids
Will have discovered
Aboriginal Dreamtime
Stories
And we will have all made