Aboriginal Art Symbols
From the beginning of time, the
Yorta Yorta have told Dreamtime stories to each generation in order to
keep the stories in our culture alive and to educate our people about
our place on earth. Stories are told about the stars, planets, the land,
animals, bush tucker, hunting and ancestors (Totemic Spirits), through
paintings, carvings, dance and song. Aboriginal Art symbols are used on
all forms of Aboriginal Art to help tell the stories of their history
and culture.
Map of Aboriginal Art Symbols (Koori
People / Yorta Yorta - Victoria Australia)
To
recognize most elements in Central Australian paintings the viewer must know
the site and the Dreaming depicted in the painting. They always refer to sites
where mythical activity is believed to have occurred and where ancestral power
still remains.
Artists employ a basic set of symbols, such as dots, concentric circles and
curved and straight lines. All have multiple meanings depending upon their
context. Despite this there are some standard design elements.
Concentric circles usually represent campsites or rock holes. Straight lines
between circles illustrate the routes travelled between camps or places. Wavy
lines across a painting usually is water or rain. A small "U" shaped figure
represents people sitting and straight lines next to them are weapons or
domestic implements. (see Iconography page for more detail)
Tracks, whether human or animal, are often depicted in
plain view as they appear on the ground. Lizards and snakes are frequently shown
as one would see them from above. Significant plant species are generally shown
in a stylised but figurative manner and the dotted primary motifs and
backgrounds have become the hallmark of the acrylic movement.
All stories and information provided about the icons are public, meaning that
all can read and understand these elements of the Aboriginal culture. Many of
the icons also relate to sacred ceremonies, but no reference is made to this.
Janet Long Nakamarra one of our talented
gallery artist's seen below painted all the iconography symbols and supplied us
with all the details seen in this feature.
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Aboriginal Art - Symbols
01
innedi tree (small red seeds)
02 witchety grub
03 2 men (each symbol represents 1 man)
04 foot prints
05 rainbow-cloud or sand hill
06 women cooking
07 women sitting with coolamon & digging stick
08 boomerang
09 bush tomato-wild plum
10 honey ants
11 women
12 stone axe
13 emu tracks
14 emu mother earth
15 dreaming trails
16 coolamon
17 wild apples
18 feeding kangaroo tracks
19 child
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20
coolamon with carrying handle
21 camp site-stone well-rock hole-breast-fire-hole or
fruit
22 water-rainbow-snake-lightning-cliff-honey store
23 man
24 men sitting with boomerangs & spear
25 spinifex
26 spear thrower
27 dingo tracks
28 woman & man or 2 persons back to back
29 killer boomerang
30 woomera
31 spirit ancestor
32 tribes
33 yam
34 lizard tracks
35 2 men sitting by a water hole
36 water hole
37 returning boomerang
38 4 bladed boomerang used to keep ducks & birds down
over water to run them into nets set across water
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39
community
40 dreaming track with emus. earth mother energy rising
41 bush onion
42 personsitting
43 possum tracks
44 underground water running
44 water hole & dry creek bed connecting to next water
hole
45 ducks flying around water hole
46 music ( clap ) sticks
47 goaanna tracks. (goannas are snake bite immune)
48 star
49 bush banana
50 sand goanna
51 traveling sign with circles as resting place
52 rain
53 moving kangaroo tracks
54 4 women sitting with digging sticks
55 clouds-boomerangs-windbreaks
56 sun father destiny
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Quellenangaben:
http://www.spiritofyarramunua.com
http://www.jintaart.com.au
http://www.didgeridoos.net.au
This site is © Copyright Peter Hofmann 2008, All Rights Reserved.
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