Original dreaming. Aboriginal people believe that the spirit ancestors watch over us today to ensure the laws are kept and that punishment is inflicted if broken. Photograph of Yuendume women dancing.
There can be few artists who live and work in such isolation as does Jimmy Pike. His isolation is not merely geographical, though our camp on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert is two and a half hours' drive in dry weather from Fitzroy Crossing and inaccessible in dry weather, but also social and artistic.
The Aboriginal National Theatre Trust Limited arose out of Forums of Aboriginal Performing Artists, Playwrights and Technicians attending the first National Black Playwrights Conference held at the Australian National University in Canberra 1987.
Explores a historic trip for six traditional artists from Australia for the exhibition 'Magicians of the Earth'. This global overview was created to "reveal the force of communication" and was true to its title.
Broome, sleepy, dusty, sub-tropical country town on the north west of Western Australia, with a population of only 7,000 has at least 5 working bands including the well known bands Kuckles and Scrap Metal - a myriad of solo performers as well as traditional Aboriginal musicians.
Maningrida Art and Craft is synonymous with the best of contemporary traditional Aboriginal bark painting and sculpture, both major individual works and important collections.
Whatever capital city one may visit these days, there will usually be an art gallery exhibiting works from the latest Aboriginal art movement. The demand for Aboriginal painting has probably doubled every year over the past decade and nowhere is this more evident than in central Australia.
Painting movement at Papunya 1971-75 one of the few positive offshoots of the Government's Assimilation Policy. Senior men began to paint on boards and made murals for the school, initially showing sacred secret material, later self-censored. Paintings use complex patterning and dotting to describe formation of land by Ancestors, natural features and travel.
Two alternative opinions on Australia's most obvious cultural exchange - Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal- was the original conception of Balance 1990 Views, Visions, Influences - a collaborative exhibition originally titled Balance 1988: Two views One Vision. Beginning by artists sitting and talking it became obvious that there were more than just two perspectives.