Who Are The Aborigines?
Aborigines are Australia's indigenous people. Recent government statistics counted approximately 400,000 Aboriginal people in Australia or about 2% of Australia's population.
Aboriginal spirituality entails a close relationship between people and the land. Aborigines called the beginning of the world the "Dreaming" or the "Dreamtime". In the "Dreamtime", Aboriginal "ancestors" rose from below the earth to form various parts of nature including animal species, bodies of water and the sky.
Aboriginal art is amongst the oldest in the world. Their art expresses the ancient origins of life and the landscapes, stretching back into the infinite past, the Dreamtime. Traditionally, every adult in the desert is an artist. For pigments they use plant down, different coloured ochres and clays. By using a chewed twig they apply the pigments to pieces of bark. The styles of Aboriginal art, which developed over thousands of years, appear simple but are in reality a mature, fully established medium, strengthened by eons of folklore, mythology and customs. To the Aboriginals they embodied the values and beliefs of their world and formed an integral part of social and cultural life. Modern aboriginal artworks, often in acrylic on canvas, may use traditional styles such as the "dot" technique. This evolved from the ground art that sometimes accompanies ceremonial dance and song. The subject matter may be a Dreamtime journey, depicting the wondering of spirit ancestors.