The best of Australian Aboriginal art is much sought after internationally.
Indigenous art from the Central Desert, the Kimberleys, Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait regions is well known, but the art from Far North Queensland is only recently finding its place on the world stage.
Of particular interest is the work from the “Lockhart River Gang” a group of young, energetic painters. Named a “gang” from their origins as a “work for the dole” group, these aboriginal artists have received much encouragement, training and public funding.
Well promoted and provided with brilliant exhibition opportunities, the dozen or so young people have developed a well-deserved reputation for excellence.
Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo, Samantha Hobson and Silas Hobson are amongst the best known of the artists, who live in a very isolated area, about eight hundred kilometres north of Cairns.
They mostly paint on canvas with acrylic but are also competent printmakers, producing either screenprints or linoprints at the art centre at Lockhart River. Amongst their North Queensland teachers have been Anne and Ron Edwards and Arone Meeks.
Women tribal elders from the community still produce baskets made from lawyer cane, palm, paper bark, pandanus or grass as well as necklaces from shells and seeds.
Living at Mossman, close to Port Douglas, is the well respected elder, weaver, Wilma Walker. Hers is one of the most traditional types of aboriginal art still being kept alive.
Although Wilma teaches the weaving of beautifully shaped baskets, made from the rare black palm, she regrets that few of the younger generation is interested in such a labour intensive pastime.
Born at Mossman Gorge, Wilma remembers the men of her family making fish traps and bi-cornal baskets from lawyer cane. Carried by a vine strap across the forehead, the baskets were used for carrying yams, fish and fruit. The Deeral community still makes these on occasions but the art seems to have died out in other centres.
In Cairns, Arone Meeks works as a sculptor, painter and printmaker, making commentary on social issues pertaining to aboriginality. Along with other graduates from the Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts course, he is active in Cairns art circles and exhibits regularly.
One such TAFE graduate is Norman Miller (Munganbana) who comes from the mountainous, rainforest region inland from Cairns (his name “mountain water” derives from the many lakes and waterfalls in the green and fertile Tablelands area of his homeland).
Norman is a painter (he won the Sheraton Mirage Open Prize in 2006), who tells ancestral stories in paint, but who also produces charming lino prints of animals of the region – the shy platypus, fresh-water turtles, lizards and pythons which inhabit the fringes of deep volcanic lakes.
A potter/sculptor of great note is Thancoupie. Originally from an area near Weipa, Thancoupie is highly respected as an artist and teacher of her people. Her work is in many prestigious collections.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tropical Glass Art sparkles in Australia!
Glass art in Australia and especially Tropical Glass Art is a relatively recent art form, the result of the introduction of the subject into a number of tertiary courses in the country over the last thirty years or so and influenced by a small number of glass artists from Europe.
In January 2003 my daughters and I travelled to Perth in Western Australia to attend the bi-annual Ausglass conference held there. That conference discusses glass trends in conjunction with members’ exhibitions.
We wanted to find out more about Australian glass in order to promote it in our gallery, Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art, if we thought that it was special enough.
Well, it was fantastic! We were blown away!
The skill and variety of the work really impressed us and subsequently we were able to stock the work of such leading Australian glass artists as Nick Mount, Ola and Marie Hoglund, Marc Grunseit, Meg Caslake, Tim Shaw and Roger Buddle.
Their work was added to beautiful Tropical Glass Art pieces by Queensland artists such as Judith Bohm-Parr, Sean O’Donaghue and Terry Eager.
There’s something about glass art that seems to suit the tropics. Perhaps it is the vibrancy and clarity of the colours… pure colour held in suspension…the emphasis then becoming form…and movement… light captured…
Whether it is blown, cast, fused, slumped, made into weathered or sparkling beads or used more pictorially in leadlighting, glass has a translucency, fragility and almost spiritual quality which has wide appeal.
Of recent times, Ola and Marie Hoglund have established a studio and home in the rainforest north of Port Douglas. They spend part of the year there and the rest of their time in New Zealand. Renowned for their collectible rainforest graal forms, they produce one off pieces reflecting aspects of the tropics.
Judith Bohm-Parrhas branched out to include glass jewellery in her repertoire…beautiful hand-made glass beads meld with jewels of dichroic glass…irresistible.
Enthralled by Judy's recent exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery, a friend was delighted to later purchase a piece that the artist herself had been wearing!
The best of our Tropical North Queensland artists produce "one off" original Tropical Glass Art pieces, from wearable art to contemplative poems of light and form, all of extremely high quality.
In January 2003 my daughters and I travelled to Perth in Western Australia to attend the bi-annual Ausglass conference held there. That conference discusses glass trends in conjunction with members’ exhibitions.
We wanted to find out more about Australian glass in order to promote it in our gallery, Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art, if we thought that it was special enough.
Well, it was fantastic! We were blown away!
The skill and variety of the work really impressed us and subsequently we were able to stock the work of such leading Australian glass artists as Nick Mount, Ola and Marie Hoglund, Marc Grunseit, Meg Caslake, Tim Shaw and Roger Buddle.
Their work was added to beautiful Tropical Glass Art pieces by Queensland artists such as Judith Bohm-Parr, Sean O’Donaghue and Terry Eager.
There’s something about glass art that seems to suit the tropics. Perhaps it is the vibrancy and clarity of the colours… pure colour held in suspension…the emphasis then becoming form…and movement… light captured…
Whether it is blown, cast, fused, slumped, made into weathered or sparkling beads or used more pictorially in leadlighting, glass has a translucency, fragility and almost spiritual quality which has wide appeal.
Of recent times, Ola and Marie Hoglund have established a studio and home in the rainforest north of Port Douglas. They spend part of the year there and the rest of their time in New Zealand. Renowned for their collectible rainforest graal forms, they produce one off pieces reflecting aspects of the tropics.
Judith Bohm-Parrhas branched out to include glass jewellery in her repertoire…beautiful hand-made glass beads meld with jewels of dichroic glass…irresistible.
Enthralled by Judy's recent exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery, a friend was delighted to later purchase a piece that the artist herself had been wearing!
The best of our Tropical North Queensland artists produce "one off" original Tropical Glass Art pieces, from wearable art to contemplative poems of light and form, all of extremely high quality.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Tourism, geology etc.
Tourism
Helped by faster and cheaper long-haul flights, and the growth of the Japanese market, tourism has grown very rapidly since 1970. It is now one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, accounting for some 500,000 jobs, or 6 per cent of the workforce, in the early 1990s. Foreign exchange earnings were worth more than US$5 billion a year, equivalent to about 10 per cent of earnings on the current account of the balance of payments.
There has been a strong growth in domestic tourism during this period, which has tapped the expanding range of attractions in each state and territory—theme and amusement parks, zoos, art galleries and museums, certain mines and factories, national parks, historic sites, and wineries. Foreign visitors show broadly similar interests, but most come on standardized packages which focus on a few key attractions, notably Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park, and the beach resorts in the Brisbane, Cairns, and Sydney regions.
Energy
Electricity supply is the responsibility of the state governments. In the early 1990s about 89 per cent of electricity was generated in thermal facilities, the great majority of which burned bituminous coal or lignite. The country also had several hydroelectric plants, notably the major Snowy Mountains Scheme (primarily serving Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney) and a number of smaller facilities in Tasmania. In the early 1990s Australia’s aggregate installed electric-generating capacity was about 33.8 million kW, and its annual production of electricity totalled almost 160 billion kWh. Australia is almost self-sufficient in oil requirements; about 4 per cent of annual consumption was imported in the early 1990s.
Geology
Australia was originally part of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland, which had earlier formed part of the supercontinent of Pangaea. Much of it is geologically ancient; the oldest known rock formations have been dated at between 3 and 4.3 billion years old. The great plateau of the Western Australian Shield is underlaid by a vast, stable shield of Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks, ranging in age from 570 million to 3.7 billion years. These form the core of the ancestral continent, which, with Antarctica, split off from Gondwanaland during the Jurassic era, less than 200 million years ago, and began to drift eastwards and northwards (see Plate Tectonics; Continent). Australia emerged as a separate continent about 100 million years ago, when Antarctica broke away and drifted southward. Australia is still moving, northwards, away from Antarctica and is in the process of merging with Asia. Its life as a separate continent will be relatively short, in geological time.
The thick sedimentary rocks of the Great Dividing Range were deposited in a great north-south trending geosyncline during an interval that spanned most of the Palaeozoic Era, ending some 245 million years ago. Compressive forces buckled these rocks at least twice during the era, forming mountain ranges and chains of volcanoes.
Helped by faster and cheaper long-haul flights, and the growth of the Japanese market, tourism has grown very rapidly since 1970. It is now one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, accounting for some 500,000 jobs, or 6 per cent of the workforce, in the early 1990s. Foreign exchange earnings were worth more than US$5 billion a year, equivalent to about 10 per cent of earnings on the current account of the balance of payments.
There has been a strong growth in domestic tourism during this period, which has tapped the expanding range of attractions in each state and territory—theme and amusement parks, zoos, art galleries and museums, certain mines and factories, national parks, historic sites, and wineries. Foreign visitors show broadly similar interests, but most come on standardized packages which focus on a few key attractions, notably Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park, and the beach resorts in the Brisbane, Cairns, and Sydney regions.
Energy
Electricity supply is the responsibility of the state governments. In the early 1990s about 89 per cent of electricity was generated in thermal facilities, the great majority of which burned bituminous coal or lignite. The country also had several hydroelectric plants, notably the major Snowy Mountains Scheme (primarily serving Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney) and a number of smaller facilities in Tasmania. In the early 1990s Australia’s aggregate installed electric-generating capacity was about 33.8 million kW, and its annual production of electricity totalled almost 160 billion kWh. Australia is almost self-sufficient in oil requirements; about 4 per cent of annual consumption was imported in the early 1990s.
Geology
Australia was originally part of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland, which had earlier formed part of the supercontinent of Pangaea. Much of it is geologically ancient; the oldest known rock formations have been dated at between 3 and 4.3 billion years old. The great plateau of the Western Australian Shield is underlaid by a vast, stable shield of Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks, ranging in age from 570 million to 3.7 billion years. These form the core of the ancestral continent, which, with Antarctica, split off from Gondwanaland during the Jurassic era, less than 200 million years ago, and began to drift eastwards and northwards (see Plate Tectonics; Continent). Australia emerged as a separate continent about 100 million years ago, when Antarctica broke away and drifted southward. Australia is still moving, northwards, away from Antarctica and is in the process of merging with Asia. Its life as a separate continent will be relatively short, in geological time.
The thick sedimentary rocks of the Great Dividing Range were deposited in a great north-south trending geosyncline during an interval that spanned most of the Palaeozoic Era, ending some 245 million years ago. Compressive forces buckled these rocks at least twice during the era, forming mountain ranges and chains of volcanoes.
Australian culture
Culture
Initially the dominant way of life in Australia substantially reflected the heritage of the British settlers. Customs were modified as the settlers adapted to the new country and its exceptionally fine climate. A culture evolved that, although based on British traditions, is peculiar to Australia. Since the 1960s, the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from continental Europe and Asia has led to the development of a more multicultural society in which the Aborigines, marginalized since the arrival of Europeans, have also begun to play a larger part.
Australia produced noted writers and painters from the earliest days, and Nobel Laureates like the author Patrick White. However, a much wider cross-section of society now participates in the arts, thanks to government subsidies and the provision of greatly improved facilities. State capitals and provincial towns alike have built or expanded art galleries and performing arts centres. The architecturally stunning Sydney Opera House is the best known of the modern venues. The biennial Adelaide Festival is a renowned focus for the performing arts, bringing together the best artistes and companies in the world, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Kirov Ballet. Opera, ballet and dance companies, orchestras, artists, playwrights, and writers are supported by the Australia Council. The federally funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation is also a notable patron of the arts. Australia has many other media companies as well as a wide range of newspapers and magazines that contribute to local culture (although some are now foreign owned) and a flourishing film industry.
Initially the dominant way of life in Australia substantially reflected the heritage of the British settlers. Customs were modified as the settlers adapted to the new country and its exceptionally fine climate. A culture evolved that, although based on British traditions, is peculiar to Australia. Since the 1960s, the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from continental Europe and Asia has led to the development of a more multicultural society in which the Aborigines, marginalized since the arrival of Europeans, have also begun to play a larger part.
Australia produced noted writers and painters from the earliest days, and Nobel Laureates like the author Patrick White. However, a much wider cross-section of society now participates in the arts, thanks to government subsidies and the provision of greatly improved facilities. State capitals and provincial towns alike have built or expanded art galleries and performing arts centres. The architecturally stunning Sydney Opera House is the best known of the modern venues. The biennial Adelaide Festival is a renowned focus for the performing arts, bringing together the best artistes and companies in the world, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Kirov Ballet. Opera, ballet and dance companies, orchestras, artists, playwrights, and writers are supported by the Australia Council. The federally funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation is also a notable patron of the arts. Australia has many other media companies as well as a wide range of newspapers and magazines that contribute to local culture (although some are now foreign owned) and a flourishing film industry.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
RELIGION / CEREMONY
The Dreaming, the Dreamtime has become a handy phrase used to describe what is in fact a sophisticated and interconnected mosaic of knowledge, beliefs and practises concerning the creativity of Ancestral Beings, and the continuity and values of Aboriginal life.
The vibrant ceremonial and religious life of Northern Territory people generated a spectacular array of art forms, including body painting and personal ornamentation, ground sculpture, bark painting, wood carving, and rock painting and engraving. Artistic creativity and innovation were informed by religious belief. Designs and motifs embodied multiple sets of meanings about group ownership of lands and relationships to particular Ancestral Beings. These expressions along with the rich oral traditions, elaborate song and dance styles and personal performance of them, were all regarded as manifestations of the original ancestral creative power. Each generation accepted responsibility for passing on the economic, social and religious knowledge, beliefs and actions that ensured the reproduction of Aboriginal societies and cultures.
Before the dawn of the present age was "the Dreaming", or the Alchera of the Aranda, a time when the ancestors of the Aborigenes wandered over a featureless land. These ancestors were unlike people of today ; they possessed special powers and were so intimately associated with certain animals and plants that an ancestor of the kangaroo totem "many sometimes be spoken of either as a man-kangaroo or as a kangaroo-man. As the ancestors journeyed over the land, their actions gave if form, created the natural features such as rivers and ranges. The land they shaped is today occupied by their descendants.
During their travels the dreamtime ancestors carried one or more sacred tjurunga, each "intimately associated with the idea of a spirit part of some individual". Many tjurunga were buried, each burial site marked by a natural object such as a rock or a tree.
Other places of significance are where ancestors entered the earth, at which time they died, but their spirits remained within the buried tjurunga. These places were also marked by natural objects.
There are thus at the present day, dotted about all over the Arrernte country, a very large number of places associated with these Alcheringa spirits, one group of whom will be Kangaroo, another Emu, another Hakea plant, and so on. When a woman conceives it simply means that one of these spirits has gone inside her, and knowing where she first became aware that she was pregnant, the child, when born, is regarded as the reincarnation of one of the spirit ancestors associated with that spot, and therefore it belongs to that particular totemic group.
The vibrant ceremonial and religious life of Northern Territory people generated a spectacular array of art forms, including body painting and personal ornamentation, ground sculpture, bark painting, wood carving, and rock painting and engraving. Artistic creativity and innovation were informed by religious belief. Designs and motifs embodied multiple sets of meanings about group ownership of lands and relationships to particular Ancestral Beings. These expressions along with the rich oral traditions, elaborate song and dance styles and personal performance of them, were all regarded as manifestations of the original ancestral creative power. Each generation accepted responsibility for passing on the economic, social and religious knowledge, beliefs and actions that ensured the reproduction of Aboriginal societies and cultures.
Before the dawn of the present age was "the Dreaming", or the Alchera of the Aranda, a time when the ancestors of the Aborigenes wandered over a featureless land. These ancestors were unlike people of today ; they possessed special powers and were so intimately associated with certain animals and plants that an ancestor of the kangaroo totem "many sometimes be spoken of either as a man-kangaroo or as a kangaroo-man. As the ancestors journeyed over the land, their actions gave if form, created the natural features such as rivers and ranges. The land they shaped is today occupied by their descendants.
During their travels the dreamtime ancestors carried one or more sacred tjurunga, each "intimately associated with the idea of a spirit part of some individual". Many tjurunga were buried, each burial site marked by a natural object such as a rock or a tree.
Other places of significance are where ancestors entered the earth, at which time they died, but their spirits remained within the buried tjurunga. These places were also marked by natural objects.
There are thus at the present day, dotted about all over the Arrernte country, a very large number of places associated with these Alcheringa spirits, one group of whom will be Kangaroo, another Emu, another Hakea plant, and so on. When a woman conceives it simply means that one of these spirits has gone inside her, and knowing where she first became aware that she was pregnant, the child, when born, is regarded as the reincarnation of one of the spirit ancestors associated with that spot, and therefore it belongs to that particular totemic group.
ARRERNTE LANGUAGE
The Arrernte region is large and traditionally, there are many different family areas within it, each with their own dialect. Language is strongly connected with family membership and the relationships to land and Dreamings that go with this. Identifying as a speaker of a particular language or dialect can be very important for Arrernte people in a way that goes beyond just the actual language. It is a way of expressing membership in a particular family, or association to particular country. The differences between dialects, even when they are only small differences, are often very significant to speakers.
The coming together of speakers of different dialects of Arrernte in Alice Springs, in government and mission settlements, and on cattle stations, has also resulted in some confusion about the traditional dialect distinctions within the area. There have been quite large changes in some dialects form older generations to younger, and there are many words that only the oldest speakers now know. Arrernte people still know the different family areas, but it is sometimes less clear which ones a particular word belongs in. Rather than trying to identify exactly which family dialect a word belongs to in this dictionary, we identify the part of the Eastern and Central Arrernte region where is from using the following map.
From time immemorial - that is, as far back as traditions go - the boundaries of the tribes have been where they are now fixed. Within them their ancestors roamed about, hunting and performing their ceremonies just as their living descendants do at the present day. There has never apparently been the least attempt made by one tribe to encroach upon the territory of another.
The coming together of speakers of different dialects of Arrernte in Alice Springs, in government and mission settlements, and on cattle stations, has also resulted in some confusion about the traditional dialect distinctions within the area. There have been quite large changes in some dialects form older generations to younger, and there are many words that only the oldest speakers now know. Arrernte people still know the different family areas, but it is sometimes less clear which ones a particular word belongs in. Rather than trying to identify exactly which family dialect a word belongs to in this dictionary, we identify the part of the Eastern and Central Arrernte region where is from using the following map.
From time immemorial - that is, as far back as traditions go - the boundaries of the tribes have been where they are now fixed. Within them their ancestors roamed about, hunting and performing their ceremonies just as their living descendants do at the present day. There has never apparently been the least attempt made by one tribe to encroach upon the territory of another.
HUNTING / GATHERING
At contact, the Aboriginal economy was based on a stable, considered management of the environment and an effective organisation of labour. Males and females made different but complementary economic contributions. Women were primarily the gatherers of vegetables, roots, herbs, fruits and nuts, eggs and honey, and small land animals such as Snakes, Goannas. Men were the hunters of large land animals and birds and also co-operated to organise large-scale hunting drives to catch Emu's and Kangaroos. The collection and preparation of this wide variety of bush food required the development of an efficient, multifunctional technology, considerable practical skills, and its seasonal changes. Some plant foods were easy to collect but required complex preparation before they could be eaten.
SHELTER
A combination of nomadic lifestyle and the regions sunny climate meant that there was no need to build substantial dwellings. The shelter was relatively used in permanent camps and was consisting in a frame work of saplings covered with a thatch of material locally available.
SHELTER
A combination of nomadic lifestyle and the regions sunny climate meant that there was no need to build substantial dwellings. The shelter was relatively used in permanent camps and was consisting in a frame work of saplings covered with a thatch of material locally available.
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