Indigenous Culture and Community

Indigenous people of Australia have spent thousands of years as the original custodians of this country, managing the landscape through knowledge passed down with thousands of generations. Passing knowledge through ceremony and initiation passages asserts a responsibility to all people in community; to play a vital role in ensuring the balance of life and culture are maintained.

Historical findings and knowledge places Indigenous people as the oldest continuous living culture adapting to environmental extremities, surroundings and living conditions such as two glacial maximums (ice ages). Knowledge as custodial responsibility are vital for sustaining the relationship between, people, community, environment, Dreaming and ultimately life; therefore, increasing their chances of survival.

Each member of the Indigenous community plays a part in sustaining the balance to the complex Indigenous society; conceptually, a part of an imaginary chain that interlinks each individual into a strong community network. A break in this link sees the loss of knowledge and an end of custodianship; a threat in the fragility of Indigenous life. The understanding of taking care of the land, rather than owning it transcends the principles of possession. Indigenous people take only what is needed to provide for its people. Agreements with neighbouring communities saw the harmony between shared boundaries and ceremonies around trade.

 

Aboriginal Art Origins

Aboriginal Art has place in Indigenous communities reflecting an ancestry as old as time immemorial. Ceremony, knowledge, tradition, lore (law), customs  and country are shared as connectedness through oral traditions, song, dance and art.

Painting through sand, caves and body encapsulates intergenerational knowledge imparted onto each custodian. For Indigenous communities this is literacy. The relationship between an elder and their chosen custodian is much like a mentor/mentee connection. Stories are passed down and knowledge is exchange from old to young and young to old. The eternal bonds and the relationship in the transfer of intergenerational knowledge is evident in the artworks and remains within communities until today.

Seasons of change, navigation throughout landscapes, creation stories, initiations are transferred through family groups ensuring guardianship, authenticity and preservation which are intrinsic and offer completeness in managing country.

Aboriginal Art becomes the integral aspect of continuation of Aboriginal knowledge and intergenerational wisdom and can be described as old as yesterday, yet as contemporary as tomorrow.

 

© Dreamtime Art Creative Consultancy 2018

 Please Note: This biography and Intellectual Property including Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property belongs to Dreamtime Art Creative Consultancy, the artists/their estates and is subject to copyright. To protect these copyrights, no reproduction of any or all parts is allowed unless there is prior written permission and approval by Dreamtime Art Creative Consultancy.