Aboriginal Art

The Dreamtime

What is the dream time?

The Dreamtime for Australian’s indigenous people, the Aborigine is when the Ancestral beings moved across the land and created life and significant geographic features

Ayers Rock aka Uluru

is a sacred part of Aborigine culture. It is believed that during Dreamtime as the creators, in their Earthly shapes as animals, created Ayers Rock.

Artwork found on Uluru

Aborigine Art

The symbols in the art work told stories. By using the symbols, the artist could relate myths or daily events.

Aboriginal Animal Totems

Each individual had their own totem, an animal that represented them believed to be a gift from the Creators. In some Aboriginal tribes, you took the animal of your mother, in other tribes you were given one by the medicine man. You could not eat, hunt or kill your totem animal.

This totem linked you with the Earth and the spirit world.

Create your own totem

1) Choose an animal2) Draw is like it is an x-ray of its skeleton

(bones only)3) Add dots4) Use color: browns, blacks, red, white and blue. They only used colors that they found in Nature’s ground, water and sky.5) Add symbols to tell a story about your totem.