Unfortunately, it is not tomorrow that we will be able to fly to Australia! So that we do not forget this distant destination, theTourist office of this country imagine new promotional tools. This is how I participated, last week, in a fabulous session of “dot painting”, in other words of dot painting as practiced by the aborigines of Oceania. And this under the guidance of an Aboriginal artist, Joanne Cooley.
Of course, it was not worth a trip “in real life”, but the experience was nonetheless, without forcing the trait, extraordinary. Because it was not only painting, but also a beginning of initiation to the aboriginal conception of the world. This furiously made me want to go there as soon as possible – and when I have the budget – to learn more about the aborigines and their painting. A practice that dates back to the dawn of time since some cave paintings date back to more than 40,000 years before our era and are therefore older than those in the Lascaux cave for example. It would therefore be the oldest art known to date.
A tragic story
A little history first. When, in the 17th century, European crews and explorers began to recognize the coasts of Australia and above all, from the British colonization which began in 1788 with the founding of a prison camp in Sydney, this immense island planted in the middle of Oceania was not empty. It had been populated for at least 50,000 years by several hundred scattered tribes who lived by hunting, gathering and fishing. The Europeans qualified these populations as aborigines, a term used since Cato the old one to qualify the first inhabitants of certain territories. The aborigines, on the other hand, use the term “Anangu” (human) to refer to themselves in relation to non-natives.
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If, in recent decades, the situation has improved, we should not dream. The Anangu are still victims of racism and discrimination and their situation remains very precarious: alcoholism, drugs, delinquency, unemployment, low level of education, average income 40% lower than that of non-aboriginal families, life expectancy 17 years lower. It is not rare to see some of them wandering in large modern cities, strangers to a consumer society far removed from their values.
Incredible landscapes
Australia’s central-eastern desert is a series of incredible landscapes some 550 million years old made up of desert plains, topped by mountain ranges and rocky gorges. Several of the most sacred sites of the Aborigines are found here, including Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
Uluru in the language of the aborigines, Ayers Rock for English speakers, is one of the largest monoliths in the world. Made of reddish orange sandstone that changes color with the sun and turns purple in semi-darkness, it has become one of Australia’s emblems. And it is now classified by Unesco. Planted 348 meters above the dusty plain, it is 9.4 kilometers in circumference.
Its climbing is now prohibited. Not just because it was dangerous. But also because for the local aborigines, Uluru has a special meaning. In their culture, in fact, the land and memories are one. In 1985, the Australian government handed over ownership of Uluru to the Pitjantjatjara aborigines, on condition, however, that a 99-year operating lease be granted to the National Parks and Wildlife Agency and that the mountain is managed in a coordinated manner with this agency. The aboriginal community of Mutitjulu – about 300 people – is settled near the western slope of Uluru.
Maruku Arts
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Last week it was one of his artists, Joanne Cooley that we met, through Teams. She spoke in her own language and the translation was provided in English by a young Australian woman sitting beside her.
Initiated from an early age
Herself the daughter of sculptors, Joanne Cooley was initiated from an early age into Tjukurpa, the law and the way of life that govern these aboriginal tribes. Very young too, she accompanied her parents in the desert to help them collect wood to be engraved. At their side, she learned the different engraving techniques.
Joanne Cooley has been making and selling small sculptures since 2001. It was only recently that she started carving large snakes. In recent years, she has specialized in the manufacture of “walka boards” using a rod heated to white in the fire with which she engraves designs in the wood. She also became the ambassador of Maruku arts, to make known the art of the peoples of the central and western desert to a wider audience through workshops and exhibitions.
A way of seeing the world
During the session in which we participated, Joanne Cooley presented her work of engraving in wood, then traced drawings in the sand, finally approached the techniques of painting by points, the famous dot painting. We Westerners might be tempted to see in the gestures, in the patterns used, a particular aesthetic approach. In reality, it is much more than that. For the Aborigines, art is above all spiritual and allows to activate, to use the creative energy and to make it circulate. As in all their acts, they also express in their paintings their way of seeing the world and their founding myths.
Thus, in Aboriginal painting, figures and drawings are almost always linked to mythology – and to the beings that compose it – called “Dreamtime”, the “Time of Dreams”. Indeed, when an Aboriginal looks at the sky, he sees in the constellatons, the mark left by the ancestors, men and women, creatures half animal, half human, male or female, who live in the time of dreams. The “Dreamtime” corresponds to what we would call Creation in our country. It is around him that the religious life of this people revolves. Indeed, the “Dreamtime” is also a kind of parallel sacred world with which the aborigines can come into contact during particular ceremonies, when they are in sacred places or when they sing, when they dance. or they paint.
The dream of the seven sisters, a founding myth
Logically, the myths and characters of “Dream Time” are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists. Obviously, it is not in a single session that we can truly understand their conception of the world, so different from ours. But at least we touched it when listening to Joanne Cooley talk about her work and insist on one of the most popular mythical cycles, that of the “Dream of the Seven Sisters”.
This long and eventful story evokes the Nalpjarri sisters who, to escape the ogre Nyirru, their father, who wants them for wives, will flee to Uluru. There, using magical practices, they will become stars of the constellation Taurus, which we Westerners call the Pleiades. As for Nyirru, he will become Tjukurra, the morning star, in other words Venus, which shines on the other side of the “night river”, the Milky Way. Indeed, he will never catch up with the seven sisters, reminding humans of the prohibition of incest.
Traditionally, painting has been, with songs in particular, a means of transmitting an ancestral heritage, of perpetuating traditions and of passing on a collective memory. Some paintings were also used as initiation rites. If the styles and techniques differ from one tribe to another, each performance has its own symbolism and tells something specific. However, in the last fifty years, an Aboriginal art movement has been born. Today we find works in museums of course, but also in galleries. For its part, Maruku Arts markets the sculptures and paintings of its artists, in particular through its website in English.
After these explanations, it was time to walk the talk and try our hand at dot painting thanks to the acrylic colors and the brush that had been sent to us. And with the help of a sheet on which were drawn the most commonly used symbols and their meaning. Here is the result ! It makes you want to learn more and go there, not only for another painting workshop but also to share “experiences” (this is the term in vogue) with the aborigines. For more information, consult the site (in English) by Maruku Arts.
Of course, many other discoveries are possible in the breathtaking landscapes of Australia’s “Red Center”. To find out more and prepare for your trip, visit the Australian tourism (there is a French version) and more specifically the pages devoted to Uluru.
Paula boyer
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