Aboriginal Cave Painting

Indigenous Australians drew cave paintings as a religious symbol, and to feel the spirits in their sacred places. The practice of making artworks allowed tribes to pass on knowledge about their country and culture. The earliest forms of Indigenous art were paintings or engravings on boulders and on the walls of rock shelters and caves. There is evidence that Aborigines were painting on rock over 30 000 years ago. Aboriginal Australians drew about daily life, hunting and spirits. Images that are usually found in rock art are hands or arms, animal tracks, boomerangs, spear throwers, and other tools such as stone axes. There are three main styles of Aboriginal rock art. The first is the style of engraved geometric figures. It consists of engraved
circles, arcs, animal tracks and dots. The second style includes painted or engraved figures of humans and animals. The third style consist of detailed paintings such as x-ray art. Aboriginal Australians did not only paint on rock. They painted white ochre on their bodies after killing an animal to represent the spirits and Creator Ancestors. Art has always been an important part of Aboriginal life, connecting past and present, the people and the land. Ochre was the most common painting material used traditionally by Aboriginal people. It is an iron-rich earth that comes in a variety of colours such as yellow, brown, orange, white, and red. To be made into paint, the ochre was heated up, ground, prepared, and then mixed with a binder. This binder could be made out of tree resin, egg yolk, bush honey, or kangaroo blood. Ochre is not affected by direct sunlight, and is extremely durable in all conditions. There were several different ways to paint with ochre. Aboriginal people could blow the paint from their mouths in a fine spray to produce silhouettes, brush the paint onto rocks using a stick, or apply the paint onto a surface using fingers or hands.