Photos from the REAL Australia

Aboriginal Arts and Crafts from Central Australia

Australia's Aboriginal people have a strong material culture that is intricately bound to their ritual life and the methods by which it is produced haven't changed for centuries, although today "modern" materials are also used. In central Australia, everyday craft objects like boomerangs, shields and spears are made the old way and string, woven from human hair is important in ceremonial use.

Aboriginal art is justly famous, both in Australia itself and abroad. An example of the work of a Central Australian painter, Linda Syddick, is shown here as an example of the beauty coming out of a remote Pintubi community, Walungurru (Kintore), 500 km west of Alice Springs. Please note that this may not be reproduced without permission of the artist. Women are active painters in various communities, producing canvases, always with traditional motives; community centres, like Warnayaka Art Centre in Lajamanu, arrange for dealers to buy these paintings to be sold in art galleries. And also when something totally new is done, as in the making of pottery (that was unknown in the "old days") the pots are decorated with traditional motives and paintings of bush foods and animals, as in the work by the women of Hermannsburg.

But, next to items for sale, like Central Australian "dot-paintings" on canvas, there are still items made for home use, like spears, boomerangs and shields made by the men in traditional communities.

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Making hair string	Spinning "wirriji"	Straightening a spear	Heating a spear	Painting a wooden shield
Painting a "kurdiji"	Making a "pikirri"	Shields, "owl dreaming"	Ceremonial shields	Making a boomerang
Finishing a boomerang	Carving a boomerang	Making hairstring	Making a dot painting	Making paintings
Painting a boomerang	Decorative painting	Painting a pot	Hermansburg Potters	Festival display
Pintubi artist	Dancing Emu painting	Devil Devil painting	"Tingari" painting	Abstudy painting
Christian painting	Warnayaka Art Centre	Making a large painting	In Warnayaka Art Centre	Painting nearing completion

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