‘Sacred Country’ A Study of Indigenous Art

Term: 3 Year: 2006
Indigenous Art 8
Indigenous Art 7
Indigenous Art 6
Indigenous Art 5
Indigenous Art 4
Indigenous Art 3
Indigenous Art 2
Indigenous Art 1
Indigenous Art 17
Indigenous Art 16
Indigenous Art 15
Indigenous Art 14
Indigenous Art 13
Indigenous Art 12
Indigenous Art 11
Indigenous Art 10
Indigenous Art 9

In third term our whole school will be involved in a study of Indigenous Australia.

I wanted to carry out a fairly comprehensive study of the various styles and history of Aboriginal art, both traditional and contemporary, so I started the theme for all levels 1-4 in Term One.

The first half of the theme involved mainly 2D artwork, but we are now beginning to create our 3D work.

All grades were introduced to the dots, circles, concentric shapes and lines of Desert art, sand painting, bark and rock art, ancestor spirits of the Dreaming and sacred places such as Kata Tjuta, Uluru and the Bungle Bungles. A variety of work was created from these lessons and the books by Percy Tresize and Dick Roughsea were great resources.

After a study of the idea of public, social and sacred symbolism and the concept of country in Aboriginal art, the senior grades created their own set of symbols to depict their own stories of the country that is important to them.

Some chose to depict their favourite journey to a holiday destination, some painted the country around home, school and relatives’ houses.

The idea that the knowledge of certain symbols may only be understood by the initiated was emphasized and students understood that the ‘uninitiated’ would not be able to read their artwork at a deeper level unless they chose to inform them.

Our 3D work will include Pukamani poles, a “sacred place’ of rocks made from cardboard forms, paper pulp ‘rock’ carvings, decorated fish made from plastic bottles, cane and tissue seed pods and textile weavings.

Penders Grove Primary School