Biography of aboriginal artists today

For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal communties have been using ochres (iron clay pigments) as ceremonial body paint and for drawings on bark, rock walls, and on dirt or sand. Aboriginal artwork as seen on canvases, however, only developed as a practice fifty years ago. 

 

In 1971, a schoolteacher named Geoffrey Bardon began working with Aboriginal children in Papunya, near Alice Springs.

He noticed that while Aboriginal men were telling stories, or singing songs, they would often draw symbols in the sand alongside their spoken words. Bardon encouraged his students to paint their stories onto physical canvases and boards, and the modern Aboriginal art movement was born.

 

Aboriginal art differs in character and style, depending from which region the artist is from, and what language they speak.

Artists originially relied on their local land to provide materials and tools. Ochre, soil, and charcoal, for example, were ma