Indigenous cultural practice informs the creation of art
Aboriginal people from the area around Roebourne call themselves Ngarda or the Ngarda-nali, although people also identify with their language groups, referring to themselves as Ngarluma, Yinjibarndi, Gurrama or Banjima. These distinct groups have their own local traditions, so there is a mix of laws and customs found in Roebourne. Many people living in the town today have been displaced from their country since colonization, and forcibly removed from their homelands as a result of the pastoral industry and, more recently, the impact of the mining industry.
It is estimated that Aboriginal people have lived in the region for at least thirty thousand years, practicing their culture, and caring for country. The spiritual and law system, is interconnected with the Land, and the Dreaming, which is called Ngurra Nyujunggamu by Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people, and means, ‘when the world was soft.’ According to local belief systems the creation spirits or Marrga got up from the ground, and, lifted the sky and the world out of the sea. The Marrga and Minkala/Mangunyba (Skygod) named and shaped the country, and all the birds and animals.
The Burrup peninsula, referred to as the story book of the Pilbara, is a place of great spiritual significance, and is thought to be the place where mythological creatures emerged from the sea and began their travels across the land. As Yinjibarndi elder, Yilbie Warrie describes: ‘The Burrup is where the Law came out of the sea and traveled inland. We sing it every year.’
Aboriginal Law is kept strong in Roebourne through the annual Birdarra Law ceremonies that take place near Roebourne. Yartha (shade structures) are built on the law grounds and the families of the initiates, camp for up to five weeks on country during law time. Aboriginal people from all over the Pilbara, and the Kimberley often attend the ceremonies.
Galharra or skin names were part of the laws created during the ancestral Nyujunggamu times. In the community, everyone belongs to one of the following skin names: Banaga, Burungu, Balyirri or Garimarra. An individual’s Galharra governs who they can marry, and their relationship to other people in the community. Since the land and rivers have Galharra they also have a special familial relationship to men and women in Roebourne.
People continue to renew their ties to country, hunting kangaroo, emu, goanna, bush turkey and going fishing. Many women collect the bush tucker and medicine found around Roebourne.
All Aboriginal art, even that which deals with contemporary themes, is based on ancient stories and symbols dating from what is commonly called the Dreamtime – the period during which Indigenous people believe the world was created – though this time has different names and around Roebourne you will hear some people speak of "when the world was soft". These stories date back 40,000 or more years, and have been passed down through generations by oral retelling but also in art.
Aboriginal art is, in fact, a form of written language: there is a vast amount of unwritten law and custom about being an Aboriginal person, and this is transferred during ceremonies at crucial times in the life of a person or a community and also in art. Artists paint together so as to be able to share their stories and when adults paint they will use their works to explain history and culture to their own children and those of other people. Storytelling, dance and song are also important forms of cultural transmission.
Australian Aboriginal people have no written language of their own, so the stories told through art are based on the traditional symbols, as well as depicting the land - either as it is now, or as it once was. In the Pilbara, painting dating back around 40,000 years is visible on rock and it is believed many were used an navigational aids, telling travellers where to find water, sometimes many hundreds of miles from the site of the painting. In much of the work produced by Roebourne Art Group artists today, the Pilbara landscape is a favourite theme.
Indigenous art is best interpreted by the artist or, if they have passed away, someone to whom the story of the piece was told. The interpretation of the work, and the symbols which can be found within it, can change depending upon the audience, so a story may take a simple form when told to children and a much more detailed and complex one when speaking to initiated elders, for instance.
Artists need permission to paint a particular story, especially if it imparts secret or scared information, and so too with art. Aboriginal artists cannot paint a story that does not belong to them through family lineage, and even then some of the subject matter that can be painted by men cannot be painted by women, and vice versa.
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For centuries, artists have passed on cultural knowledge to successive generations who have, within this rich tradition, created contemporary expressions of ancient stories as well as reflecting what is happening in Aboriginal communities today. |
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Every piece of indigenous art bought from Roebourne Art Group is uniquely crafted by one of our artists, whose work is informed and inspired by the hundreds of artists who have gone before them, the earliest of whose work can be seen on the rocks of Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula). |
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"When the World was Soft", a glasswork by Pansy Hicks.
A detail from "Turtles" by Normie Alone, and above it, an example of Murujuga rock art thought to date back 30,000 to 40,000 years.