long before the land grew roads and
towns long before the first Westerners
arrived long before humans here even had
a word for art the rock artists of
Australia were drawing The Dreamtime The
Dreamtime for the Aboriginal people is
their story of creation that time so
very long ago when rocks and animals and
plants and people first sprang from the
earth and their beliefs about the
Dreamtime are reflected in ancient
paintings on rock untold numbers of them
buried in the stone country of kakadu
national park thompson ulid guru still
paints in the time-honored way all right
when I used to go stay with my
grandfather I used to tell him please
tell me the stories of my ancestors the
Aboriginal people of Australia are
believed to have inhabited this land for
at least 40,000 maybe a hundred thousand
years that would make them the oldest
continuous human culture on the planet
and their ancient art is like a
primitive history book and guide for
living
pictures tell a story here of how birds
warned kangaroos of approaching hunters
and hear the tale of war Aboriginal
people of old believe the pictures
imparted powers paint a harvest of fat
fish and chances are one would come your
way
seasons played a big role in their lives
so many of the images were painted each
year at a specific time the artists use
red ochre and yellow ochre made of soil
and white clay certain clans are
responsible for painting specific
animals
if your group painted Turtles that’s
what you painted not kangaroos
it was all seen as magic all ceremonial
part of keeping the earth healthy the
last pure rock artists died in the 1960s
and modern Aboriginal artists painting
bark paper wood making their work
portable and valuable but the oldest
works of rock art here are very slowly
losing the battle with time centuries of
monsoon rains insects and tiny reptiles
crawling over them brushing away the
grains of color
towns long before the first Westerners
arrived long before humans here even had
a word for art the rock artists of
Australia were drawing The Dreamtime The
Dreamtime for the Aboriginal people is
their story of creation that time so
very long ago when rocks and animals and
plants and people first sprang from the
earth and their beliefs about the
Dreamtime are reflected in ancient
paintings on rock untold numbers of them
buried in the stone country of kakadu
national park thompson ulid guru still
paints in the time-honored way all right
when I used to go stay with my
grandfather I used to tell him please
tell me the stories of my ancestors the
Aboriginal people of Australia are
believed to have inhabited this land for
at least 40,000 maybe a hundred thousand
years that would make them the oldest
continuous human culture on the planet
and their ancient art is like a
primitive history book and guide for
living
pictures tell a story here of how birds
warned kangaroos of approaching hunters
and hear the tale of war Aboriginal
people of old believe the pictures
imparted powers paint a harvest of fat
fish and chances are one would come your
way
seasons played a big role in their lives
so many of the images were painted each
year at a specific time the artists use
red ochre and yellow ochre made of soil
and white clay certain clans are
responsible for painting specific
animals
if your group painted Turtles that’s
what you painted not kangaroos
it was all seen as magic all ceremonial
part of keeping the earth healthy the
last pure rock artists died in the 1960s
and modern Aboriginal artists painting
bark paper wood making their work
portable and valuable but the oldest
works of rock art here are very slowly
losing the battle with time centuries of
monsoon rains insects and tiny reptiles
crawling over them brushing away the
grains of color
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