Scarring used to be common practice done by males to denote their social status. It is often used to tell a spiritual story. Symbols are greatly used and can represent many things about the person who uses it. White and red bands are painted across the chest and the rest of the body is covered in red.Īboriginals use different items and ways to decorate the body include scars, feathers, shells, teeth, ornaments, face paint, and body paint. In northwest Queensland, men rub their foreheads with charcoal and paint a white band from either eyebrow down the front of the ear and along the shoulders and arms. They decorate face and body in particularly strong designs for both Pukumani (funeral) and Kulama (yam) ceremonies. The Tiwi on Bathurst and Melville Islands also have a thriving tradition of body art. Such ceremonies involve storytelling, singing and dancing. Feathers, leaves and plant materials are also used to add colour to arm and leg ornaments.Īnimal fat is often mixed with paint so that they stay longer on the body because most ceremonies last for days. Many tribes use precise colour pairing such as pink and red or yellow and white. Clay is often used as a colour source, as is as ochre, when at hand. In art, moiety can play an important role in determining the subjects (Dreamings) which an artist may paint.Ĭolour varies between different regions of Australia and tribes. Moiety is a form of social organisation in which most people and, indeed, most natural phenomena are divided into two classes or categories for intermarrying so as to ensure that a person does not marry within his/her own family. Women of the desert painted their upper chest, shoulders and breasts for communal women’s ceremonies. In Eastern Arnhem Land (Yolngu) the men are painted according to their Moiety (Clan/blood line) either Dhuwa or Yirritia. They are painted in tribe/clan totems to the upper body and thighs. In Arnhem Land the people decorate the bodies of young boys for initiation ceremonies. The person adorned with the body paint often takes on the spiritual part of their ancestor dancing, immersed in their character. They must follow traditional, respected patterns. There are very strict guidelines to how the body painting and adornment is carried out and an Aboriginal person is not allowed to just use any motives or adornment in their transformation. The specific designs and motifs used by the Aboriginals reveal their relationships to their family group, social position, tribe, precise ancestors, totemic fauna and tracts of land. It is related to spiritual matters and is very creative in character.
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Their cultural rituals including body painting differ between Aboriginal Tribes and topographic location. Aboriginal body painting or art and personal ornamentation is an ancient tradition which carries deep spiritual significance for the Australian Indigenous People.