U.S. – Australia Relations

U.S. Exhibit Showcases Australian Aboriginal Women's Musings

Washington, D.C. — 3 July 2006

"Dreaming Their Way" exhibit tells ancient stories through modern media

By Anita Wadhwani
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Through a unique exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, aborigine women are showcasing their talents as painters.

Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters connects 33 indigenous women from across Australia to art enthusiasts in the United States through vibrantly colored canvases and bark paintings, each expressed in intricate detail.

Indigenous women are becoming more prominent as contemporary artists in Australia, a nation in which painting has been primarily a man’s occupation, according to the NMWA. Through their art, the women convey their relationships to each other, their land and the roles they play in daily life.

The Dreaming -- or Dreamtime -- is an integral part of the oral tradition and worldview of indigenous Australians. According to the NMWA, the Dreaming is "the period of creation when the land and life upon it were created by spiritual ancestors who also gave birth to humans, and established the moral code known as the Law."

"For thousands of years, Dreamings were ceremoniously communicated through painting, dance, story-telling, and other artistic expressions thereby creating a strong, living bond between Aboriginal people and their homeland," the NMWA says. "Rendered mostly on ephemeral material, these sacred reiterations which connected participants to the Creation Era were intended for private, initiated eyes."

Over the last 30 years, aboriginal artists have begun to use boards and acrylics to represent Dreaming designs in a more permanent form and create art for the public.

"By using various abstracted techniques and a canon of symbols, artists could commit stories to permanent media, while at the same time obscure sacred designs from the uninitiated public. This new method of communicating Dreamings spread throughout central Australia and now embraces a network of art-producing communities across the country's vast expanse," the NMWA says.

Each of the exhibit’s nearly 80 pieces offers insightful meaning once viewers realize what is behind the symbols used. Symbols can represent multiple things such as the elements of the earth, stars, a woman or man and animals.

Some of the paintings offer an aerial view of story elements. In her acrylic-on-canvas piece Milky Way Seven Sisters Dreaming, for example, artist Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi interprets the story of seven sisters who try to escape a man by turning themselves into fireballs in the sky as a line of seven red-and-white circles with a lone red-and-white circle below, all arrayed against a blue-and-white background.

“I think they [the Australian aborigines] are more appreciative of people learning about their culture through the artwork,” says visiting curator Franchesca Cubillo from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, Australia. Cubillo explains that the artwork offers viewers “a small glimpse of their cultural heritage.”

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing female artists. In its 19 years, the museum has showcased works by more than 800 women artists.

Dreaming Their Way opened at the NMWA June 30 and will run until September 24.

Additional information on the exhibit and the artists is available at the NMWA Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Original document from usinfo.state.gov.

Last update: Monday, 19 November 2007 GMT+1000