Yellow, another ochre-derived colour, has strong connections with the sun in Aboriginal art. It represents warmth, light, and life, highlighting the essential role of the sun in sustaining life on Earth.
mulkali means 'red ochre, red substance' which was traditionally used to paint shield decorations, ngamthumelin is a descriptive word which means 'yellow', thumelin is a descriptive word meaning 'green', kinemin is a descriptive word meaning 'black, brown, dark coloured', ringkari is a descriptive word meaning 'white'.
Black represents the earth, marking the campfires of the dreamtime ancestors. Red represents fire, energy and blood - 'Djang', a power found in places of importance to the Aborigines. Yellow represents water, and the markings on the back of the great snake ancestor (see our last blog on the Rainbow Serpent Myths).
White is often used during times of 'sorry business' and loss; yellow is most often associated with women's ceremonies; red ochre has many associations but is frequently used where conflict is happening, as well as celebration and ceremony; black pigment is most often derived from coal, and is mainly used for men's ...
Ochres are primarily natural pigments and minerals found in the soil, or even in charcoal. These natural pigments (colours) were originally used to depict Dreamtime stories and maps. They were used either in body painting, rock painting, on artefacts and sometimes even on sand.
It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced by this pigment, especially a light brownish-yellow. A variant of ochre containing a large amount of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as "red ochre" (or, in some dialects, ruddle).
Over the centuries since its discovery yellow ochre's vivid vibrancy has often been compared with the glowing light of the sun or the vibrant warmth of human skin, but it has also taken on many other conflicting meanings and associations ranging from optimism and warning to cowardice and segregation.
Ochre has ongoing importance to many Aboriginal people; it has religious significance and is used in ceremonies, healing practices and art. It has been used in rituals for at least 42,000 years; when the Aboriginal man known as 'Mungo Man' was buried he was covered in ochre, as part of a ritual burial.
Limonite is the primary component of yellow ocher pigments. Before modern mineral analysis, the name “limonite” was given to many yellowish to yellowish brown iron oxides produced during the weathering of iron-bearing rocks.
At a cave on the coast of South Africa called Pinnacle Point, early modern humans were going to a single source of ochre for a very long time. What was it about this color that kept making them return for more? Some archaeologists think that ochre is a symbol of life and fertility.
The spindle motif in his 'Man's Love Story' artworks has become synonymous as an Aboriginal symbol for love.
The three colours of the Aboriginal Flag are bright red, yellow and black. Black represents the Aboriginal people of Australia. Yellow is the life giving sun and red is the colour of the earth. Our flag unifies all of the Aboriginal nations of Australia.
The eagle feather is the symbol of peace, friendship and good luck.
The orange shirt now symbolizes how the residential school system took away the indigenous identities of its students. However, the association of the colour with the First Nations goes back to antiquity, the colour represents sunshine, truth-telling, health, regeneration, strength and power.
Aboriginal people perform Funeral ceremonies as understandably the death of a person is a very important event. The people often paint themselves white, wound or cut their own bodies to show their sorrow for the loss of their loved one.
Green and gold were formally proclaimed Australia's national colours in 1984 after many requests for recognition of what had become our traditional sporting colours.
Gold Ochre is a distinctive, reddish, golden yellow from the ochre family. The name 'ochre' originates from the Greek meaning 'pale yellow', but there is nothing pale about this colour which can range from a light yellow, to a red, brown, and even a purple ochre.
Gold ochre and yellow ochre are very similar, but gold ochre is sometimes described as a little darker and redder. The colours you achieve with both ochres overlap to some extent and in some cases they are not even distinguished as two different pigments.
Yellow ochre is a natural mineral consisting of silica and clay owing its color to an iron oxyhydroxide mineral, goethite. It is found throughout the world, in many shades, in hues from yellow to brown.
How did Aboriginal people produce rock art? Aboriginal people collected pigments for painting. The artists made red, purple and yellow pigments from ochre clays (which are rich in iron), and white pigment from kaolin clay.
Wilgie Mia in the Weld Ranges of Western Australia demonstrates the importance of ochre in Aboriginal society and is the largest and deepest underground Aboriginal ochre mine in Australia. Ochre from Wilgie Mia was traded over a large area and was the most extensive pre-contact ochre network recorded in Australia.
Australian Aboriginal people have a tradition of using ochre pigment to paint that dates back to ancient times. These ochres are primarily natural pigments and minerals found in the soil, or even in charcoal. Paintings using these natural pigments (colours) depict Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and maps.
Ochre helped to condition and preserve the wood and was believed to imbue the artefacts with spiritual powers for hunting and ceremonial purposes. The natural earth pigment ochre was also used extensively throughout Aboriginal Australia for rock art and is considered to be the earliest known paint form used by humans.
Yellow ocher is a natural earth pigment which consists mostly of clay colored by iron oxides. Ocher comes in a great variety of shades depending on their origin. Lighter shades of a pale yellow may be burned to produce darker red shades. The purest ochers come from France and Cyprus.