The use of symbols is an alternate way to write down stories of cultural significance, teaching survival and use of the land. Symbols are used by Aboriginal people in their art to preserve their culture and tradition. They are also used to depict various stories and are still used today in contemporary Aboriginal Art.
Aboriginal symbols are a fun way that we can share culture with children whilst also building their literacy and language skills. Not all Aboriginal Nations have or use symbols and the ones that do tend to have two sets.
3.51 Indigenous visual arts provide a means of cultural expression and are a vehicle for the maintenance and transmission of culture. The visual arts are used to promote health and well-being. They improve the lives of Indigenous women and provide self esteem to young Indigenous people.
The People
In Aboriginal art, people are represented with a 'u' shape. Whilst this may seem strange, the explanation for it is simple; it is the shape left in the ground after humans sit cross legged. Whether this symbol represents a man or a woman is determined by the tools and utensils engraved next to it.
Aboriginal Art can be understood as the carvings, paintings, and depictions of nature created by Aboriginal people. These are a group of Indigenous peoples who are First Nation Peoples to Australia. They're a vast community who have lived in Australia for the past 50,000 years - the oldest living culture in the world.
Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures allows students to develop respect for diversity and understanding of cultural difference. It provides all students with a rich and well-rounded knowledge of Australia's history.
— Patrick Dodson. The Sea of Hands is a prominent Australian symbol used to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land rights, justice and reconciliation. Each hand is planted in the ground to show support for First Peoples.
In art, a symbol is usually a solid, recognizable thing—an animal, a plant, an object, etc. —that stands for something that would be hard to show in a picture or a sculpture. A force of nature, for example, or an idea. A symbol can also stand for someone's whole story.
Cultural symbols represent the most significant stereotype values of a particular culture which have inherent associations with the philosophical traditions, thinking patterns, nationally shared values, national characters as well as historical and economic realities.
The Eagle. The eagle is known as the “master of the skies”, and is a very important symbol to Indigenous Peoples. It is believed that the eagle has the closest relationship with the creator, who sent messages to the creator, unlike the raven who sent messages down from the creator.
Symbols are very important for cultures because they help a group create the culture itself. Cultural symbols can represent many things and help cultures express specific ideologies and social standards of the culture that are communicated amongst the group.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is an expression of people's identity, culture, spirituality and relationships to Country. It tells stories of ceremony and Creation and connects people to ancestors and kin.
The coyote is one of the most well-known symbols in Native American culture, representing a creator god, a spirit, and a significant ancestor. To wear a coyote symbol is to encourage one's own intelligence and craftiness.
Children can express themselves and communicate through a variety of ways including verbal communication and non-verbal communication. The use of symbols in supporting communication skills can be vital for some children and plays an important role in the development of emergent reading skills for all.
Aboriginal art keeps Aboriginal culture strong.
As the older artists teach the young, it has revitalised young Indigenous people's appreciation and knowledge of their culture. There have also been a number of intangible benefits, such as increasing self esteem and pride in ones culture.
Patterns help children make predictions because they begin to understand what comes next. They also help children learn how to make logical connections and use reasoning skills. Patterns can be found everywhere in our daily lives and should be pointed out to small children.
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism.
Symbolist art shifted the emphasis from the direct representation of nature to the world of the imagination. Instead of describing something with precise, realistic detail or stating facts they used personal metaphors and symbols, evoking a meaning or feeling instead.
Humans, consciously and subconsciously, are always striving to make sense of their surrounding world. Symbols—such as gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words—help people understand that world. They provide clues to understanding experiences by conveying recognizable meanings that are shared by societies.
In artistic work, symbols are often the first encounter with emerging creative possibilities. The emergence of something new is often experienced non-rationally or non-verbally. Symbolic representation may be the only means of expression available to certain experiences.
Symbolism is the use of words or images to symbolize specific concepts, people, objects, or events. The key here is that the symbols used aren't literal representations, but figurative or implied ones.
Symbolism is the idea that things represent other things.
What we mean by that is that we can look at something — let's say, the color red — and conclude that it represents not the color red itself but something beyond it: for example, passion, or love, or devotion.
Remember a non-indigenous Australian (or any non Aboriginal person around the world) can never create an Aboriginal artwork because only people from specific parts of country can tell the story of that country.
These symbols were often called pictographs.
Aboriginal Art & Symbols
Indigenous art is centered on story telling. It is used as a chronical to convey knowledge of the land, events and beliefs of the Aboriginal people. The use of symbols is an alternate way to writing down stories of cultural significance, teaching survival and use of the land.