Arts and Human Spirit - Essay Example

Arts and Human Spirit Introduction: Arts and human spirit are interrelated through the history of human beings and an analysis of the Australian aboriginal history specifically laying focus on Australian aboriginal arts and the role it plays in the life of the people will bring out the essential relation between art and human spirit. There have been several researches on the aboriginal arts of Australia and it is often remarked that the aboriginal arts play a vital role in the lives of the people in the land. The term indigenous Australians is generally used to refer to the inheritors of the first known human settlers of the Australian continent and this term covers the Aboriginal people of the land as well as the Torres Strait Islanders of Australia. When referring to Indigenous Australians, the term incorporates various communities and societies which include local communities with unique cultures. “Indigenous peoples are the First Peoples of the land and they believe they have inherent right to their lands, customs and beliefs. These rights are perceived as different from those of intruders granted citizenship within a multicultural immigrant society.” (Irwin et al, 1999, P.49). Several researches with regard to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and material culture focused on how art has been regarded a central activity relating to the lives of the people there. Expanding the level of research in the art of the indigenous people of Australia illustrates the essential relation between arts and human spirit. In such a research on the works by traditional Indigenous Australian artists, it becomes evident that the culture and life of the people is much linked to the art of the land. Understanding what and who one is, where one is from etc or about one’s culture, art, and background etc has great value in the perspective of the aboriginal or indigenous study. Thus, this paper deals with Arts and human spirit specifically laying focus on Australian aboriginal arts and the role it plays in life for people and tries to expand the level of research in regard to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and material culture. The Art and Culture of the Aboriginals: the Background The definition of the ‘Aboriginal’ in the background of the Australia by the migrant community often relates indigenous peoples of the homeland with the European settlers thus, it can be seen that in Australia, “... during the initial contact period there was no difficulty in determining who was an “Aborigine”. Aborigines were black, uncivilized, and pagan. This meant they were not British subjects and, hence, were excluded from all citizenship rights. (Armitage, 1995, P.22). In the background of the relation between art and culture, it is important to realize that the most important and dominant critical and institutional mode of framing Aboriginal art may be perceived as a skylight on to Aboriginal culture. There is greater meaning beyond this understanding of the aboriginal art which are sometimes presented as artistic genres modeled on the history of Western art. Consequently, the contemporary Aboriginal art relates to the Aboriginal culture as well as leads to ‘contemporary’, ‘traditional’, ‘urban’, ‘political, ‘women’s’ or ‘postcolonial’ Aboriginality. The type of framing of the Aboriginal art has great validity to the understanding of the art and culture of the people as they feel “this place is ours; the art belongs to our national tradition; and it delivers insights about Aboriginal culture that we should appreciate and celebrate as valued assets of our common heritage as Australians. It is completely unsettled by unresolved questions of sovereignty and histories and present practices of state sanctioned violence against Indigenous Australians.” (Nicoll et al, 2006, P.2). It is relatable that the Australian Indigenous art has been recognized as the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the world. The original forms of artistic Aboriginal expression included rock carvings, body painting and ground designs and these date back more than 30,000 years. “The quality and variety of Australian Indigenous art produced today reflects the richness and diversity of Indigenous culture and the distinct differences between tribes, languages, dialects and geographic landscapes. Art has always been an important part of Aboriginal life, connecting past and present, the people and the land, and the supernatural and reality. Indigenous art ranges across a wide variety of mediums from works on paper and canvas to fiber and glass.” (Australian Indigenous art, 2007). The art of the aboriginals is closely related to their paintings and the significance of Aboriginal paintings is storytelling, which renews the Aboriginal world and verifies the power of traditional culture. Thus, the art of the aboriginals is much linked to the culture of the people and the Aboriginal culture survived for centuries without a written language. The aboriginal paintings disclose the visual language which developed over 40,000 years and their language derived from sacred objects such as earth, sacred rocks, ritual body adornments, ceremonial designs and ground maps. “Aboriginal art is the most important contemporary art to come out of this ancient land. Every painting tells a story as well as having an imposing decorative element to the art work. These powerful works of art look superb in modern buildings and they signify, for the people who display them a connection with the present as well as the past…As with all artistic expression, Aboriginal art is shaped and determined by its social and cultural setting. It is an expression of knowledge and place in the social structure as well as a means of expressing identity.” (About Australian Aboriginal Art). Dreaming: how it relates arts and human spirit In an exploration of the works of traditional Indigenous Australian artists, one finds that many artists refer to ‘the dreaming’ and it is important to understand that the term indicates to the visual symbols in the paintings or on objects illustrating how the earth, sky, water, animals and plants came to existence. It can be evidently realized that “dreaming” or “dreamtime” is a central but complex concept in the Aboriginal beliefs and tradition. “It refers to the mystical time of creation. Legends from the Dreamtime tell of this creation. They give reasons for the existence of things, like the birth of the first human beings. The existence of different kinds of animals, the formation of the distinctive geographic features, the various phenomena of the sky and the changing climates ... life and the natural features of the land only began to take shape during the Dreamtime.” (Lam, 1997). These “creation” stories are specific to the geographical location, or ‘home country’ of individual clans or tribes. Thus, ‘dreaming’ has great significance in the aboriginal art and culture which relates the culture to the spirit of the people and it illustrates the relationship between art and human spirit. To illustrate this experience, some Indigenous Australian may be identified as referring to Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their ‘country’. More importantly, however, it is evident that several Indigenous Australians mention the creation time as ‘The Dreaming’ and they mean to indicate that some ‘Ancestor Spirits’ came to Earth in human and other forms and they provided the structure to the land, the plants and animals as the exist. Thus, the “expression ‘Dreamtime’ is most often used to refer to the ‘time before time’, or ‘the time of the creation of all things’, while ‘Dreaming’ is often used to refer to an individual’s or group’s set of beliefs or spirituality.” (Dreamtime or Dreaming). The dreaming stories of the aboriginal art act as the transmitter of the aboriginal culture from the past to the present age. It is commendable that the aborigines possess the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth and the estimates of this culture and history date between 50,000 and 65,000 years. The dreaming stories are significant as they pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems to the later generations. “Through song, dance, painting and storytelling which express the dreaming stories, Aborigines have maintained a link with the Dreaming from ancient times to today, creating a rich cultural heritage.” (The Dreaming, 2008). The aboriginal art and concepts such as ‘Dreaming’ etc have, therefore, central value in the understanding of the relation between arts and human spirit. The relation between the aboriginal art and culture of the Australians In a profound investigation of the aboriginal art of the Australians, it becomes clear that art is the disseminator of the aboriginal culture. The cultural studies through the aboriginal arts explain that the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders have cultures which are often complex and diverse. Significantly, the Indigenous cultures of Australia are the oldest living cultural history in the world. It is relatable that their cultural history date back to 50,000 to 65,000 years. The ability of the Aboriginal cultures to adapt and change over time can be understood as a central reason for their survival over years. It was the resemblance of the Aboriginal cultures with their surroundings which enabled the explaining of how Aboriginal people survived for so many years. The complete ways of living developed by a group of human beings and passed from one generation to the next can be best understood as cultural heritage. “In Australia, Indigenous communities keep their cultural heritage alive by passing their knowledge, arts, rituals and performances from one generation to another, speaking and teaching languages, protecting cultural materials, sacred and significant sites, and objects.” (Australian Indigenous cultural heritage, 2008). The role of the dreaming stories and the sacred sites, performance - music, songs, dance and ceremony, visual arts etc in passing over the cultural heritage is essential. The role of the Dreamtime in the spread of cultural heritage is therefore evident and the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of its creation, and its great stories etc may be understood as Dreamtime. It is the beginning of knowledge and all the laws of existence originated from this knowledge. It is essential to observe these laws for their survival. “The Dreaming world was the old time of the Ancestor Beings. They emerged from the earth at the time of the creation. Time began in the world the moment these supernatural beings were ‘born out of their own Eternity’.” (Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre - Alice Springs). Therefore, the life and the existence of Aboriginals as well as the Torres Strait Islanders can be realized as much related to their art. That is to say, for the Australian aboriginals, the arts and human spirit are inseparable and it is the reason why many contemporary artists consider the European colonization as serious threat to their very art and culture which meant the loss of the original country that is so central to their ‘being’ and ‘belonging’. Conclusion The colonization and the new multicultural policy of Australia affected the art and the culture of the aboriginals. One can identify that the Aboriginal policy in Australia has a long history of discrimination. It is a “history that has deeply affected family structure, cultural knowledge, values and beliefs, economic viability, and individual and collective identity… Aboriginal peoples may be forced by the legal system to claim rights in order to be allowed to exercise their responsibilities. In every case it is a sense of responsibility that drives the claim because individuals who fail to fulfill responsibilities to their land and to the society that belongs to that land are spiritually being self destructive.” (Irwin et al, 1999, P.62). In this investigation which aimed at expanding the level of research with regard to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and material culture, a central finding has been that for the aboriginal Australians their art is much related to their culture and it is through the indigenous art that their culture is disseminated from generation to generation. It is also important to realize that this indigenous culture and art which were considered very close to the aboriginal existence have been affected by the colonization and multicultural policy. Thus, many contemporary Indigenous artists make artworks which comment on the impact of European colonization, and loss of country that has been so central to their being and belonging and one understands that the loss of culture is linked to loss of country, and displacement from their tribal lands. Bibliography Irwin, Rita., Rogers, Tony., Farrell, Ruby., Boughton, Douglas & Mason, Rache1 (1999). “Multiculturalism denies the realities of Aboriginal art and culture” in Beyond multicultural art education: international perspectives. P.49. New York: Waxman Munster. Armitage, A. (1995). Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal assimilation: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. P.22. Vancouver: UBC Press. Nicoll, Fiona., Foley, Fiona., & Southport, Qld. (2006). “Aboriginal art - Its a white thing: framing whiteness”, in the art of politics the politics of art: The Place of indigenous contemporary art. P.2. Keeaira Press. Australian Indigenous Art, (2007). Australian Government: Culture and Recreation Portal. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://www.acn.net.au/articles/indigenous/art/ About Australian Aboriginal Art, Galeria Aniela Fine Art Gallary and Sculpture Park. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://www.galeriaaniela.com.au/Aboriginal%20artists.htm Lam, Helen. (1997). Dreaming, Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://mypage.direct.ca/k/kenbinns/dreaming.html Dreamtime or Dreaming, Indigenous Australia. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/dreamtime.htm The Dreaming, (2008). Australian Government: Culture and Recreation Portal. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://www.acn.net.au/articles/indigenous/dreamtime/ Australian Indigenous cultural heritage, (2008). Australian Government: Culture and Recreation Portal. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://www.acn.net.au/articles/indigenous/ Aboriginal Australia Art & Culture Centre - Alice Springs, aboriginalart. Com. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html Irwin, Rita., Rogers, Tony., Farrell, Ruby., Boughton, Douglas & Mason, Rache1 (1999). “Multiculturalism denies the realities of Aboriginal art and culture” in Beyond multicultural art education: international perspectives. P.62. New York: Waxman Munster. Read More