Body Painting 2 Brown by Anna Pitjara
Dreamtime:
Aboriginal Culture is in existence for many thousands of years. Aborigines portray their ancient culture and spiritual significance by painting their bodies with designs and motifs. These motifs explain their family group, tribe, dreaming, totems etc. and vary by tribes and country (geographical location).
In the Aboriginal Culture, rituals and ceremonies are a constant source for everyone in the community to gather and celebrate the occasion. While doing so, the artists (dancers) paint their bodies with the theme of the ritual with various motifs and designs. There are strict regulations on how the artists are to paint their bodies based on their tribe and country. They generally paint the ritual designs on their bodies with clay, ochre, pink, red, yellow and white. Some of these rituals last for days. So, they use paints mixed with animal fats so that the paints stay longer.
Anna Pitjara is from Utopia region of Central Australia. She belongs to the Petyarre / Pitjara family and speaks Anmatyerre language. Her dreamings mainly involve Body Painting, Bush Yam, Yam Seeds, Sandhill etc