Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA

Western & Central Desert Aboriginal Art Symbols

by Denise Lajetta, Assoc. Curator January 2006

Traditional symbols are an essential part of Central and Western Desert Aboriginal art. When the
Dreaming Ancestors appeared on the earth, they wore brightly painted designs on their bodies. These
designs are applied to many different surfaces today such as the body of a person taking part in a
ceremony, a sacred object such as a shield, rocks and cave walls, or the ground itself. Through the use of
ancestrally inherited designs, artists continue their connections to their Ancestral lands and to the
Dreaming.

One of these symbols is the U shape to indicate a person. Sometimes we can tell the person is a man if
he has two long, straight lines beside him to indicate his spears. Sometimes we know the person is a
woman because she has one short line beside her which indicates the digging stick she uses to uncover
edible tubers and other foodstuffs known as “bush tucker”. An oval shape beside the U shape would
indicate a woman’s carrying bowl.

Another common symbol is that of concentric circles inside each other. This symbol indicates a very
important place where something significant happened in a story about the Dreaming Ancestors. This would
be a place with a name that begins with a capital letter. The place can be a rock, waterhole, campfire, sand
dune, but whatever it is, an Ancestor did something important there that matters and has significane in
Aboriginal life today. The painting might be part of a story, and it might teach a lesson about what not to
eat, or how to behave with one’s family members, where to find food, and so on.

Symbols used in Papunya Central Desert art -

from "Papunya Tula" by Geoffrey Bardon
 The symbols can be used in combinations to tell stories. For instance, a Bush Raisin Dreaming painting
might show many U shaped symbols (people) standing inside a large circle that represents the water soak
where Bush Raisins grow. A water soak is a place in the desert that looks dry, but when you dig, water
comes up. It is a good place for plants to flourish. Bush Raisins are an important food for Aborigines
because they are very nutritious. They are ground up with nuts and seeds and shaped into tiny loaves
called “damper bread”. Picking the Bush Raisins is an opportunity for men and women to socialize. It is a
happy event, sort of like an ice cream social is in our culture where everyone is friendly and catches up with
their neighbors. It is also a fun time for young lovers to be together as a couple in their community, or for
single people to flirt and have fun.

Dots are the basic symbol of Central and Western Desert art and they make it easily recognized. What
looks like a straight line is usually lots of dots that have run together. In the desert, the earth is very sandy
(tiny dots), so perhaps that is one reason dots are characteristic of Aboriginal art from the desert regions.
Another reason is that dots make things stand out. When an Aborigine is painting the story of a sacred
place and powerful beings, the dot technique can make things in the painting look animated and alive.

Aborigines have been painting for at least 45,000 years. For many centuries, the Desert painters used
natural ochres. They painted with sharpened sticks and thin blades of grass. Clay made white, charcoal
made black, and ground up mineral rocks mixed with animal fat, tree sap, or water made pale orange and
yellow. The colors were not very bright. In the early 1970s, an art teacher named Geoffrey Barden
traveled to the desert regions. He showed the Aborigines acrylic paints and canvas. When the desert
people saw the paints, they said, “Oh boy, colors!” Today they are no longer confined to the limited, pale
ochre colors and often produce brightly painted Aboriginal art that uses all the colors of the rainbow.