Australian Aboriginal Artists

Contemporary Australian aboriginal art is derived from a long aboriginal tradition of using nature and culture to produce artistic works. Aboriginal artists employ rock art, bark painting, leaf painting, sand painting, sand sculpture, wood sculpture, wood carving, and body decoration to convey their messages and depict their unique culture. Aboriginal handcrafts also provide an avenue for combining creativity with profitability, and artistic skills are used to create uniquely aboriginal clothing and items such as boomerangs, weapons, and tools.

Some early aboriginal artists were successful at producing works that employed Western art styles, but by the late 19th century, most aboriginal artists were intent on reflecting Australian aboriginal culture in their productions. Australian aboriginal women have added distinct contributions to interpreting both contemporary and traditional culture in 21st-century art. Some of the more successful female Australian aboriginal artists have been Melissa Craig Jingalu, Sally Morgan, Joanne Currie Nalingu, Liddy Napanangka Walker, Emily Pwerle, and Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty.

One of the most celebrated female Australian aboriginal artists is Melissa Craig Jingalu, a member of the Bunjalung Yaagal tribe, who spent her early years fighting racism. Her first step toward realizing her dream of becoming an artist was taken when she worked as a manager's assistant at Mullumbimby Art Gallery. She graduated from high school in 1990 at age 15 years. A year later, she was accepted into the Fine Arts Department at Cairnes College of Tafe for Aboriginals and Islanders. By 1995, she had become a semifinalist for young Australian of the year. Known for her vibrant watercolors that use gouache on paper, Jingalu's fame soon reached international proportions. She is celebrated for works such as Dancing Dolphin, Ant Mountain, My Home, and Nights Moonglow.

Sally Morgan is an Australian aboriginal artist and a writer. Born in 1951, Morgan grew up believing that she was from India; she learned in 1966 that she was actually an aborigine. In 1987, she published My Place, which chronicled her search for an identity. Her work as an artist has earned her international fame, and her productions, which include Outback, are exhibited around the world. In addition to her work promoting human rights, Morgan serves as the director of the University of Western Australia's Centre for Indigenous History and Arts.

Joanne Currie Nalingu, who hails from the Maranoa region of South West Queensland, never studied to be an artist. She began painting on her own in 1988 and soon developed the unique style that allows her to create brilliant landscapes depicting Australian rivers and deserts. One of her most outstanding contributions has been the creation of an enormous glass wall for Coolangatta Tafe College. Liddy Napanangka Walker, who was born in 1925, spent her early years in Australia's bush camps. As a young adult, she took on various service jobs to support herself and did not start painting until the 1980s, when she joined the newly established Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association. Her works depict the traditional Australian aboriginal art [Page 112]form of Dreaming, in which artists attempt to portray their connections to aboriginal history and culture through their art. Walker contends that she paints the Dreaming of her father and grandfather. Her works have been exhibited in the United States, France, Germany, South Korea, and India, as well as Australia.

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