This is my first blog entry as an Indigenous Cultures student. After a pretty quick lecture on Wednesday, my tutorial group brought up some good points about Indigenous art that, I think, articulated how many people must feel when attempting to discuss said work. During the lecture, Tony Collins mentioned the Wondjina which are cloud and rain spirits, who created or influenced the landscape and the people near. The Wondjina is part of Aboriginal cosmology and belongs to the Mowanjum people in Western Australia.
One of the ladies in my tutorial made a great point when she described how inferior she felt to actually comment on these ancient paintings/stories. I think many people must feel this way. These paintings cause me to have a deep gut-reaction despite the fact that I am not Aboriginal. I still feel the intimidating power of these beings and they have a strong presence. These paintings are so ancient and rare that all Australians should feel the power of them. At the least, they are 65000 years old and are definitely the oldest figurative paintings in the world, therefore they are also significant to the whole world.I feel that Aboriginal cosmology and The Dreaming has a highly satisfying belief system, being connected to the land and environment are especially important. Looking at this as someone who does not belong to any religion, a connectedness to the Earth seems profound as discarding this has led to so much destruction of our environment. Spiritually, The Dreaming is a very powerful concept but as I have only just started this course, I do not feel that I have enough knowledge on this topic to make an informed statement. I remember at primary school that we studied The Dreaming in Art class. We painted The Rainbow Serpent on the asphalt at school and it is still there now. I don't quite remember why and I only faintly remember the story but I do remember that even then, I felt small compared to these ancient stories.
