Aboriginal Maps
The "dot painting" of Aboriginal Australia can be viewed as maps, as landscapes, and as religious paintings. In fact, Howard Morphy, a foremost authority in Aboriginal art, states
"Aboriginal paintings are maps of land. It is necessary, however, to define precisely what is meant by a 'map' in this context. The danger is transferring too literally a Western concept of topographical map on to Aboriginal cultural forms and making them into something they are not. Paintings are often discussed as if they were bird's-eye views of particular areas of land, as though reflecting an Aboriginal tradition of aerial photography. . .From an Aboriginal perspective the land itself is a sign system. The Dreamtime ancestors existed before the landscape took form; indeed, it is they who conceived of it and gave it meaning. Rather than being topographical representations of landforms, Aboriginal paintings are conceptual representations which influence the way in which landscape is understood. When Aboriginal paintings do represent features of the landscape, they depict them not in their topographical relations to one another but in relation to their mythological significance." (Morphy p. 103)
These images relate to the "Dreamtime" which is the time when the world was created and it also refers to the religion of the Aboriginals. The concept of the Dreamtime is a very rich and complicated theme that deserves its own unit of study. According to Wally Caruana, the curator of Aboriginal Art at the National Gallery of Australia, Dreaming is a "term commonly used in Aboriginal Australia to refer to Aboriginal cosmology, encompassing the creator and ancestral beings, the laws of religious and social behavior, the land, the spiritual forces which sustain life and the narratives which concern these" (Caruana, p. 214). Just a note here, while the term Aboriginal refers to indigenous people of Australia, there are many different kinship groups with different traditions. These groups are tied to particular places (and times) through the Dreamtime. There is no sharp division between the present and the past. They are intimately connected. It refers to the past when the creation was being done by mythical characters that created the people, the animals and the plants of the world. Parts of the landscape were created by these mythical figures during their journeys and adventures in this time. These characters are considered the spiritual ancestors of the Aborigines. These traditions are kept alive through non-written means: song, dance, oral traditions and art.
The contemporary "dot paintings" originated from the traditional sand paintings that depicted the characters, events and locales of the Dreamtime in patterns, geometric figures and other symbolic designs. In the 1970s, when Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya to teach art to the children, he encouraged some Aboriginal artists to create these images in a less transitory manner by using oil and acrylic paint and canvas. These images are very abstract, showing very simple symbols and many dots, hence the name "dot paintings." This abstract, symbolic landscape is shown from a satellite viewpoint, as if one were directly in the sky looking down on the specific features. We can consider these images as maps in that they are depicting specific places but at the same time they depict myths from the Dreamtime. There are many levels on which these images can be viewed. "The interpretation of these designs are multiple and simultaneous, and depend upon the viewer's ritual knowledge of a site and the associated Dreaming." (Caruana p. 99) Because of the religious nature of the images and the popularity of the work with tourists and non-Aborigines, often only one version (or level) of the story will be attached to the work. Deeper, more sacred and mystical aspects will not be shared.
An interesting aspect to these "maps" is that they have been used in legal proceedings. Not only the "dot paintings" but also bark paintings have been used as evidence in many legal cases to show "proof of spiritual responsibility", which is what land claims must have in order to prove that certain kinship groups own a tract of land. These maps are used then to petition the Australian federal government to try to repatriate lands to the native inhabitants. (Short p.35)
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