All cultures have creation myths. Christians look to the bible, Buddhist follow Siddhartha Guatam's path to enlightenment, and Australian Aboriginals believe in a time where supernatural beings walked the earth before humans. These beings roamed around Australia singing flora and fauna into existence. Through song, dance, stories, art Aboriginals honor the ancestral beings.
When creating Dreamtracks, artists venerate the pathways their ancestors took in order to create the world that exists today. AS Howard Morphy eloquently states, "the Aboriginal poeple establish direct contact with the ancestral powers and thus can harness manifestations of those powers for human purposes" ( Aboriginal Art p.100).
Not just any member can sing the songs or paint the ancestors and the landscape. Each tribe is obligated to "represent" their ancestor stories and perpetuate the creation myths of their land.
Art varies from place to place due to the availability of resources, the landscape specific creation stories, and kinship ties.
Religion is defined as the service and worship the supernatural. For Aboriginals, Dreamtime is inseparable from everyday life. Therefore, religion is omnipotent.
Creating artistic pieces, singing ceremonial songs, applying body paint for ceremonial dances instills the power of the ancestors. Thus elevating the importance of the piece and human. As Richard Anderson points out in Art in Small-Scale Societies :
&npsp� Australian Aboriginal art is simultaneously religions and utilitarian...art provides a conduit through which mortals convey their needs and wishes to the ever-present Dreamtime spirits...through art, Australian Aborigines come into immediate, intimate, and genuine contact with the all-important spirits of the Eternal Dreamtime (p.81).
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