#Aboriginal art meaning and Alcheringa | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

t-jfh · 6 months

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Painting by Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa

Aboriginal artist of the Papunya Tula art movement, Central Australia.

Painting by Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra

Aboriginal artist of the Western desert art movement, Central Australia.

Aboriginal art symbols and meaning

Aboriginal art meaning varies from area to area.

The symbols in Aboriginal art are design specific. Symbols have different meanings depending on which design is being painted.

A design made up of different symbols tells the story of a mythical ancestral heroe’s journey to their final resting place.

The individual symbols map out that mythical journey. The arranged symbols represent features of that ancestor journey. They also represent the place his spirit now resides.

The design as a whole also represents the spirit of a specific mythical ancestral hero called an Alcheringa.

Different Alcheringa spirits reside in different sacred sites. Each has its own specific design.

Painting by Anatjari Tjakamarra

Aboriginal artist of the Western desert art movement, Central Australia.

Wooden Churinga from Central Australia.

Stone Churinga from Central Australia.

Australian Aboriginal Churinga and Aboriginal art meaning

Sacred Churingas have the same designs as found in early paintings. These designs were not painted but incised into flat oval-shaped pieces of wood or stone. Churingas are not art they are sacred spiritual objects.

Traditional aboriginal art and early aboriginal paintings have a sacred design that depict Alcheringa (Dreamtime/Spirit).

Understanding Alcheringa and the designs found on sacred Churinga is the key to comprehending aboriginal art.

#Australian Aboriginal Churinga #Australian Aboriginal art #Churinga/Tjuringa/Djuringa #Aboriginal art meaning and Alcheringa

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newguineatribalart · 1 year

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Understanding the meaning of Aboriginal Art

In order to understand aboriginal art and how it relates to sacred sites, ancestors and the spirit world you need to understand churinga.

According to Aboriginal customary belief if a woman falls pregnant then an Alcheringa spirit has entered her body. It is the Alcheringa that has caused the pregnancy. She will know which Alcheringa impregnated her. She knows which Alcheringa made her pregnant because she knows which of the sacred sites she was near when she fell pregnant.

Customary belief is that when a woman gives birth to a child that the Alcheringa spirit will drop the child’s churinga. The Alcheringa spirit will drop the churinga at the place of the mother’s conception. The mother will tell her elder brother or father at which sacred spot she thinks the spirit entered her body. Father or brother can then return to that sacred site and “find” the child’s churinga.

This churinga dropped by the Alcheringa spirit is a part of that child. The churinga is then placed in a sacred storehouse. The storehouse contains the churinga of all the people the Alcheringa has concieved. It is a very sacred hiding spot storing the churinga of both living and deceased.

#aboriginal #abstract art #aboriginal artist #aboriginal art education #culture #spiritual #sacred #spirit #life #afterlife

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