Aboriginal and Pacific Island Art: Religion, Ritual, and Meaning

Introduction: Art as Religion and Ritual in Oceania

Art, ritual, and religion are inseparable in the aboriginal societies of Oceania. Aboriginal myths of creation and the Dreamtime are rendered in art and permeate the various types of art found throughout indigenous Australia — from bark and rock paintings to modern renditions on canvas. Similarly, the art of the Pacific Islands before 1980 is inseparable from its cultural context. The concept of art in the Pacific Islands differs fundamentally from the European understanding brought by colonizers. It is therefore important to understand both Aboriginal and Pacific Island art within their own historical, cultural, and social worldviews. Art was functional, symbolic, and sacred, and only incidentally decorative.

Aboriginal Australia and the Dreamtime

The Aboriginal Australians have inhabited their lands for 50,000 years, and during that time developed highly sophisticated cosmologies comprising what anthropologists describe as the world's longest enduring religion (Kiger, n.d.). Although there is considerable diversity in the exact formulation and conceptualization of the cosmos throughout Aboriginal Australia, the common element is the Dreamtime. Dreamtime is both a time and a place, but it also transcends both time and space. Rendering the abstract cosmology of the Dreamtime in art has evolved over thousands of years.

Dreamtime is rooted in the belief that "the Earth's surface once was nothing but a vast, nondescript expanse of mud or clay" (Kiger, n.d.). From an artist's perspective, such an expanse is the starting point of all creation. The creation of the universe is itself art, and art therefore mirrors the creation of the universe. The creators are not earth-bound; rather, "ancestral spirit beings rose from beneath the surface or descended from the sky, and assumed the forms of animals, plants, and humans" (Kiger, n.d.). These spirit beings give rise to art and music, providing both the impetus for creation and the specific forms and aesthetics. The concept of Dreamtime continuously imbues artistic creations with spiritual meaning.

One of the core creator figures in Aboriginal cosmology is Wandjina, who is rendered in Aboriginal cave paintings as a dual being. In these paintings, the creator spirit is depicted as a double figure — the descending form at the top representing the mirroring aspect of the spiritual world. Such paintings also signify the hierarchical order of the universe, which is reflected in creation through the natural ordering of plants and animals. These images are rendered on rock surfaces, on the thick barks of trees, and in body painting. Many are intentionally temporary, revealing an Aboriginal appreciation for the paradoxical nature of time: the human being experiences time in a linear fashion, but the Dreamtime exists outside of linear time. In this sense, the Dreamtime is akin to Plato's realm of forms — a world of eternal, ideal, archetypal realities.

Pacific Island Barkcloth, Tattoo, and Cosmological Art

The artists of the Pacific Islands also worked on bark. One of the most celebrated bodies of barkcloth painting comes from Tongan civilization. Unlike Aboriginal rock paintings, barkcloth could function as currency or as a symbol of wealth and status. Design elements reflected social and political hierarchies. Tongan women frequently created the barkcloth, showcasing the gendered divisions of labor in the society. Rather than depicting deities or religious figures, Tongan barkcloth often showed humans in positions of power. These leaders held a semi-divine status, which is significant for understanding the mirroring principle of the cosmos: just as there is a cosmic hierarchical order, so too is there a hierarchical order in human affairs. Deities were ordered and structured, and so were the families and kin groups of human communities.

There remains tremendous diversity in the social structures and politics of the different islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, yet there are commonalities in the role art plays across these disparate regions. As Kjellgren (2007) notes, "oceanic sculpture and painting have emerged from not one but hundreds of separate religions, each with its own distinctive aesthetics, iconography, and supernatural beings" (p. 6). Tattoo, for example, is more localized to the Polynesian Triangle, but throughout the Pacific region the human body became a preferred medium for rendering artistic forms and cosmological patterns — evident as much in dance regalia as in tattoo. The portability of tattoo made it especially significant for the seafaring and exploring character of Polynesian society. Navigation, too, stressed the importance of art for depicting elements of the celestial world: the stars and directionality essential for successful seafaring.

References

"Art of the South Pacific: Polynesia." (n.d.). Retrieved from http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/art-of-the-south-pacific-polynesia/

Kjellgren, W. (2007). Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kiger, P. J. (n.d.). Australian aboriginal creation stories. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/the-story-of-god-with-morgan-freeman/articles/australian-aboriginal-creation-stories/

Kleiner, F. S. (2016). Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Cengage.