Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal Rock Art

Aboriginal rock art is the oldest form of indigenous Australian art with the earliest examples discovered at Gabarnmung in Arnhem Land dating back around 28,000 years.

Hand stencils were often used to assert tribal status or lay claim to territory. The artist would simply place their hand on the wall, take a mouthful of pigment and spray it over their hand leaving a negative imprint.

Aboriginal Dot Painting

Aboriginal Dot Paintings came about in 1971 when an art teacher encouraged his students to use the dot and circle design he saw in Aboriginal body paintings and sand drawings to create more permanent artworks using acrylic paints.

Here are some examples of Dot Paintings by Aboriginal Artists..

Aboriginal Symbols

Make your own version of Aboriginal Art

We are going to combine hand stencils, dot paintings and Aboriginal symbols to make your own Aboriginal Art!

First we are going to make a stencil of our hand by placing one hand down on a piece of paper and tracing around it with a pencil.

Next we are going to fill in the hand with the Aboriginal symbols that we looked at. You can use whichever ones you want to and place them however you like. Use a black pen or marker for this part.

Choose two colours. Go around the outline of the hand with dots using your chosen colours.

You can cut out your hand and stick it on to black paper if you have some. Or any other colour paper. Maybe you could use coloured paper from a paper bag.

Look at some of the fantastic examples sent in by your classmates so far!

Listen to some relaxing Aboriginal music while you work.