Layer

NameArt and Artists - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History
DescriptionSome important people and events in the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. This isn't a complete list but is a good place to start.
TypeOther
Content WarningThis layer contains names of people who have passed.
ContributorDan Price
Entries11
Allow ANPS? No
Added to System2022-09-10 15:57:43
Updated in System2022-09-10 22:10:16
Subject art, history
CreatorDan Price
Publisher
Contacttlcmap@newcastle.edu.au
Citation
DOI
Source URL
Linkback
Date From
Date To
Image
Latitude From
Longitude From
Latitude To
Longitude To
LanguageEN
LicenseAsk before re-using.
Usage RightsAsk before re-using.
Date Created (externally)

Rover Thomas

Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-21.66354
Longitude
122.271124
Start Date
1926-01-01
End Date
1998-04-11

Description

Rover Thomas was an artist of the East Kimberley School and inspired fellow East Kimberley artists, such as Queenie McKenzie. His works were the subject of the solo exhbition "Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas" at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 1994. (Source: https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/collections/rover-thomas/, https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/thomas-rover/?tab=works)

Extended Data

place
Gunawaggii, WA

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb326
Linkback
https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/collections/rover-thomas/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-26.003461
Longitude
128.997503
Start Date
End Date

Description

The beginning of the Western Desert painting style had close ties with the back to country movement (early 1970s), with many of the early Papunya works being Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) paintings which "...documented creative acts of ancestral beings which wandered the landscape." The movement expanded through the Western Desert and has gone through several shifts. For example, "...by the late 1990s the paintings were less formal and more free flowing, with the user of a wider pallete of colours." (Source: https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/warakurna/western-desert-art)

Extended Data

place
Western Desert

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb327
Linkback
https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/warakurna/western-desert-art
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-12.050407
Longitude
133.920752
Start Date
End Date

Description

The oldest rock art in Australia, which has been dated back to approx. 26,000 BCE, is a charcoal drawing on a rock fragment in an excavation of the Nawarla (Narwala) Gabarnmang rock shelter in Arnhem Land, NT. (Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/nawarla-gabarnmang.htm)

Extended Data

place
West Arnhem, NT

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb328
Linkback
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/nawarla-gabarnmang.htm
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-11.953818
Longitude
133.015762
Start Date
End Date

Description

The Maliwawa Figures are examples of rock art that have been found at several locations in the NT. It has been recorded that there are "...572 Maliwawa paintings at 87 rock shelters over a 130-kilometre east-west distance, from Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile) to the Namunidjbuk clan estate of the Wellington Range..." They are estimated to be between 6,000 and 9,400 years old. (Source: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/10/the-maliwawa-figures-are-a-previously-undescribed-rock-art-style-found-in-western-arnhem-land/)

Extended Data

place
Arnhem Land, NT

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb329
Linkback
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/10/the-maliwawa-figures-are-a-previously-undescribed-rock-art-style-found-in-western-arnhem-land/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Murujuga, WA

Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-20.557288
Longitude
116.833162
Start Date
End Date

Description

Murujuga contains some of the "...oldest images of the human face, dating back more than 30,000 years..." in its Aboriginal rock carvings. The carvings date back tens of thousands of years and include depictions of now extinct animals, such as the Tasmanian Tiger. (Source: https://www.fara.com.au/murujuga-burrup-rock-art-conservation-project/)

Extended Data

place
Murujuga, WA

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32a
Linkback
https://www.fara.com.au/murujuga-burrup-rock-art-conservation-project/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-33.866916
Longitude
151.208289
Start Date
End Date

Description

The Aboriginal rock art around the Sydney area is thousands of years old and contains "...images of sacred spiritual beings, mythical ancestral hero figures, various endemic animals, fish and many footprints (mundoes)..." Only a few of the sites around Sydney are publicly advertised; this is in order to minimise the potential vandalism or destruction that could occur. "Dating to around 5,000 years,... with some possibly as old as 7,000 years,... Sydney rock art is predominantly found in Ku-ring-gai Council, Sydney Harbour and the Blue Mountains." (Source: https://sydneyrockart.info/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_rock_engravings)

Extended Data

place
Sydney, NSW

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32b
Linkback
https://sydneyrockart.info/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-22.912329
Longitude
133.88013
Start Date
End Date

Description

Panaramitee Style rock art / engravings are named after a site in the Flinders Ranges (SA), which "...depicts a variety of animal tracks including those of macropods, birds and humans as well as radiating designs, circles, spots, crescents and spirals..." Engravings in this style have been found in "...central Australia, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia...", in addition to SA. The style is approx. 7000 years old; this has been deduced from archaeological dating and animal tracks, which "...possibly portray extinct megafauna." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaramitee_Style)

Extended Data

place
Central Australia (+ Other Locations)

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32c
Linkback
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaramitee_Style
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Details

Latitude
-22.229447
Longitude
134.562134
Start Date
1910-01-01
End Date
1996-09-03

Description

Emily Kame Kngwarreye worked in the Simpson Desert in the final decade of her life, creating art through which "...many white Australians first felt the force of an Indigenous art." This was due to her work being seen as able to "...negotiate a space both within the aesthetics of Western abstraction and the timeless precepts of Aboriginal cultural traditions." (Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/kngwarreye-emily-kame/)

Extended Data

place
Alhalkere, NT

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32d
Linkback
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/kngwarreye-emily-kame/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Albert Namatjira

Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-23.935297
Longitude
132.795633
Start Date
1902-07-28
End Date
1959-08-08

Description

Albert Namatjira was an Aboriginal artist who worked in a European style, although this did not mean that he had succumbed to a European / colonised artistic viewpoint. Later assessments of his work came to the conclusion that the landscapes he portrayed were "...coded expressions on traditional sites and sacred knowledge." (Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/namatjira-albert/)

Extended Data

place
Hermannsburg, NT

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32e
Linkback
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/namatjira-albert/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

David Malangi

Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-13.267528
Longitude
134.851559
Start Date
1927-01-01
End Date
1999-06-19

Description

Dr David Malangi started painting after WWII. In 1979, he became one of the first Indigenous artists to "...have his work included in an international exhibition of contemporary art, at the Biennale of Sydney..." He collaborated on The Aboriginal Memorial, which consisted of 200 log coffins at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra "...to mark 200 years of European occupation of Australia." (Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/malai-dr-david/)

Extended Data

place
Arnhem Land, NT

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb32f
Linkback
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/malai-dr-david/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13

Queenie McKenzie

Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-15.828636
Longitude
128.49129
Start Date
1915-01-01
End Date
1998-11-16

Description

Queenie McKenzie was the first woman to paint in Warmun when she began in 1987. Her paintings portray the two worlds in which she lived, "...the sacred landscape of the Ngarrangkarni, and her working life on Texas Downs Station." (Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/mckenzie-queenie/)

Extended Data

place
East Kimberley, WA

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb330
Linkback
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/mckenzie-queenie/
Created At
2022-09-10 16:57:32
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:13
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