Bark Paintings

The bark paintings are now recognized as one of the outstanding forms of primitive art in the world. They are painted on a sheet of prepared stringy-bark, with a feather or twig (whose end is teased) brush. A red ground color is usually applied and is rubbed over with orchid juice to provide a firm and smooth surface. The whole design may be sketched out and in filled, or it may be done completely section by section. Only those who paint the sacred subjects are recognized artists, and any man may paint the non-ritual ones.

In north-eastern Arnhem Land the bark paintings portray remarkable compositions, covering in great detail the whole surface of bark, in which are incorporated ancestral and spirit beings, totemic animals, plants and other things, clouds, waves, rain, and other natural features of the land, sea and sky associated with the mythology and daily activities of the people. The designs are symmetrically balanced, well designed, many of them are divided into halves, quarters, or broad panels and they are framed in a border of cross-hatched lines. The actual figures are crudely portrayed in a stylized manner.

Bark paintings also occur in the Kimberleys.   They were formerly used in the Bora initiation ceremonies of New South Wales and Victoria but no specimens from south-east Australia are in existence.

The sacred paintings are done on a ceremonial ground and are shown to initiates during the Nara and Ngurlmak ceremonies, but some of them may be seen by the ceremonial leaders only, particularly if they portray the activities of the major ancestral beings. Each clan has its own sacred designs, and a clansman may show his design, together with the song and story, to a member of another clan who pays for the privilege with gifts; a man is thus able to extend considerably his knowledge of these designs and their mythology. Some of the designs are found in a dream by the spirit of a man or a woman, and become the property of the person.   In addition to his personal and clan designs, an initiated man may have the right to paint those of his mother's and mother's mother's groups, and he inherits designs from his father or mother's brother. His own clan design is the most important one to him because it holds part of his spirit derived from the great ancestral and spirit beings. It is thought that the painting of sacred subjects on bark was inspired by their depiction on the men's bodies during ceremonies.

Here, too, non-religious paintings on bark may be done by any man who feels a desire to portray a favorite hunting or fishing locality, a mortuary rite, camp dance, Macassan proa, and various daily activities, either on his hut or on a separate piece of bark. They are painted for pleasure, or to record an event, but hunting and fishing magic to ensure success may be implied in these particular subjects.

On Groote Eylandt a single totemic animal or celestial body is a favorite subject but compositions explaining sacred myths are also painted, usually on a black or yellow ground color.

In western Arnhem Land the bark paintings are a natural development of the remarkable cave art of this area. The artists prefer to paint single figures, and have considerable scope of expression in their portrayals which were often done on the bark sheets covering their huts. The subjects include ancestral beings, mormo, mimi and other spirits of the bush and caves, the Rainbow-Serpent, and malignant spirits such as Aranga ; natural species drawn as totems, and for hunting and fishing magic ; men and women whose depiction is a media for sorcery intended to cause illness and death chiefly in connection with love-magic. Many of the paintings in the huts are done for personal pleasure, and the sacred and magical subjects are painted in their ritual context. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the art of this area is its so-called X-ray character; the spinal column, alimentary canal, and other internal organs are illustrated on the animals and human figures, a most unusual development limited to western Arnhem Land.