Aboriginal drawing Kaye Mary ORSHO, natural pigments on paper, 1996

Aboriginal drawing Kaye Mary ORSHO, natural pigments on paper, 1996
This drawing on paper from Melville Island (Australia) is the most direct transcription of paintings on wood practiced by the Tiwi aboriginals. The ancestors represented here are aquatic ancestors. This community being near the littoral, their mythology conveys this environnment.
The pattern represented is that of sacred poles used on the occasion of "pukumani" funerary ceremonies - birds, alone or associated to geometric patterns and in this case, more stylised. These bords evoke aspects of Creation: according to Tiwis, they are at the origin of the great rites of the isle of Melville like this one, funerary, of the pukumanis.
The drawings are of several types:
- Spider webs, which Boraka evokes, the spider woman of Creation time who invented the basket used during funerary ceremonies.
- Poles, or sculpted and painted trunks, planted in the soil on the tomb of the dead (see sculptures). They translate the importance that Tiwis accord to the "pukumani" ceremony, pivot of their ritual system.
- diadems, arm bands, bracelets, linked as well to tiwi ceremonies since the dancers which participate bears these ritual jewels made of bark and decorated with abruss grains.
- stone awes which are reminiscent of the sacred elms which Bumerli holds in each hand. When this divine being hits them to reprimand his children, thunder growls.
- bark and geometric patterns
Dimensions : 38 x 57 cm