Culture Gallery

Petroglyph on greenstone, granite of Archaean age, of unknown origin

Petroglyph on greenstone, granite of Archaean age, of unknown origin. Aboriginal owners disclaim authorship and say the designs were done by legendary spirits. Such abstract forms are typical of NW Australia's desert rock art and are among Australia's oldest rock art. The granite is an outcrop of a greenstone batholith, part of the buoyant greenstone raft that coalesced to form the Pilbara Block foundations over three billion years ago.
. Eastern Pilbara, Western Australia

© Reg Morrison/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

An band of yellow ochre in a pit at the Granites

An band of yellow ochre in a pit at the Granites. Aboriginal people used ochre for ceremonial body painting and rituals and to paint artifacts and message diagrams, using different coloured pigments: some ochre is heated up, colour varying with temperature. Once prepared, the ochre was mixed with a binder such as garliwun (tree resin), bush honey, egg yolks or kangaroo blood. The artist was then ready to begin painting. Mount Magnet, Northern Goldfields, Western Australia

Aboriginal rock paintings of figures with enormous headdresses or hats

Aboriginal rock paintings of figures with enormous headdresses or hats, on Bigge Island, about 20 km from the mainland at Cape Pond. Bonaparte Archipelago, Kimberley region, Western Australia, Australia

Aboriginal, Aborigines, Ancient, Art, Australian, Cave, Contact, Culture, Depiction, Historical, Indigenous Australians, Ochre, Overhang, Painting, Period, Picture, Pigment, Rock Art, Shelter, Style, Traditional