Hi everyone! This post is a part of an assignment for my Indigenous Cultures course, but I'll be back to normal posts soon!
Yesterday I visited the 40,000 Years gallery mural in the Redfern neighborhood of Sydney. These paintings have been seen as an icon of the indigenous Eora people - native to Sydney - for over 30 years, and it is in the process of being restored.
The mural is rightly named as it showcased pieces of Aboriginal life events past and present. It starts at the beginning of time with the Rainbow Serpent. The serpent is a critical aspect of Aboriginal spirituality. The serpent rose from the land and created the mountains, rivers, and all other geographical features of Australia. You can see the serpent showcased at the beginning of the mural wall, and when it reappears from time to time throughout the wall, and then it's tail at the end.
In accordance with the theme of traveling through time and land, along the mural there are food prints leading the viewer through the featured events. For example, the segment below shows the journeys and customs of Aboriginal people prior to the invasion using the footprints.
One crucial event within the painting is the invasion of Australia. The following segment of painting shows a boat arriving to the country, and the figures on the left represent the indigenous people fighting back, and the deaths that resulted.
The next piece of the wall depicts the stolen generation featuring a young Aboriginal boy outside of a mission. The boy's emotion and the mission's dark color represent the negative consequences and immense maltreatment of the stolen generation. Also, this segment of the painting is far simpler than the rest as to signify the loss of the culture.
Next is the Aboriginal flag flying over the cityscape of Sydney. This is an acknowledgement showing that the land Sydney has been built upon is land originally owned by the Aboriginal people: the 29 clans that collectively make up the Eora nation on which Sydney sits.
From here the wall makes a positive shift and showcases positive community figures of Redfern. Such as Aunty Mona Donnelly who is shown in the above photo to the far right, and the winning Redfern All Black's Rugby team of 1979:
The photos I've shown thus far are of restored segments of the mural. There is plenty more work to be done to rebuild this piece of art. Here are some examples to painting that are yet to be improved:
Soon the chips will be covered, the lines redefined, and the colors brightened, and the 40,000 year murals will be good as new.
What I found most interesting about this piece of art is that it is Aboriginal style work is combined with narrative paintings of the indigenous people. Aboriginal paintings are typically maps of the land. These maps are not as literal as western topographical maps; they can also tell a story. The shapes within paintings serve as a symbol system for an Aboriginal nation, it's people, and its culture. This map and story concept is shown through the foot prints, native wildlife, and geographical features shown throughout the mural. Through these symbols and traditional designs such as the use of circles, dots and wavy lines this mural encompasses an Aboriginal style of art.
In contrast, there are parts of the mural that have a more western style. These images are literal, straight forward paintings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These portraits integrate into the Aboriginal art of the mural and create a multidimensional, dynamic piece that tells a story even to those who have limited knowledge on traditional Aboriginal Australian art and its symbols.
This mural, originally created in 1983, represents Redfern's role as an active community for modern day Aboriginal Australians. It shows tens of thousands of years: events in Australian history, native culture, the development of Sydney, and the integration of Aboriginal citizens into today’s community. I truly enjoyed taking a morning going to see this landmark. It is efforts such as these that are revitalizing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in modern Australia.
Sources:
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/03/14/redferns-iconic-40000-years-mural-be-restored
http://redfernoralhistory.org/Peopleandplaces/ART/Mural198340000years/tabid/311/Default.aspx
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/sydneys-history/aboriginal-history