The Month's New Reading

Two Aspects Of

Australia's Aborigines

It is hard to keep up with the proliferating literature about he Australian aborigine, but at least it ensures that no visitor teed depart without being able to read up on scores of spects of the subject.

new books treat two popu lar subjects with professional ;rtise. The first, Ayers Rock, is Charles P. Mountford, a well vn Australian ethnologist; the nd, Dawn of Art, is by Karel ka, investigator and collector for ipean museums.

Imost every tourist to Australia’s itre” visits Ayers Rock, the con it’s biggest boulder. It rises 0 feet above the flat desert, 200 s south-east of Alice Springs, and \ miles around its perimeter. Its s are steep and it has no soil :ring. Its vivid colouring, particu r in the morning and evening, lufficient to drive most colour era enthusiasts into transports of ?ht. oday, of course, regular tours are lucted to the Rock, and there 1 motel of sorts there to ac modate tourists overnight. But before it became a tourist nick, Ayers Rock was important he life of the aborigines of the mdjara tribe, and it is on this ct that Mountford concentrates.

Water-Holes

ven non-anthropologist types it gain a better appreciation of significance of what they are ;ing at—or climbing over—by ing this book. here are 11 water-holes at Ayers k, some of them permanent; and i in the driest season the •igines obtain water from the : on the western side of the Rock digging in the sand. Numerous « in the base of the Rock give m. dry shelter, and, before the /al of the white man, it was a 1 place to hunt the wild game came to drink at the water-holes, ecause the bare Rock sheds all rain that falls on it, it is ounded by a fertile belt—fertile

for that part of the world—in which tubers, grass-seeds and berries grow well in their seasons.

For all these reasons, Ayers Rock was a place of resort for the Pitjandjara—a place where it was possible for comparatively large numbers of people to stay long enough to carry out the complicated rituals of tribal life, particularly that of initiation.

Mr. Mountford does not give the geographical reason why Ayers Rock is there —presumably it is a relic of the last ice age or a survival from the time when this part of Australia was an inland sea.

The aborigines themselves are, however, under no such geological restrictions. They believe that the Rock rose miraculously out of a large flat sandhill at the close of the creation period, and that 10 different totemic mythical beings created its topography.

A large section of the book deals with the Pitjandjara myths relating to the area. There are also detailed descriptions of the carvings and cave paintings found at Ayers Rock.

The book has five colour plates and a large number of black-and white photographs and drawings. It is printed throughout on art paper.

Four Visits

In the course of 12 years, Karel Kupka, author of Dawn of Art, visited Australia four times. He was “looking for an art, living and practised in our own times, yet still related to the most primitive artistic expression”.

For this he settled on Arnhem Land, the vast aboriginal reserve in the Northern Territory where, despite some missionary and government influence, man still retains more of his original primitive nature than probably anywhere else on earth.

Most of Kupka’s book deals with painting of various forms and sculpture; and although Kupka writes as an artistic observer and not as an anthropologist, this very fact, from the narrative point of view, makes it far more interesting and in telligible to the layman than more scientific treatises that frequently confuse with their highly technical data.

The most typical of Arnhem Land art forms is the bark painting for which there has been an increasing demand in “civilised” Australia and the outside world since the end of World War 11.

There is no indication yet, however (or not, according to the author) that this has become commercialised.

Most bark paintings come from

traditional sources and the techniques s 'are as old as time.

The colours used are natural red, brown and yellow ochres, pipeclay white and black made from crushed charcoal. The artists’ brushes are made from frayed bark, splinters of wood chewed at one end. or twigs to which hairs, fibres or feathers are attached.

Paints are mixed with water—a fact that makes conservation a difficult problem for collectors.

Largely Symbolic

The artist, in his natural element, having painted and expressed him self, takes no particular care of his painting and few survive more than a few months in the tropical climate of Arnhem Land.

The aboriginal artist uses his painting to reflect his personal beliefs and innermost thoughts, but, at the same time, such painting is largely symbolic.

Every dot and line can have real meaning that can be recognised by the initiated, says the author. It is a sort of rudimentary pictography that serves not only a ritual but a practical purpose. It is also the means whereby the youngsters can be educated in the history—and the myths—of their tribe.

Although most of the book con cerns painting on bark, one chapter is devoted to aboriginal sculpture in wood and other materials.

The book is lavishly illustrated with over 30 colour plates and others in monotone and black and white.— JT.

(Ayers Rock, 65/-; Dawn Op Art,

70/-. Both published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney.)