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I went to visit a friend's house and they had a beautiful piece of traditional Aboriginal Art mounted on their kitchen wall. I was immediately drawn to the style and color of the painting and it struck me that this was powerfully psychedelic and strongly resonated with some of my religious experiences. Their 'orbs' of multicolored light which appears frequently in their art reminds me of my own entity contact and gives me the chills.

I'm curious as to why there has been little to no mention of using divine plants in their culture to create altered states of consciousness, as Australia has plenty of potent Psilocybin/other species and Acacias. I strongly doubt that in the 40,000+ years Aboriginal culture have walked these lands with a strong connection to their land and all species within that they would have no knowledge/practise of plant based shamanism. Their spiritual beliefs surrounding their Dreamtime sounds like they've accessed knowledge through altered states of consciousness that would otherwise be inaccessible.

I sense that this knowledge has been safeguarded by the Aborignal people from Westerners (myself included) and I completely understand. The Sacred must be protected.

P.S. Their art is truly engrossing!

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two schools of thought, I heard about, one say's they did not use dmt for example, the other say's it's secret mens business, and that's why we don't know.

I believe they knew about, the halucigenic powers of some acacias. maybe they knew, but had no use for it.

even if aboriginal art looks sometimes psychedelic, it's common understanding, it has nothing to do with halus.

aboriginal people, never produced alcohol either....

we can be proud to share this country, with the natives, they are awesome people, with beautyfull spirits and souls! :)

Edited by planthelper
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I love some of the aboriginal art work too, it certainly seems to be inspired by something of a psychedelic nature.

I watched a movie (again) the other night with David Gulpilil & Gary Sweet titled the Tracker and it was set in the outback, it looked a lot like the Kimberly region.

One thing that struck me was the abundance of Acacias, in some shots all the trees were Acacias.

The way I see it, if your direct family has lived in the area for thousands of years burning wood for cooking and camp fires, you'd know which were the good ones.

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One thing I've cone to learn about it is that some aboriginal work is topographic, and maps out water holes, food sources etc

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Are dot paintings traditional Aboriginal art?

It is unknown to many that Aboriginal painters introduced the dot painting technique in the early 1970s, stimulated by a white school teacher.

Dot paintings from Papunya have become one of the most important phenomena in Australian art.

 

aboriginal-dot-painting%28detail%29.jpgDetail of an Aboriginal dot painting. Note how the dots form shapes and areas which encode information for initiated viewers.

Aboriginal dot paintings are everywhere. Walk into any Aboriginal art gallery and you’ll find them. The dot painting style is used for paintings, vases, on t-shirts, stones, fridge magnets—anything people would buy.

But is dot pointing traditional Aboriginal art?

You’ll be surprised to learn that dot painting on canvas emerged in central Australia in the early 1970s as a result of Aboriginal people working together with a white art school teacher, Geoffrey Bardon [1].

The Papunya Tula art movement

Map: The central Aboriginal community of Papunya is located about 240 kms north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Bardon was assigned as an art teacher for children to the Papunya community in 1971. Papunya then was an artificial community of 2,500 Aboriginal people who had been assimilated from the desert.

Bardon encouraged his students to paint a mural based on traditional dreamings on the school walls [5,6]. The murals sparked tremendous interest in the community and soon many men started painting [3]. At first they used cardboard or pieces of wood, which was later replaced by canvas.

geoffrey-bardon-in-front-of-mural.jpgGeoffrey Bardon stands in front of the mural on a school wall in Papunya, August 1971. Photo: Robert Bardon [7]

In 1972 the artists established their own company, Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd. Their works sparked the genesis of the Western Desert art movement, now internationally recognised as “one of the most important events in Australian art history” [3].

The company is entirely owned and directed by traditional Aboriginal people, mainly from the Luritja/Pintubi language groups. In 2011 it had 49 shareholders and represented 120 artists [3]. Artists Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa were among the founding members.

Today the community is famously known as the Papunya Tula School of Painters and is home to around 150 Aboriginal artists [1].

Papunya Tula now raises money to fund a new dialysis service, for example. But it also is a social hub which contributes to the well-being of its often very senior artists.

“[Painting] is not just a profession, it’s a social activity,” says Paul Sweeney, Papunya Tula Arts General Manager [8]. “The ladies get together and chat and talk about men probably and gossip I guess, and that’s what art centres are all about. It’s a hub, it’s a communal hub where people get together and do what they do and the kids and the rellies [relatives] come through and that’s a good thing because they’re all sharing in the atmosphere of the art centre and watching and learning and taking it all in.”

How the dot painting style emerged

Bardon helped the Aboriginal artists transfer depictions of their stories from desert sand to paint on canvas. They soon realised that the sacred-secret objects they painted were being seen not only by European, but also related Aboriginal people which could be offended by them [5]. The artists decided to eliminate the sacred elements and abstracted the designs into dots [4,5] to conceal their sacred designs which they used in ceremony.

During ceremonies Aboriginal people would clear and smoothe over the soil to then apply sacred designs which belonged to that particular ceremony. These designs were outlined with dancing circles and often surrounded with dots [2].

In the early years of Papunya paintings still showed clear depictions of artefacts, sand paintings and decorated ritual objects. But this style disappeared within a few years.

Uninitiated people never got to see these sacred designs since the soil would be smoothed over again and painted bodies would be washed. This was not possible with paintings. Consequently Aboriginal artists abstracted the sacred designs to disguise the meanings associated with them.

Some paintings are layered, and while they probably appear meaningless to non-Aborigines, the dot paintings might reveal much more to an Aboriginal person depending on their level of initiation.

The first paintings to come from the Papunya Tula School of Painters weren’t made to be sold. Papunya Tula Artists manager, Paul Sweeney, explains that they “were produced by people who were displaced, and living a long way from their country. The works were visual representations of their own being. They painted sites that they belonged to and the stories that are associated with those sites. Essentially they were painting their identity onto their boards, as a visual assertion of who they were and where they were from.” [3]

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I assume that the dreaming is a state/ place reached by use of entheogenic plant/meditation. You know what they say about assuming though ;)

Edited by Laila
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They may not have produced alcohol....but some did acquire it from the environment down this way and promoted it through increasing natural hollows....

Cider gum (E.gunnii) was one such source :wink:

Dot paintings not of this islands art....petroglyphs well thats another story

Edited by waterboy
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Most of the possible information gained was lost through great britains systematic genocide of the Australian indigenous people. All info was was handed down word of mouth and an estimated 2 million indiginous were killed, grandfathers, men, women, children, babies. This is 3/4 generations within 50 years deleted from existance. From then on we were poisened purposely to believe that aboriginal Australians were a sub species of animal through purposeful propaganda so we could feel better about basically killing them and stealing a country. Unfortunately that's where most of your valuable information came to an end.

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Somehow I feel that the National Australian 'Sorry Day' for the stolen generation of the Aborigines doesn't quite make up for what has been done to their harmonious way of living and deeply spiritual culture. We're truly an insane species.

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^^understatement of the century^^

simply speaking, the answer is somewhere between what santiago said & it's none of your damn business.

if you ask most indigenous people they're likely to tell you that white people have stuck their filthy noses into enough of their business without exploiting their secret sacred religious practices as well.

Edited by paradox
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I assume that the dreaming is a state/ place reached by use of entheogenic plants/ meditation. You know what they say about assuming though..

traditional aboriginal cultural paradigms are so utterly different from the western colonial cultural paradigm it's extremely hard if not utterly impossible for westerners to comprehend.

very deep & subtle spiritual things that are extremely alien to most white people & therefore are entirely attributed to psychedelic experiences in white culture, generally speaking, are, in aboriginal cultures, not alien at all, they are as fundamental part of the reality of the world as clothes & bread & money are to white people.

the only reason white people automatically assume that expressions of deep subtle spiritual matters must be attributed to psychedelics is that western culture is incredibly spiritually impoverished. generally speaking the only thing powerful enough to break a westerner out of their disconnected delusions & thrust their profoundly deep connections to the earth & the cosmos & the importance of 'dreaming' into their face is psychedelic compounds. aboriginal cultures simply have a much more sophisticated understanding of these matters & these things are inherent in the nature of the universe. psychedelics can just help to break down the illusions that stop you from seeing it.. you really don't need them when you have a 60,000 year old culture that is based on these fundamental aspects of nature. thats not to say they didn't use psychedelics, who knows? but it's important to realize how ill-equipped western people are for even beginning to understand these things & even less equipped for understanding the deeper issues at play when considering the existential complexities of how white people came to be here, now today.

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Well I thought I was going to learn something by joining this conversation but I just feel slightly belittled. Paradox, with all of your reference to white man, and given that you singled me out, I thought that I should mention that I'm middle eastern ;) now back to the topic.....

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it's cool, didn't mean to belittle you or single you out, this conversation has been had before a lot & your comment echo's a common thought.. sorry if my comment made you feel shitty.

beside the point i suppose but most middle eastern people are caucasian & therefore considered white even though they generally are less fair than europeans btw

edit: just wanted to say again i didn't mean to single you out laila, more just hijacked your quote as a stating point for a narcissistic rant, it wasn't really just directed at you.

Edited by paradox

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i say white people because of the history of this country.. it's relevant really for pretty much any industrialized cultures that have an externalized god at the center of a religion that has been used for the purpose of mass social control for centuries. is hard to be specific in these things

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the blood of the first men from perhaps 50k years ago flows in my veins... but for all purposes in todays world i guess im half caste and or even "white" even tho my full blood brother is dark as the night. my old man is dark and my mums white so theres your explaination if you wanna judge :P

my bro had always had the chance to incorporate the understanding of the first men but instead choose the understanding of the jewish god jesus although i will never blame him i always wonder what chances made him favoir the white mans god over our own... an ongoing battle of theos lol

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There are more "white" black fellas than many perceive.

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You Smurfs are all blue to me. :wink:

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:)

The human body, regardless of skin colour is an amazing thing.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if we consider the fullness of time and what will eventuate as a reaction to evolutionary circumstances) WE have been plagued by parasitic programming which has undermined our conscious perceptions of reality.

Some people need the help of 'Spirit molecules' to shake off separative programing from the Divine truth, some people have so much damage they choose to never see the Divine truth, others have avoided most of the programming and naturally gravitate to what FEELS right. (hint! hint! :wink: )

Letting go of pain can be hard when it seems to be the thing that defines you.

But time and time again 'I' have taken that heart wrenching dive into the unknown (and I know there is more to come), yet invisible wings, hands and voices guide my way with a big golden smile in my mind.

The human body is an amazing thing.

...or was that dogs I was talking about? :wink: I get 'words' confused sometimes...

:)

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the blood of the first men from perhaps 50k years ago flows in my veins... but for all purposes in todays world i guess im half caste and or even "white" even tho my full blood brother is dark as the night. my old man is dark and my mums white so theres your explaination if you wanna judge :P

i have an indigenous mate who is fully ginger, milky white skin & freckles all over, he had a kid with a white girl & his kid was really really dark.. he totally didn't quite get it at first, he thought his wife had cheated on him, flipped out & went on a rampage across the country side for two months before his family found him & explained to him properly that this happens. theres heaps of indigenous folks who's fair color really is only skin deep

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edit: just wanted to say again i didn't mean to single you out laila, more just hijacked your quote as a stating point for a narcissistic rant, it wasn't really just directed at you.

S'all good

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Hmm, I'm really on the fence re: replying but the thread got me thinking and, by coincidence, I was researching today about indigenous groups in the Pilbara, so here we go! In many of those groups petroglyphs are considered to have been created by the creation spirits at the time "when the world was soft" and not modern (indigenous) man. That is a curious twist.

I personally do not believe that indigenous Australians made great use of, for example, DMT occurring in acacias even if these plants are widely known and distributed or featured in mythology. By comparison there is scant, if any, evidence that native americans of southern arizona or northern mexico ever used the excretions of the sonoran desert toad in rituals, even if this animal was associated with fertility and the arrival of the monsoon, and also contains an extremely potent hallucinogen considerably easier to extract than DMT from acacia sp.. Those items may show up as archaeological and anthropological research progresses in the future, so I hold my opinion (as always) with reservation. But both cultures use other plants (such as tobacco) widely to illicit a variety of (milder) psychotropic effects.

Basically, because the compound is there in the environment does not necessarily mean it has been exploited or even necessary to attain deep spiritual insight. The article re: dot painting was to suggest that what appears like a DMT trip is a product of exposure to western society and the infiltration of acrylic paint, although it was born out of sand "painting" or ephemeral art.

traditional aboriginal cultural paradigms are so utterly different from the western colonial cultural paradigm it's extremely hard if not utterly impossible for westerners to comprehend.

It is very hard to understand other cultural paradigms from the outside, true. You have to climb inside and that is particularly hard for cultures whose mystic techniques have been obfuscated by time and interference. I thought the "first footprints" series that aired on ABC lately did a very good job and in particular the episode that featured kanulda (canulda) cave on the Nullabour Plain and the corresponding description of the ceremonies that may have been performed there, and the discussion around the gabarnmung rock shelter is also worth a look.

The problem that I encounter in looking at varied cultural paradigms is realizing that how we view reality is an interpretation, even our own "scientific understanding" is a cultural interpretation (flame away if you must!), and that does not leave very much firm ground. The folks around here (the Pilbara) seem to have some deep fundamental connection that's in their blood/lineage that is very difficult to replicate for me personally, despite living and being involved with their landscape quite intimately. When I feel I am almost on the inside, I'm looking from the outside again, and everything is comparative and deconstructed.

Connection with the landscape at the level of the closed cultural system is something we have lost to our detriment; because of multifaceted infiltration of outside influences into these pure collective cultural perceptions, now everything is murky and diluted - and it will be the ruin of us because it diffuses the notion of responsibility and interpolation of relationships between man/woman, culture and land. That is not to say all (or even most) indigenous cultures were full of saints, however.

but it's important to realize how ill-equipped western people are for even beginning to understand these things & even less equipped for understanding the deeper issues at play when considering the existential complexities of how white people came to be here, now today.

I understand what you are saying and i agree. However, It is in my nature to believe everyone (generally) is equally well equipped. It is our culture that is not equipped and the reason for that is complex. If you could remove cultural paradigms from a person, you could put an entirely new paradigm in its place and they would see clearly enough. (and imagine if you could remove all interpretations and apprehend directly!) The hardware is all there, what we have is a software problem. The plants are the software engineers par excellence, aside from the monster that is culture itself.

As per:

The human body, regardless of skin colour is an amazing thing.

Unfortunately (or fortunately if we consider the fullness of time and what will eventuate as a reaction to evolutionary circumstances) WE have been plagued by parasitic programming which has undermined our conscious perceptions of reality

and

my bro had always had the chance to incorporate the understanding of the first men but instead choose the understanding of the jewish god jesus although i will never blame him i always wonder what chances made him favoir the white mans god over our own... an ongoing battle of theos lol

We are terra nullius at the beginning but culture infiltrates everything so quickly it's hard to know it's even happened. In disparate cultures (prior to globalisation) it was landscape, flora and fauna that imprinted perceptual realities. Now that we live in a globalised world where everything has been mixed together we have opportunity and disaster simultaneously. How, indeed, do we formulate a cogent worldview under those circumstances? Indigenous peoples had a pure (and sheltered) view and understanding of their immediate homeland that went very deep, that is hard to emulate for those of us plugged to TV and internet etc. They did not necessarily need plants to unfold immense internal collective cosmologies.

Nevertheless one thing the plants do allow, under certain circumstances, is for you to really climb into another culture and see it “from the inside” so to speak, so for me, the Amazonian culture (and even more so, perhaps, sacred plant using cultures of the deep past) is “easier” to penetrate than the indigenous Australian culture because there is no single visionary plant that mediates that culture directly and provides accumulated "cultural feedback" such as you might get in other plant-centered shamanic cultures. In effect I can't jump in a take a ride to reveal items quickly, so i can only piece it together slowly. It's curious.

This is a really complicated discussion and I almost don’t want to be drawn into it here, but I can’t really resist either because it is of fundamental interest and importance. It’s very complex and there are many conflicting and multifaceted points that could be raised and that would require serious consideration.

Whatever the case, it is an absolute blessing that indigenous artwork (of all cultures) are still extant to teach us that other perceptual options exist.

Edited by Micromegas
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There are more "white" black fellas than many perceive.

Just because ones skin is pale does not make one white!

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Micromegas

^ ^ thanks for posting that, you seem to be a very thoughtful person

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I understand what you are saying and i agree. However, It is in my nature to believe everyone (generally) is equally well equipped. It is our culture that is not equipped and the reason for that is complex. If you could remove cultural paradigms from a person, you could put an entirely new paradigm in its place and they would see clearly enough. (and imagine if you could remove all interpretations and apprehend directly!) The hardware is all there, what we have is a software problem. The plants are the software engineers par excellence, aside from the monster that is culture itself.

well said & i agree completely! i wasn't meaning to infer it was a genetic thing.. most definitely cultural

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