Designs and forms

The designs and forms used in bark painting cannot be explained exhaustively insofar as they are connected with personal histories, clans or ancestral beings. Because they result from encounters with these beings, the forms are therefore sacred, and, in this sense, Aboriginal imagery is highly consistent. By carefully observing the work, the way the patterns are organized and the symbolic use of the form and colours, the viewer will begin, little by little, to decipher the meaning of the picture.
 

Almond

An almond shape, like the circle, can refer to sacred places, but also to a coffin or the vulva.

Circle

Depending on the context, the circle can stand for a fireplace, a camp, a waterhole, a mountain or hill, in short usually a sacred place. Circles linked by lines refer to the itinerary of the creator beings. A circle containing a dot can, depending on the context, represent the sun, a boulder on the beach or an egg.

Dots

Dots are the prints left by human beings or animals. They tell the path taken over the land, which leads to a significant place. In other contexts, the dots are drops of water droplets reflecting light in clear water or rain. From a formal viewpoint, they are used as filler.

Triangle

The triangle is mainly associated with movement, such as running water - which can also be represented by a wavy line. In addition, the undulating line is used for the snake, but also as protection against the wind to show a twisting path. The triangle has a strong association with land.

Colours

Four colours are traditionally used in Aboriginal painting. Red ochre is a highly sacred colour. It can symbolize blood, energy, fire and the powers. Yellow ochre symbolizes fluidity, water. White, or delek, embodies the sky with its torrential rains, the air and the stars. Black, made from charcoal, is the earth, the traces of the fire during which the spirits landed on earth in the Dreamtime. Note that the colour symbolism corresponds to