LBST 1B05 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Paternalism, Reliquary, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

• School: OCAD University
• Department: Liberal Studies
• Course: LBST 1B05
• Professor: Ryan Whyte

Document Summary

Lecture 6: aboriginal australian art & african art. Dream time: idea of time where ancestral beings occupy the surface of the earth, taking on forms of animals or inanimate objects like stones; they shaped the earth. After this time, they withdrew into the earth or transformed into aspects of the landscape. Though these ancestral beings no longer occupy the earth, they continue to occupy another plane of existence. They left behind a body of sacred law in the form of songs, dances, paintings and so on. Human groups are entrusted to maintain and use this sacred law to preserve the memory of dreamtime events, and reenact it in ritual, providing a source of power and continuity for subsequent generations. Art serves as a way of mediating the relationship between the dream time and the present. Art is inherently spiritual and embodies religious knowledge to be passed down from one culture to the next: artist as a caretaker of culture.