Did You Know....?

Aboriginal Australian Art has many uses. It often has ceremonial purposes, stories, teaching purposes, and artistic value. Many times, art represents the community's situations or encounter. For instance, if the painting includes men with guns, it shows interactions with Europeans (and could be used to help date the piece). Similarly, the designs reflect times of plenty and times of scarcity. Art that depicts the inside of an animal, like an x-ray may show hard times because such paintings would be used to teach young hunters exactly how to kill a particular creature to ensure a clean and reliable kill. This type of art may also teach what are good parts of the animal to eat or otherwise use. Some simpler paintings teach lessons through associated stores.

One story tells of two sisters who loved to play tricks on people. One day, one sister snuck away and transformed into a crocodile to scare her sister. The second sister was terrified, believing that she would be eaten by the monter. The 1st sister played this trick several times before the second sister caught on and returned the favour with the exact same trick. Once both sisters knew that they had been tricking each other, they decided to play the same trick on their fellow villagers. An old wise man warned them that they should not play such pranks but they would not listen. Knowing that they had to be taught a lesson, the old man cast a spell on them so that they would be unable to reverse their transformation. The next day the two sisters went to the water to begin their prank, but they found that after they were finished, they could not become girls again. To this day, the humps behind the crocodile's eyes represent the two sisters watching you as you approach the water's edge.