Aboriginal Inspired Yarn Paintings

This year's theme for NAIDOC Week is 'Because of Her, We Can!' My Year 5 students created these yarn paintings inspired by the paintings of indigenous West Australian women. Some of the artists we researched were Biddee Baadjo, Queenie McKenzie, Eubena Nampitjin, Jill Jack, Kim West Napurrula, Nada Rawlins, Marcia Purdie, Rosie Goodjie and Stumpy Brown.

Yarn paintings or nierika, are traditionally made by the Huichol people of Mexico. I hadn't attempted this before with students and I was surprised by how well they did. We used only pieces of card and a glue stick. 

       

Queenie McKenzie                         Kim West Naparrula                       Eubena Nampitjin             

       

Rosie Goodjie                                    Biddee Baadjo                                                Jill Jac

Marcia Purdie                                       Stumpy Brown                                                   Nada Rawlins

    

   

 

 

 

 

     

   

Aboriginal Inspired "Bark" Paintings

Bark painting images via http://www.tribalmania.com

 

Aboriginal bark painting is an art form that has existed in Australia for hundreds of years and is still practiced by indigenous peoples in Western Australia's Kimberley region. My grade three students recently celebrated NAIDOC Week by creating aboriginal inspired paintings.

Students scrunched and creased a piece of brown paper to create a surface imitating the texture and softness of bark. They were then asked to draw an Australian animal for the focus of their design and to create line and pattern in their work inspired by images of various examples of traditional Aboriginal artwork. We discussed the innovative practices of the aboriginal peoples who used crushed rock and clay pieces, charcoal and mixtures of blood, feathers, fat and other organic material to create their paints, resulting in a variety of earthy colours. Students were asked to use a similar colour range when painting their design and were offered small paintbrushes as well as various sticks to use as painting tools.

The work was completed by gluing sticks collected from the school grounds to the edges of the painting and tying string to the top of each piece for display.