Jillian Stockman NUNGARI

Ceremony Snake Dreaming , 1989

Art : Aboriginal
Origine : Mt Wedge
Dimensions : 290 x 160 x 3 cm
Medium : Acrylic on canvas
Price : VENDUE / SOLD
N° : 3895

As it is only known by Aborigines , the ins and outs of the Ceremony dedicated to the legend of the Snake remain a secret for the uninitiated. We do know, however, that although the snake is greatly feared in the West, where it is said to have evil powers, it is above all an animal that is highly respected by the Aboriginal peoples, who give it the status of a deity. Its ability to kill gives it a mystical aura. Its intelligence, its sense of observation and its calmness are impressive.

Moreover, all the Aborigines know legends about him, often linked to a specific place: a water hole, a cave, a rock or a mountain - in this case Mount Wedge. The Aborigines gather at these places to celebrate ceremonies in which participants dress their bodies in paint and perform dances while singing epics to the sound of percussion (often digging sticks or spears in the central desert).

These sacred stories explain the deeds of great ancestors such as the serpent who created the world in the Dreamtime and whose deeds set the rules of life, the 'law'. The songs, dances and paintings are all mnemonic devices that allow the intitiated to find their way back to the desert, especially the sites where natural water reserves are found, as is certainly the case at the foot of the Sacred Mount.

The concentric circles near the reptile's head represent Mount Wedge, the other ochre circles are probably the nests surrounded by eggs (the white oblong shapes) which repeat endlessly. The plots of dotted lines of multiple colours on the canvas symbolise the territories traversed by the ancestor. These shapes are themselves painted on the bodies of the participants in the ceremony.