As with all artistic expression, Aboriginal art is
shaped and determined by its social and cultural setting. It is an
expression of knowledge and place in the social structure as well
as a means of expressing identity. Artists express this identity and
social relationship using ancestrally inherited designs and practices.
Whenever an Aboriginal artist, working in a traditional social structure,
produces a work then the content of that work is linked back to the
Dreaming stories and responsibilities of that person. Howard Morphy
has summarised this relationship as follows:
Traditional Aboriginal society is structured by a number of systems
that organise all aspects of life and help to give an individual their
sense of place in society and in their country. These systems vary
across the country but most include kin groups and "moieties".
An individual person is placed through birth in a kin group (or "skin
name" as it is often called in central Australia) while people
and all the features of the natural and spiritual world belong to
one or other of two moieties. These systems (kin groups and moieties)
jointly help to determine many aspects of social or religious behaviour.
divide society into two classes which may then be perpetuated by patrilineal
descent, matrilineal descent or alternating generational descent.
In many parts of Australia all three moieties are important. In art,
moiety can play an important role in determining the subjects which
an artist may paint.
Across most of Arnhem Land there is a patrilineal moiety of two classes,
the Dhuwa and the Yirritja. Artists whose work is represented on this
Web site come from both moieties. For example Charlie Matjuwi Burarrwanga
is the clan leader and elder for the Gumatj (Burarrwanga) clan - with
Yirritja moiety. Moiety affiliation determines many important matters
such as marriage - a person of the Yirritja moiety must marry a person
of the Dhuwa moiety.
Kinship structures are also very important to many Aboriginal societies.
In his book "Papunya Tula", Geoffrey Bardon describes how
all male Aborigines in the western desert region, after full tribal
initiation, own a Dreaming and are the custodians of its associated
stories and songs. Each man can paint or otherwise discuss his personal
Dreaming as he inherits it, or as he is permitted by custom. While
the ownership of the story is strictly demarcated by tribal skin groups,
each one can be part of a much greater story and might overlap with
other stories from other tribes. The skin system is complex, but it
is essential to a proper appreciation of the way that custody of dreaming
stories is established - and the factors which influence the work
of an artist.
In the western desert, the custody of a particular dreaming story
and painting of it is determined by tribal skin relationships ("skin
names"). There are eight male skin groups (starting with T) and
eight female skin groups (starting with N) as shown in the following
Arrows point from marriage partners to their children and joined
(paired) boxes show allowed combinations of skin names for marriage
This summary can only give a very limited insight into the relationship
of art and social structure in traditional Aboriginal societies. However,
it does allow an impression of the complexities behind ownership of
stories and designs in aboriginal art - and an appreciation that these
are still strong today.