QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—Phys.org reports that a new study of Aboriginal artworks in northern Australia’s Arnhem Land suggests that massive paintings dating to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries may have been created in response to European colonization. These images include seven-foot-long pythons, life-size crocodiles and kangaroos, and Rainbow Serpents measuring some 20 feet long. Archaeologist Paul Taçon of Griffith University and his colleagues have been working with senior Amurdak Traditional Owner Charlie Mungulda to record more than 160 rock art sites in the Awunbarna region in western Arnhem Land. “Awunbarna was a focal point between various Aboriginal language groups for trade, ceremonies, and other social gatherings,” Taçon explained. The colonial buffalo-shooting industry also started in the area in the late nineteenth century, bringing immense changes to the region, he added. The researchers explained that Rainbow Serpents are ancestral beings who are able to fold time, so that the Dreamtime is in the past, and continues into the present. The powerful beings are also linked to the idea of change, and learning to cope with and control it. In all, the team members recorded 29 images of Rainbow Serpents at 21 of the 165 sites. Many of the images were found to have been drawn over older artworks with white pipe clay, which fades in a few hundred years. “As the most powerful of all Ancestral Beings, the Rainbow Serpent was a potent force that could be used, through depictions, stories, and ceremonies, to help give Aboriginal people some stability and control over their destiny in rapidly changing times by reinforcing traditions,” Taçon explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Australian Archaeology. To read more about rock art in Arnhem Land, go to "Aboriginal Animal Spotters."
