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Catalogue Number: 25/37 Acrylic on Canvas
This picture tells a story about women’s body painting during special ceremony times. Aboriginal women paint their bodies using natural ochre from the earth. The ochre that women living in Central Australia use is mostly found near river beds and can be different colours. The curved shapes represent the women sitting on the ground with a smooth rock in the middle that they used for grinding the ochre, they then mix it with water to make paint. The patterns painted on the body tell a story. Older women pass on this tradition to the younger women, they teach how to make the paint, how to apply it and what the patterns mean.