Painting Link to Ceremony and Dance

The Rainbow Serpent is a key creation being that is widely represented in Aboriginal art. In 1975, artist Rover Thomas had a dream where his recently deceased aunt told him that she had witnessed the Rainbow Serpent. In his dream, his aunt also said that Cyclone Tracy, which hit Garramilla/Darwin a few months before, had been sent as a punishment to the people who lived there because they were not practising culture. This dream inspired Thomas to create a ceremonial song-and-dance-cycle called Guirr-Guirr which included the use of painted boards in the performance. One of them, Cyclone Tracy, has since come to characterise one of the most distinctive movements in the First People’s art of Australia. With its simple composition and large, flat areas of colour, Cyclone Tracy is a powerful work that reflects the connection between art, ceremony and dance. Using a similarly limited colour palette and minimal designs and shapes, Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford’s painting Merrmerrji Creek – Queensland Creek shows an aerial view of his father’s Country. Bedford only started painting on board and canvas in his seventies, and relied on his memory and intimate knowledge of Country to depict important sites.