Lonely Planet - Culture Trails

Sarah Coghill / Lonely Planet

Copenhagen's waterways:
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Northern
Territory

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Australia

ABORIGINAL ART IN THE
NORTHERN TERRITORY

The cracked landscapes and creation stories of the Top End are writ large across its rock
walls and galleries: welcome to the heartland of Indigenous Australia's artistic communities.

T he Northern Territorys Top End is a
land rich in Aboriginal culture and art,
both ancient and painted before
your very eyes. The story begins back in the
centuries before white settlement, when
expert artists adorned their rock shelters with
vivid interpretations of their world animals
no longer imaginable in such places remain where
they were painted on remote rock walls. Youll find them
across Kakadu National Park and out on the private
concession that surrounds Hawk Dreaming Lodge.

Fast forward centuries and Aboriginal art is undergoing
a remarkable and long-overdue renaissance local
art centres have become places of refuge and fair
remuneration for the Aboriginal communitys modern
artists, both well-known and those yet to make their name.
They are also places where white and Aboriginal worlds
most easily intersect here you can sit down with the

artists, watch them paint and pass time together in
a way that is rarely so easy elsewhere.

As is so often the case in indigenous
Australia, art and life are utterly inseparable
from the land from which they arise. A little
exploration of this terrain the crocodile-rich
rivers, the blood-red escarpments, the ghost
gum trees provides the essential context to the

art that adorns both rock and art gallery walls. In fact, it is
impossible to understand what you see without travelling
through Aboriginal country in the company of its local
people, listening to stories of the land and its inhabitants.

And then theres Darwin, a gateway to the Aboriginal
worlds that lie beyond and where so much of what
is good in Aboriginal art resides. The galleries of the
Northern Territorys state capital are a critical part of
the whole experience, and the perfect primer for the
journey that lies ahead.

need to know

Four days is
comfortable for this
trail; the easiest way
to get around is by
car, preferably a 4WD
(hire one in Darwin).

01 Sam Earp/Tourism NT

MUSEUM & ART
GALLERY OF THE
NORTHERN TERRITORY

Welcome to what could be the finest
repository of Aboriginal art anywhere
in Australia. Carvings from the Tiwi
Islands, bark paintings from Arnhem
Land, and the dot paintings that are a
hallmark of the Western Desert the
walls here are like a journey through
the remote communities of the
Northern Territory, as seen through
the eyes of their artists.

While this modern exhibition space
is no substitute for feeling the hot
desert wind on your face as you sit
down in the red sand to watch an artist
paint, Darwin is an essential part of

the story if your work is exhibited in
the capital, youve made it to the big
time. Getting a feel for the works here
is like taking the pulse of the Northern
Territorys world of indigenous art.
www.magnt.net.au; 19 Conacher St,
Darwin; tel +61 8 8999 8264; 9am
5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & Sun

UBIRR ROCK ART SITE

Its only a three-hour drive from
Darwin to the east of Kakadu National
Park, but its a journey from one world
into an altogether different one. Ubirr
is one of the finest open-air galleries
of rock art anywhere on earth and
the many rock walls here tell stories
ancient and steeped in mystery.

On one wall is the story of the
rainbow serpent, the creation myth
for Aboriginal people across the
Top End; on another a gallery that is
considered a thousands-of-years
old visual menu of animals portrayed
in that distinctive x-ray style typical
of Aboriginal rock art. Just around
the corner from the main panel,
improbably high on a rock wall, is a
representation of the thylacine, or
Tasmanian tiger.

For the rock art, come in the
morning when things are cooler and
quieter. But plan to return in the
late afternoon, to join the crowds
climbing the escarpment for Kakadus
best sunset views.

02 Peter Eve/Tourism NT